Harman Kardon SoundSticks Computer Speakers

A Subjective Product Review

©2004, 2007 by Steven K. Roberts
Nomadic Research Labs

revised Apr 14, 2007

USB speakers that kick butt and look good too... with a self-powered 20-watt subwoofer and two satellite 10-watt tweeters.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a comparative review, as I have not had a chance to use any other high-end computer speakers (just various pairs of those beige analog cheapies, all of which were awful).

OK, I'll say it right up front: I love these speakers. Because of them, I don't even bother with a "real stereo system" anymore, and although a true audiophile would snort derisively at that comment, I have found that the SoundSticks (along with a decent MP3 library and a iBook that inhales CDs) make an excellent personal audio environment for a small office.

These are manufactured by Harman Kardon, which has been in the audio biz for quite a while (although their website is bandwidth-intensive and I got bored and gave up before managing to locate a "deep link" to this product). The specs promise 44Hz-20kHz frequency range, with a 4-watt idle current and 65-watt maximum. The 10-inch tall SoundSticks have four 1-inch drivers, and the subwoofer has a 6-incher... none of which seems like it would add up to stunning sound, but it does. The key, I think, is that these are computer speakers and don't pretend to fill a hall... at my desk, with the speakers facing me and the subwoofer down by my feet, they are more than adequate for any kind of music.

Of course, when I throw a big party in the 3000 square-foot Microship lab, I have a friend bring a REAL stereo...

I bought these in 2002 from Small Dog Electronics, and at this writing have been using them constantly for almost 5 years... including one cross-country road trip where I couldn't stand the thought of being without them. Unfortunately, in the last month or so, they finally gave up the ghost (but I would buy them again without hesitation).

The Subwoofer (also sold separately as the iSub)

There was one problem earlier, which naturally occurred after the speakers were out of warranty: they began to exhibit a serious vibration sensitivity, obviously a circuit board intermittency in the subwoofer (under that shiny surface in the photo above). That's the only electronic assembly in the system... the board slurps USB from the computer and power from the dedicated supply, and produces analog drive for the local speaker as well as the two satellites. The intermittent connection was maddening, causing harsh static correlated with the music's bass line or percussion, and it would sometimes clear up in response to a sharp whack (reminiscent of the good old days of electronics, when the whacks got sharper and sharper until they began introducing failure modes of their own).

The manufacturer was completely unresponsive to email and phone contact, so we decided to fix it ourselves. The first challenge was disassembly, which became easy once we discovered that the rubber foot pads peel off to expose screws. Having it open gave us a chance to clear out the dead insects, as it's an amazingly effective trap (the poor things go down partying, though, given the acoustic environment in there). We extracted the surface-mount board and gave it a visual inspection under strong magnification, but were unable to find any cracked traces or cold solder joints. For 2-3 hours our team of three experienced techno-geeks fiddled with the thing, twisting and poking to isolate the intermittency, but we were unable to localize it. We did, however, observe that a subtle torsioning of the board just so would apparently prevent the problem, so we cinched a cable tie in the right spot, reassembled the unit, and returned to our beer. That kept it going for about 3 years. The eventual failure was related to this, and was preceded by about a month of severe intermittent noise that required increasingly vigorous whackage to restore clean sound.

SoundSticks on an unnaturally clean desk

Much of the pleasure in these is their visual aesthetics... along with the fact that the subwoofer is ususally hidden on the floor (you can see it in the photo above, with its blue LED). Visitors just don't expect the full sound, and stare at the tiny speakers in disbelief; turning off the lights and invoking G-Force makes an hour fly by and causes one to muse that had this been available in the early 70s, we would have died of starvation. They even impress the cat; notice her eyes closed and paws extended in bliss:

Java prefers the subwoofer on the desk for maximum effect

In short, I love these things, and even though there are newer units on the market and I have watched this pair fail, I will probably replace them with the same thing. If you can pick some up at a discount on eBay or Amazon, you won't be sorry. There are also SoundSticks II that work on Mac or PC... with a standard 1/8" stereo jack (line-level) instead of USB. My ex had a set of those, and I liked them; they also had a clever volume-control and mute arrangement in the form of two metal pads on one of the sticks.