Harman Kardon Onyx Studio Review

Introduction

Harman Kardon, it’s a name that both hardcore audiophiles and general consumers are familiar with. Many of us know them simply for their home and car audio equipment, but they have presence in nearly every audio spectrum – including mobile as well. Exclusively sold through Sprint and anticipated to pair nicely with the carrier’s new special edition HTC One (M8) smartphone, the Harman Kardon Onyx Studio is a portable Bluetooth speaker that’s hoping to be something you’ll want to carry around with you when you want to share your tunes when you’re out of the house.

The package contains:

• Owners guide
• wall charger

Design

With its disc-like shape, the speaker exudes a modern design, but it’s not as aggressive or stylish.

Being doused in all black isn’t too surprising here, more so considering it’s fashioned after an onyx stone. Unlike the polished look of black onyx, the casing here on the speaker is outfitted with a soft touch matte material – giving it a clean look that’s resilient to being dirtied. Accentuating the entire thing are chrome-like accents treated to the speaker’s legs, and a silver plate in the rear. Flaunting a modernistic design, a disc-like object to be exact, it’s undeniably catchy, but hardly as aggressive or stylish in comparison to stuff we’ve seen lately.

Marketed as a portable Bluetooth speaker, one of our biggest complaints with the Harman Kardon Onyx Studio is its bulky size. Sure, there’s a handle in the rear to indicate its “portability,” however, it’s far from being travel-friendly speaker, weighting 7.7 pounds (3.5 kg)!. Then again, the weighty feel of the speaker lends in cementing its sturdy and solid construction.

Covering the frontis a fabric mesh grill, which so happens to tuck away its 4 speakers and dual passive radiators. Specifically, its 4-speaker configuration breaks down to 2 x 3-inch woofers and 2 ¾-inch tweeters – complemented by those 2 passive radiators. The entire configuration delivers a total of 60 watts of power (4x15W), allowing for up to 95 dB at 1 meter, but we’ll talk more about its quality later on in the review.

Lining the outside trim of the speaker, we have its power button, volume controls, and dedicated Bluetooth buttons. They’re actually flush to the surface, but at least they exhibit some moderate responses when pressed. In the rear, there’s only a microUSB port used to just update its firmware, and its power port. Unfortunately, the Onyx Studio is lacking the additional ports found on other comparable speakers to extend its worth – they include things like an auxiliary jack for a hard wired connection, or a full-sized USB port to charge our devices.

Performance

Impressive quality is in abundance as bass radiates deeply with the speaker. At the same time, mids maintain their warm tones.

The only way to get the music in our devices to the speaker, is through the Onyx Studio’s Bluetooth 3.0 connection, seeing that there’s no hard-wired or Wi-Fi network options. Luckily, the unit is automatically placed into pairing mode out of the box, so the process in getting it set up initially is effortless.

Using the HTC One M8 Harman Kardon edition, we have to admit that the audio quality produced by the Onyx Studio is impressive! Factoring in its size, the audio quality it delivers is close to what we’d normally get from fuller-sized options meant to be stationary in your living room home entertainment system.

At the highest volume setting, there’s very minimal strain exhibited by the speaker – allowing it to maintain its wide sounding tone. Bass purists will undoubtedly cherish this speaker, since it’s highly emphasized at all volume levels, so there’s no shortage of deep and robust bass. Mids also fair pretty well with their clear and warm tones, enabling instrumentals to be elevated so they’re not overshadowed by the lows. However, highs tend to sound terse and flat – more so at the loudest volume.

At the end of the day, we can’t deny the obvious here. It’s simply a great sounding speaker that oozes with plenty of rich audio, perfect to fill large rooms indoors, or even cover tightly packed outdoor areas. Wherever you end up wanting to listen to music, you won’t be disappointed by the Harman Kardon Onyx Studio.

Battery

Rated to deliver up to 5 hours of playback time from its fully charged 2600 mAh battery, our mixed real world usage produces close to 4.5 hours. Yes, it doesn’t meet the manufacturer’s rating, but nevertheless, we have to point out that we have a tendency to crank up its volume more times than none.

It’s worth mentioning that several portable Bluetooth speakers of this caliber have been able to get nearly double the amount of battery than this. Therefore, in a way, the battery life here as a whole is a bit lagging when compared to the competition. In addition, it lacks the useful battery charging feature found on many contemporary Bluetooth speakers – where the internal battery can be used to charge devices.

Conclusion

Even with its top-notch audio quality and pleasant looking modern design, it’s extremely difficult to overlook the speaker’s $400 cost, which is undoubtedly pricey amongst other things. For the price and all, you’re probably better off investing in an in-home audio solution – one that can deliver even stronger and more vibrant audio, with more secondary features too. Beyond that, the Harman Kardon Onyx Studio is an unwieldy thing for a “portable” Bluetooth speaker. Ultimately, if its price were reduced considerably, and if it were more compact, this speaker would’ve been a knock-out hit. However, Sprint sells the Onyx Studio for only $100 when purchased with the HTC One (M8), making it a great deal.