Harman Kardon SoundSticks III 2.1 Speaker System

My old Monsoon (a now-defunct company?) speakers finally gave out, so I had to replace them. This HK set was purchased to replace them on my Mac system. I had to crawl under a long table to disconnect all the Monsoon wires, amidst a jungle of other wires. Once I did that, I set up the HK speakers, but they didn't work. After three days of searching for a solution, I concluded that my problem was the Mac, not the speakers. I tried one more solution (I turned the computer around & looked at the port labels on the back). In my rush to get these up & running, I had placed the SoundSticks wire into the Monitor jack & not the Headphones jack (they're right next to each other & I didn't bother to look). If anyone out there is as dumb as me, be aware that speakers tend not to work when plugged into a Monitor jack. Once plugged into the correct jack, they now work fine!PROS: 1) Beautiful to look at (I've already had a comment to the effect of "What is it?"). 2) I like the idea of two different plug types for the left & right speakers (there can't be any mistake that way). 3) liking or disliking a speaker's sound is a personal, subjective matter, & depends on your favored type of music & your taste. So some people love a speaker's sound, & others hate the same sound. I preferred the sound of the Monsoon speakers I had (maybe I'm just used to them after all these years?). The bass from the sub-woofer is better with the HK than the Monsoon. But the treble is not as "rich" sounding (not a technical term!), according to my ears. The sound on any speakers can be adjusted & customized with an equalizer, so not a problem. I rate these HK speakers higher overall than the Monsoons, because the bass is better & the volume is much louder on these, & I don't have to approach the maximum volume setting on my Mac, like I used to on the Monsoons.CONS: 1) the set-up is fairly straight forward (as long as you know where to find your Headphone jack!), but the manual is not clearly written, & is sparse. They refer to items without a clear label or diagram, not good if you're a beginner in this area. A list of component parts with labels would be useful. Step 9 says to "adjust the volume level by touching..." What volume level? Where is this volume level? The diagram does show a finger touching a speaker, but is not large enough to see the plus & minus symbols on the right speaker ONLY. The instructions are redundant (Step 8: "Unit is on when LED is lit" is stated twice). 2) A white line on the subwoofer volume knob would be useful, to indicate where the volume is set to (there's a small gap in the knob, hard to see in dim light under a table). 3) Visual feedback in regards to setting the speaker volume would be useful (there is no feedback now, except audio, so I'm not sure if I touched the volume control on the right spot, or touched it hard enough). If a light blinked in the speaker, after a volume adjustment was made, that would be helpful.All in all, the Pros far outweigh the Cons, & compared with other higher priced speakers, these are a very good deal for the price, so I recommend them.

Let me say first that there are some very annoying problems. Regardless, I'm giving five stars because of sound quality. I really like this system, better than anything I've tried since I bought a Klipsch system years and years ago.Disclaimer. I'm a musician. I use high-end cables rather than what comes with the equipment (despite those who say it doesn't matter), I don't like Bluetooth/wireless for audio, and I'm fussy about things like sensitivity ratings. I want a speaker that has clarity and transparency and will give me accurate sound regardless of the genre, because I'll be listening to Pogorelich playing Schumann, Sturgill Simpson, Louis Armstrong, Monster Magnet, Liz Swados, audio books... in other words, a big cross section. So I really really need versatile speakers.What I do NOT need are very loud speakers. Anyone thinking of using these to cover several rooms should think again - they do distort at high levels.Here are the speakers I went through before deciding on them:-- Klipsch Pro-Media 2.1 (terrific but in my personal experience, the woofer doesn't last as long as it should, and although customer support were helpful, it was really annoying when it happened twice in the space of five years)-- Bose Companions (muddy, just like many of the reviews said)-- My old and somewhat trusty Jambox (no longer so trusty, and the new ones were awful. Should have been an indicator when they stopped production. Plus, Bluetooth horribly unstable.)-- Small JBL's (I love JBL, the first speakers I ever bought were JBL, but they don't hold a candle to these.)-- Headphones, specifically a new set of Sony MDR V6 brought to me from Japan, and a pair of Sennheiser HD 650. It gets really old listening on headphones all the time....THE CONS:-- On/off switch doubles as woofer volume knob, and is set in an extremely annoying spot on the woofer, right next to all the other cables required. This means if you like a clean look, and have the woofer (as suggested in their literature) on the floor or a low shelf, you either turn the woofer around any time you want to use the on/off or adjust the bass, or buy a separate footswitch and plug the entire system into that. I find the placement really annoying and difficult to deal with. How hard would it have been to at least have the on/off/woofer-volume knob on the opposite side of all the other wiring? Given the futuristic look of the unit, there wouldn't seem to be a problem wiring around half the woofer and doing that.-- Woofer volume knob has no "steps" so there's no way to tell from feel or "click" sound where you've got it set. That means if you are happy with the woofer volume, then have to change it for one audio piece, the only way to get back to where you were for global settings is to mark both the knob (with silver or white) and the woofer (black or whatever) Sharpie.-- Agreed with other complaints that the volume plus-minus on the right speaker can become very annoying. It's touch sensitive, and beautiful, but again the absence of "steps" means every time you start it, you have to guestimate where your volume was. And in my set (not sure if this is true of others), every time I turn the system off, the volume reverts to almost nothing. I spent 10 minutes today unplugging and re-plugging everything because I heard no sound when I turned it on and began playing something - only to discover the volume needed to be turned "on" or adjusted upwards.-- Woofer really needs some sort of better base, or optional weight at bottom. The little legs are cute, but the whole thing is incredibly lightweight (a plus and a minus) and tips over easily. I'd love to see a "doughnut" like the ones the speakers come mounted on.-- It would be nice to have the speakers labelled L and R, or at least something in the handout that tells you so. The only reason I figured it out was because I read a review saying the volume controls were on the right.THE PROS:-- Very easy set up. Basically plug and play. I can see where it would be confusing if you'd never dealt with computer speakers before, but the "manual" had a nice diagram that should make it easy for anyone setting them up. (Except for the L/R issue.)-- Beautiful. The main speakers sit on my very small computer desktop (wood) and each takes up less room than a small external drive.-- I find the sound even, once I got the woofer where I wanted it, with no distortion or appreciable loss/gain in the midrange. I was concerned about this since several reviews mentioned it, but again, I have not found that so.-- I'm glad they're plastic and not glass. They feel reasonably durable to me, given their looks. Of course my Klipsch felt sturdier - they also weighed a ton more and were twice the price.I HAVE noticed one slightly unexpected thing, which is that most of the treble seems concentrated at the base of the desktop speakers, not in the center. When I have time I'm going to find something to raise them each about 6" and see if that makes a big difference. It could also just be the placement on my end.THE WISHLIST:-- Fix all the cons, mainly the placement of the woofer volume/on/off switch. I'd even settle for a separate on/off switch if it could be in the front, or (better still) on one of the desktop speakers.-- Lights, or at least a light, in the desktop speakers. The woofer lights up when it's on, but if it's on a shelf under your desk, as mine is, the only way to tell if the system's on or off is to pull out my chair and look. Not a big thing, but it would be nice.-- Several reviews mentioned poor responses and customer support from Harmon Kardon. I would have been much reassured if later reviews made mention of a turn around there.I'll check back in a few months from now and update if anything changes!** A few months later: I just received a second set of these (left the first set with a friend for their use until I return). Have to return them because they keep cutting in and out, and the light that should be coming from the woofer is non-existent. Disappointing, but thanks to Amazon returns it will be pretty painless. I'm going to try another set...