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.

I've got to admit, this Harman Kardon Soundsticks Speaker System for computers and 2.1 Channel Multimedia Systems, has left me dumbstruck!! Fortunately, it is for all the RIGHT REASONS, as with this Speaker System, Harman Kardon has literally broken the mold, and then some, and produced this astonishing Speaker System that WOWS! the eyes, ( and they seriously DO! ) and then comes right back at you with a System that perceptually, Rocks your socks off!! It is an unbeatable combination, and my advisement to you is, if they have these in stock ANYWHERE, or you can backorder them, then DO IT AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!The System is unbelievably powerful, and does for my computer, what my Bose Audio system has done for years for my main A/V media needs. And I do mean thy ARE just that good!! No doubt about it!! In fact, my Bose system may go on a bit of a "sound hiatus" for at least THIS Christmas Season ( 2012 ) and I'm just going to listen to this system instead. Also NOT joking!!!They are exquisite to look at, and if that was all that mattered, then they would fairly easily trump ANYTHING in the 2.1 Channel Speaker arena, and very handily. But the point is this: Are they any good in performance? After all, they ARE a Speaker System, not just "eye candy", a designer mentality speaker system with no performance behind them. And that answer is a VERY TRIUMPHANT: YES!!!!!! In fact, they so out-perform ANYTHING in the 2.1 Channel surround area, that not even Bose's own best can beat them!! It's a perfect union of elegant beauty, and a grab you by your......... and Rock You Until You're Senseless, performance-level, that it will leave you with your jaw-dropping, and dropping hard at that!It's not at all difficult to set it up, and Harman Kardon makes it so easy to just follow those simple instructions. The only thing that may take you some time is just how much "tweaking" you are going to maybe want to do with it, and for your personal tastes, you should take your time, and do it. Because this system gives you ample space to do it in. Everything is clear, and clean as a bell, I heard things on my Premium Pandora, and Spotify, in songs that I thought I knew, but just never really heard them before. It's ALL there, clean, crisp, and powerful.I'll admit it, I am Seriously Addicted already to them, and I have a new-found desire to get on the computer just so I can hear these babies work! The Sub -woofer is now taking up the tower area of my computer desk, ( it is fairly large, for this size system ) but since I have a 17.3 Laptop/Desktop Replacement Computer anyway, the situation with my work station that I was using it for more was for more books, and storage area anyway, so no biggie. It certainly was worth giving the subby the space it needed to perform even better.I may be getting some other Christmas presents this Season, but THIS one will be pretty hard to top, I must say. I did want to tack on that I do have a Beats Audio System built-into my computer, so I can also "tweak it with the graphic equalizer" from within as well, and I'm sure that doesn't hurt it any sound-wise either. But even if you don't have Beats onboard your computer, I don't think that it will make that much difference. It IS the auditory Bomb, and gorgeous to boot!Once again, Harman Hardon comes out of the blocks, and winds up a winner. Like I said, RUN, DON'T WALK, to get this System!! You won't be sorry that you did!LynnLuv59