Harman-Kardon HK-695 fails to live up to expectations.
Written: Mar 13 '03
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Innovative design and look.
Color scheme matches that of Dell desktops.
Cons: Unimpressive sound quality for price. Sub-woofer control knob problems. Disappointing speaker volume controls.
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for quality speakers to complement multi-media applications, look elsewhere. The subwoofer issues really undermine this pricey system's performance, which is average at best.
|
|
|
| ardi11a21's Full Review: harman/kardon HK695 2 Speakers |
I upgraded to the Harman Kardon HK 695 speaker system when I purchased my Dell Dimension 4300. Because of prior experience with Harman Kardon speakers, I expected this system to be quite good. I was also impressed by the system's style - the sub-woofer resembles an ice bucket, the speakers champagne flutes. The fact that the set's color matched my Dimension's charcoal and black color scheme was also a plus.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long for this system to disappoint me. The sound quality and output falls way short of what I expected from a Harman Kardon product. Moreover, there is a constant, low-level humming coming from both speakers. (This was first brought to consumer's attention by PC Magazine when it reviewed Dell's 8200 desktop. And just like the reviewer, I have been unable to get rid of the humming despite numerous troubleshooting attempts.)
The speaker volume controls are not rotating knobs, but rather soft buttons located atop one of the speakers. It is impossible to know at what level the speakers are set unless they are either at either extreme. The maximum speaker volume level struck me as too low.
For the most part, the aforementioned shortcomings can be overlooked. The sound might not be great, but my guess is most people will find it adequate. However, I experienced a serious problem with the sub-woofer unit, and because of this I cannot recommend this system.
The sub-woofer has three control knobs on its top surface - BASS, TREBLE, and SURROUND. The latter two functioned properly, although they are redundant if you already have a quality sound card. The BASS control, is an entirely different matter. When turning the knob control back and forth, the bass seems to sporadically come and go, out of sync with the knob movements.
This discrepancy increased in magnitude and became more pronounced over time. Often, turning the knob produced no change whatsoever. At other times, I had to push down on the control knob before any change in bass output would take place! The sub-woofer unit would get stuck at different - often random - levels of bass output, which inevitably resulted in distorted sound.
After I noticed these problems with my speaker system, I contacted Dell and received a replacement set of HK-695s. Within a month, the sub-woofer problems became evident. I went through four different sets of HK-695s, and every one of them developed the aforementioned sub-woofer issues to one degree or another. And if you check the Dell forums, you'll discover that I am hardly the only person who has encountered these exact problems with these speakers. It took me well over a year, but I finally got Dell to look into this situation, and they are replacing my HK-695's with a superior Monsoon Speaker System.
The HK-695s are essentially the same as Harman Kardon's Champagne speaker system, and thus it is reasonable to assume that both suffer from the same shortcomings. I contacted Harman Kardon months ago to inquire about this matter, but never received the courtesy of a reply.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ardi11a21
|
|
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.