Harman Kardon HKTS 14 6-Piece Loudspeaker System

Rating:
Summary: Best speakers yet
Review: I've been through an ungodly amount of home entertainment equipment in the past 4 yrs (e.g. 4 receivers, 3 TV's, 3 DVD players & 2 sets of 5.1 speakers) trying to perfect my home theatre, and have to say the HK 14's have a flawless sound. Mind you, these are being pushed by the Harman Kardon AVR630 receiver connected to their HK DVD22. I'm not too well versed on the technical aspects of whether this is due to the receiver or the speakers, but I can hear things via Dolby Pro Logic 5.1 and DTS that other speakers--including Polk--could not produce, regardless of which receiver or DVD player I had hooked up to them. The AVR 630 is a very advanced product, with more digital and analog inputs than most receivers on the market--the only problem with this system is the lapse time it takes for the receiver to recognize an incoming digital signal from the DVD player--this is supposed to be corrected by a software patch that HK will be releasing around 11/1/04, available on their website or CD-ROM, which can be uploaded via PC to the 630 via the 232 port on the back of the receiver. If you are looking for a DVD player that will smoke every other brand on the market (including, through personal experience the Samsung's) hold off on buying the HK dvd22 and wait for the DVD 31, which should also be released between 10/20/04 and 11/10/04. The dvd22 has occasionally had problems with their digital outputs and won't play SACD's, which will be rectified on the dvd31. There is no better sound or picture quality on the DVD market than the DVD 22. And for what it's worth, that picture run through a Sony hi-def XBR wide screen CRT television, is the best picture I have ever seen--well over that of a the Samsung plasma I exchanged for the Sony.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Aesthetics, Good Value
Review: Lets start off by saying that I am not an audiophile. I am in my mid 30s and this is my first home audio system I have purchased since college. Until recently, I had been quite happy with a 2.1 speaker system hooked up to my Sirius satellite radio.

I shopped online and also visited several home electronics stores and listened to their home theater systems. While I could notice the difference between speaker brands while in the theater room and switch back and forth between speakers, I am sure I would have been happy at home with any of those systems I heard. I mean hey, just about anything is better than a set of computer speakers. My goal was to get good quality, something I could add onto later, and something with good aesthetics in my living room.

While I could not find the HKTS14 5.1 speaker system in a local retail store, I did listen to a similar Infinity system (also made by Harman) which sounded good and had really nice brushed aluminum caseings. I already had purchased the Harman Kardon AVR-335, and so I decided to go for the HKTS14, sight unseen.

The arrived yesterday, and here is my impression so far...
The speakers look really nice, though they are made of plastic not brushed aluminim like the Infinity system. The grills are metal however, so that is nice. The sub woofer is large and tall, but it is also very aesthetically pleasing. I had planned to put it under an end table, but it is taller than the end table so maybe my wife will let me keep it in front of the room next to the TV (ideal listening location). I think it looks nice enough. The sub woofer also enables a number of different speaker configurations for older systems that do not have a sub woofer line out. If you hook it to a full audio output, it will actually direct the base frequencies to the woofer and route the higher frequencies to lines out for hooking satellite speakers up to the woofer. If you have a receiver with a seperate sub woofer line out, that is the only connection it needs.

The satellite speakers also look nice, and include both shelf stands and wall mounts. The kit also includes all the color coded wiring you need. It is really nice to get everything needed to be listening to your system in 15 minutes.

So far I have only one complaint about the HKTS14 system. The speakers are designed to mount on the walls, and yet the included wiring is black. Unless you have black walls, this is totally unacceptable.