Volvo
1.3ghz
Registered: October 2009
Location: Singapore
Posts: 211
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Review Date:
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Would you recommend the product? No |
Price you paid?: $399.00
| Rating: 3
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Pros:
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Looks great, works properly.
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Cons:
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Sounds bad.
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I’ve seen the harman/kardon Soundsticks II multimedia speaker system in stores for about two years now, and till this day, I’m still fascinated by the futuristic design of the system, built to blend in with the décor and design elements of the older Apple iMacs. So yes, you can say, I’m impressed with the design. And it’s touch-sensitive volume controls, which are subtly-place pieces of chrome on one of the satellites. But the main crux of the system is the sound it produces. And it’s the main point of what I’ll be looking at in this system today.
The Soundsticks II is a little more than your basic 2.1 channel multimedia speaker system. For one, it’s got four aluminium coned micro-drivers in each satellite speaker. It’s got a jellyfish-shaped woofer. It’s got touch-sensitive volume controls. And last but not least, the most fascinating aspect of this system would be its design. The system is built from a thick layer of clear, hard plastic, and has nearly as many curves as a Porsche. Although this would mean that the speakers would have a smaller chance of surviving drops. Then again, if you own one of these, you would probably showcase these speakers more than you would listen to them. Because the design just blows you away. Unfortunately, the sound doesn’t do the same.
You see, the trend in speaker manufacturers using micro drivers in their satellite speakers is increasing. Micro drivers refer to dynamic drivers which are usually 2 inches and smaller in diameter. The Soundsticks II employs four 1-inch micro drivers in each satellite speaker, which cover the high and mid frequencies. Unfortunately, like most Creative speakers out there with micro drivers, they sound awfully strident. The real treble was muffled and usually hissed at the listener, instead of projecting a clear, precise tune. There was an awfully strident peak around 1-2kHz, which resulted in listening fatigue setting in quickly. The satellites could reach decently high volumes without distortion, but sound saturated quickly and made blasting sound extremely annoying. The woofer, and all six inches of it, peaked at around 90Hz in output, and bottomed out on strong bass notes. It struggled to play the lower octaves of the bass frequencies, and the ported design of the woofer served little more than decoration purposes. Well, it did move air out of the port, but it didn’t improve the bass response, neither did it strangle the output.
There were many more detractions to the Soundsticks II, for example, it’s glaring lack of a headphone port, for a speaker that cost $269. But then again, putting a headphone port on the Soundsticks II would just completely ruin the design element. There were no qualms with build quality, everything was screwed down tight. But the woofer enclosure rattled occasionally when the bass got loud. Then again, thick acrylic isn’t the best of materials to choose from to build a woofer enclosure. And for $269, it should have had rubber speaker surrounds instead of foam.
This speaker system has far more to go in terms of refinement in sound quality. However, if you aren’t already sold over its looks, I’d advise you to look for something of better value, and most modestly-priced Edifier speaker systems out there would beat the Soundsticks II to a pulp in terms of sound quality.
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 Team Fortress 2 Club
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