#HARMAN KARDON SOUNDSTICKS WIRELESS REVIEW DRIVERS#
Speaking of those SoundSticks, the transparent satellites have a simple but smart design, with two sets of four 1 1/8-inch drivers in each SoundStick, and small volume controls on one of the two sticks, which was almost too subtle to notice. The system is beautiful to look at, with its black highlights toward the base and the glowing lights to indicate power and Bluetooth, as well as the spaceship-like glass design of the subwoofer itself, which is still the star of the show (even though the name is "SoundSticks"). There isn't much to say about the SoundSticks design that hasn't already been said - but that won't stop me from trying. Steve Jobs and Jony Ive shared the belief that product design should be just as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside, and the iSub, as well as the iMac and even the architecture of the crystalline Apple Stores, are symbolic of that principle. The original Apple iSub, according to Jony Ive, was inspired by a wind instrument "so sound could flow freely." The design was a testament to total transparency similar to Apple's Bondi Blue iMac released just one year prior in 1998, every component within the iSub and SoundSticks was visible. With that out of the way, the rest of this review will break down the two biggest elements of the Soundsticks Wireless: Its design, and its overall performance. Otherwise, this system is identical to the SoundSticks III. The name "Wireless" simply means this device can also be paired with any Bluetooth-friendly device, which is convenient for users who stream music through their mobile devices. That said, the name "SoundSticks Wireless" may be misleading, as this device comes packed with plenty of wires to connect your audio device to the SoundSticks, the SoundSticks to the subwoofer, the subwoofer to the power source, and so on. We've had a chance to spend an extensive amount of time with this sound system, and overall, we can confidently say this is an extremely strong offering from Harman Kardon.
In late 2012, Harman Kardon announced its latest and most flexible SoundSticks yet, the Bluetooth-friendly " SoundSticks Wireless." New York-based photographer Damian Sandone was kind enough to help us take some shots of this unique, transparent sound system. Past models have added greater capacitive controls and stylized design swatches to better match the 2009 iMacs, but engineers have been careful to preserve the greatness of the original design, which earned an Industrial Design Excellence Awards gold award in 2000. In the 13 years since the original iSub and SoundSticks were introduced, Harman Kardon has released two iterations of the SoundSticks since - SoundSticks II in 2005, and SoundSticks III in 2009 - with each version making incremental improvements.
The original Apple iSub Subwoofer and Harman Kardon SoundSticks are quite literally works of art: The transparent sound system - a late 90's collaboration between the audio engineers at Stamford, Conn.-based Harman Kardon and Sir Jony Ive and his industrial and mechanical design team at Apple - has been featured in the permanent collection at New York's Museum of Modern Art since 2000 as the first computer speaker to win awards in design.