INTRODUCTION

   When i got my first "real" PC back in the very beginning of the 90's (arrived a few years after an Amstrad 6128, a Commodore 64 and an Amiga 500) i paired it with a Creative Sound Blaster 16 and two very small stereo speakers which today some of you would probably mistake for compact wireless ones. By the mid 90's things improved for the better and thus i managed to get two large monitor speakers on my desk paired with a 32bit Sound Blaster card (AWE32) something which actually didn't last long since with the arrival of the very first 5.1 Dolby Surround sound compatible systems by manufacturers like Creative Labs (still have the Inspire Digital 5700 set) and Wave Master by the end of the decade it was now possible to play games and watch movies on the brand new DVD format (back then anyways) with unprecedented sound clarity. Since then speakers have changed quite a bit so now you don't really need a full 5.1/7.1 surround sound system to enjoy all your favorite games, movies and tunes while sitting in front of your computer screen. Of course finding a really "special" stereo speaker set is not very easy not when there's a massive number of such models in the market but after searching for quite a while we came across the NOVA Wireless Stereo Speaker System by Harman Kardon.

   HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets premier audio, visual, infotainment and enterprise automation solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets. With leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® , Mark Levinson® and Revel®, the Company is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 17,600 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $5.9 billion during the last 12 months ended December 31, 2014.

   One of the reasons we picked the NOVA Wireless Stereo Speaker System to review out of almost a dozen similar systems is its unique design and very good specifications a combination which we don't usually see in the market (it's usually either design or specifications, hardly ever both). So aside using translucent plastic for most of its body the NOVA features touch capacitive buttons, three different audio inputs (Bluetooth, 3.5mm and Optical), NFC (near field communications), DSP (digital signal processing) by Harman and delivers a grand total of 80W of power via its 63mm (2.5") drivers and 35mm (1.25") tweeters (two 88mm passive bass radiators are also present). We did speak about specifications however and so the NOVA offer a frequency response number of 55Hz to 20KHz with an impedance of 8 Ohm and a SNR of 85dB (all very good the their size). So the time has finally come for us to see if the NOVA Wireless Stereo Speaker System by Harman Kardon sounds as good as it looks.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The NOVA gets shipped inside a long box with a large product image at the front right beneath the Harman / Kardon logo.

Product pictures are also placed on both sides of the box.

The bundle contents and product specifications, features and available connections are listed at the rear of the box.

The available connections are also printed at the top of the box right next to a small list of compatible devices.

The user’s manual is the first thing you'll see once you open the box (sits ontop of a piece of cardboard).

Both speakers are wrapped inside two pieces of cloth and the rest of the bundle is placed inside a cardboard box placed in the middle.

Along with the two speakers you're also getting their connection cable, 3.5mm analogue cable, power adapter with two power cords (EU/UK) and the user’s manual.

THE NOVA

The NOVA speakers are almost like two small volley balls (yet they look great).

We're certain that size plays a huge part when out to get a set of stereo speakers so we placed one of them right next to the Jabra SOLEMATE Max and RockDoc Memory wireless portable speakers.

Harman Kardon has placed their logo on the front grille.

These dots found at the top of the right speaker represent the volume levels of the device and you can control them either via your hand (slide it over them) or via the volume controls of your smartphone (when connected via bluetooth).

The on/off and bass boost touch buttons are placed on the left side and the NFS sensor along with the audio input touch button are placed on the right side of the right speaker.

At the rear of the right speaker we find the 3.5mm input, left speaker port, optical input and the power port.

The two passive bass radiators feature a piece of metal at the end on which we find the company logo.

Both speakers sit on two round pieces of silicone rubber which does a great job in absorbing vibrations and keeping them still at all times.

Small details are just that but i do happen to believe that they matter so the company logo engraved on the power adapter matters in my book.

The 1.5 meter long speaker connection cable may not be enough for some people but we found it satisfactory for use both with the PC and with a TV set.

Exposed here are the 63mm (2.5") driver and 35mm (1.25") tweeter of the left speaker.

Once the device is turned on the on/off and bass boost (if enabled) buttons become white as do the volume level dots.

The audio input selection button uses three different colors for the available selections (blue for Bluetooth, green for aux and white for optical).

CONCLUSION

   Harman Kardon counts many decades in the market and used to be one of the best audiophile brands money could buy. Nowadays they may be focused more in the design and manufacture of consumer oriented products but that doesn’t mean they’ve thrown away all the knowledge they have amassed throughout the years and the NOVA wireless stereo system is a good example of that (although we do feel Harman Kardon can do much better). Audio clarity is excellent thanks to superb mids and highs, bass levels are very good and get even better with the bass boost feature enabled and in terms of volume levels well you may not be able to throw a multi-room party with them but they can fill at least one very large room with clear and bass-rich sound (especially when used with the optical input). Now before some audiophiles I know jump on me I do need to point out that I’m not comparing the NOVA with some exquisite (and much more expensive) set of speakers designed solely for such demanding audiences. However I do feel that for their size (and price) the NOVA wireless stereo speakers are extremely good at what they were designed to do and that’s to produce clear, accurate and powerful sound without the need of much space and/or an extra sub-woofer. Of course not all is perfect and so the NOVA wireless stereo system has two features that may annoy some users. The first is their sleep function which activates after the speakers have been idle for 5 minutes while the second is the rather loud beeps both speakers make whenever you turn them off or connect them to a Bluetooth enabled device. Tiny issues in the long run which we can’t consider to be cons but there are present so we do need to point them out.

   Finding a pair of stereo speakers that sound and look like the NOVA by Harman Kardon is not easy and that obviously costs so as we speak you can find them for USD299.95 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 327Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Overall this price tag may seem as a bit over the top to some of you but worth mentioning is that similar proposals by other leading manufacturers cost even more and are not really that much better in terms of sound clarity, bass levels and power output (at least from the ones we’ve used in the past). With that out of the way we feel that Harman Kardon has produced one of the best Sub USD500 Wireless Stereo Speaker Systems to date with the NOVA and that’s why it gets our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Power Output (80W)
- Touch Capacitive Buttons
- Bass Boost Feature
- Audio Inputs (Bluetooth/3.5mm/Optical)
- NFC Compatible
- Harman Custom DSP
- Also Available In White

CONS

- Price (For Some)