Harman Kardon Nova

The Harman Kardon Nova is an appealing speaker pair that offers flexibility with both wired and Bluetooth connectivity for music or multimedia playback. It packs both beauty and performance. The speaker pair looks elegant with hemispherical design with bottom cut flat that houses a rubber to secure its position on the surface.

The main body of each satellite speaker is transparent, allowing you to see the stylishly designed interior parts that link speaker’s front drivers to its subwoofer. On both the speakers, a black strip runs along the hemispherical design and on the right speaker there are touch sensitive controls for modifying the volume, power, NFC, and Bluetooth connectivity. The speaker also has a button to switch bass on or off. Plus, it also has a 3.5mm Aux input.

The front is covered in black matte cloth with Harman Kardon logo, sculpted nicely at the center of each satellite. Both the speakers are connected to each other by a cable.

Easy connectivity

The speaker pair can be connected with cable or wirelessly. You can also use an NFC-enabled device to pair with the speaker by tapping it to the NFC button on the right speaker. The speaker also has optical input, thereby letting you connect MP3 players, TV etc. to it. Pairing the device over Bluetooth is relatively easy, and can be done by tapping the arrow button. We used an iPhone 5S for connecting over Bluetooth and it  instantly recognised and connected to it.

Phenomenal sound quality

The speaker pair delivers great sound and consumes little space. At 40 Watts, the speakers pumped out flawless bass quality in bass heavy tracks. The two tweeters produced bright highs and rich lows. The vocals are clear and sharp even at low volumes and we were certainly impressed by the depth and clarity of the output produced. There is no hint of distortion at max volume levels.

The Nova also sounded best while watching movies or playing games on laptops.  The speaker delivered rich sound signature regardless of what your music library includes. Similar to Harman Kardon Aura, the speaker faces issues with the Touch controls. If you are trying to move the speaker or another person comes in to have a look at it by holding it in hand, it may be possible that your music switches to a different source or the speaker turns off in between the music playback, which can be annoying at times.

The speaker automatically goes into sleep mode when not in use, thereby saving power, and wakes up when you start playing music again. The rubber at the bottom works well in handling the vibrations and stabilises the speaker when playing at higher volume levels. The volume control for speaker is not independent when using it under Bluetooth mode. So, if you will modify volume on your Bluetooth connected device, the volume on speaker will change accordingly. However, that is not the case when using it under Aux-In mode when connected to a desktop or laptop. Streaming music over Bluetooth is clear and free of interference within the range (10-12 meters).