Harman Kardon HKTS 14 6-Piece Loudspeaker System

by Harman Kardon

Product Details

• Item Weight: 65 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 67 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0000D8HRO
• Item model number: HKTS 14
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #80,213 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The HKTS 14 is a six-piece home theater speaker system that includes a 12-inch, 200-watt, bass-reflex powered subwoofer; four identical, 2-way, dual-midrange satellite speakers for use in the left and right front and rear speaker positions; a voice-matched, dedicated, dual-driver center speaker; shelf stands and wall-mount brackets for the four satellites; and all of the speaker cables you need to connect your speakers to your receiver or preamp/ processor and amplifier. The speaker cables and speakers all use a color-coding system to conform to the CEA standard. The colorcoding system minimizes confusion, especially when the HKTS 14 system is used with a Harman Kardon receiver.

The HKTS 14 subwoofer is easy to connect to your system, since itÕs equipped with a special subwoofer input for use with equipment that has a dedicated subwoofer connection that carries a low-frequency output. It also includes stereo speaker-level inputs and outputs for connection to older receivers and processors that do not have a line-level subwoofer output. Other conveniences include a level control, high-cut (low-pass) filter switch and phase switch for fine-tuning bass response to suit your listening environment and taste, and an efficient switching system that senses the presence of an audio signal and automatically switches the unit from Standby mode to Active mode.

Shelf stands and wall-mount brackets are included for the satellite speakers, and optional HTFS 2 floor stands are available separately from your Harman Kardon dealer. With state-of-the-art features and time-honored circuit designs, the HKTS 14 is a perfect complement to a Harman Kardon receiver or any home theater system.

The Harman Kardon HKTS 14 package contains:

• 1 center channel speaker
• 1 powered subwoofer
• 4 satellites for left, right and surrounds, with color-key stickers, mounted on shelf stands
• 4 wall-mount brackets
• 2 40-foot speaker cables for connection from receiver to rear satellites (gray and blue)
• 1 15-foot RCA cable for connection to subwoofer (purple)
• 3 20-foot speaker cables for connection to front satellites (red and white) and to center speaker (green)

Product Description

The idea behind home-theater is to deliver encompassing surround sound that's completely phased and matched throughout the audio frequency spectrum. That's the philosophy behind the HKTS14. With included cables, you connect these to any home-theater receiver for 5.1 channel surround. HDTV and many pre-recorded DVD movies are designed to be compatible with 5.1 surround. If you want to enjoy the full experience, you need a receiver, a TV, and the HKTS14 speaker system. Harman Kardon HKTS 14 home cinema system combines a 12-inch, 200-watt subwoofer with magnetically shielded, two-way center channel and satellite speakers. Advanced features include line-level Sub/LFE input, music-sensing on/off and multicolor LED power indicator. Wall-mount brackets for the satellite speakers are included. Now, sit back and enjoy the show.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal ...., February 21, 2006

By 

Surendra Tipparaju - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS 14 6-Piece Loudspeaker System (Electronics)

Phenomenal .....

One word I could match to review of HKTS-14. After extensive research and numerous audio test of various HT speakers I zeroed in for HKTS-14 from Harman/Kardon. Key factors I used to select the systems are as follows:

1. Music performance
2. Substantial Bass response
3. If not too much near high power
4. Compact for my apartment living
5. Crisp high end music reproducing capability especially from guitar, sitar
6. Budget conscious and longterm investment
7. Proven industry name
8. Easy setup & calibration
9. Technical Support

In all aspects HKTS-14 stood out. At first I used my own samples of few songs; music excepts and took it to various showrooms to play. I tested it on Polk, Bose, JBL 300.7/200.7, Micra and HKTS-14. These are my observations

Polk -Excellent satellite speakers, but default bass module didn't impress, need to upgrade to other polk sub which are quite expensive when adding both prices and setup is too confusing.
Bose -Forget about it, sales men did not like putting my CD and when I finally made him he wouldn't pay much attention or help me in adjusting any settings. Only thing he allowed to do is to keep repeating ICE AGE movie clips over and over again in AM16 module.
One I did notice, most of dialogs and beats are directional, you can also try this next time you see a BOSE system is playing, just stand directly in line of bass module and slow move left or right you notice that bass is completely directional and all dialogs are actually come from bass module which is either below or side of system rather on center of screen.

JBL 300.7/2007 - Out of both 300.7 flared excellent, but speakers are doesn't look good though design is unique. Bass module is excellent

Micra - Speakers are good and look good but lacks overall puch, I felt that if you between 4 to 6 feet in radius from speakers they are good beyond that, sound weakens

Finally HKTS-14
Speakers are excellent and sharp to look. Coming to most important sound aspect, sound reproduced is close to the way it should be. Bass module is enough power to shake a large room (BTW my room is 19'x18'). Initially I needed some tweaking with cross over to get the right match between satellites and sub. Other things I have done to fine tune is channel volume using pink noise. Once these basic steps are done, system is all set to rock. Test DVD's I used are Lord of Rings which have enough high/low/mid ranges through the movie. Finally coming to cost whole system I put together i.e receiver+DVD player+HT speakers+ wires hardly touched $800 and I am sure this system will go very long time in my living room for TV/Music/Movie entertainment...next on my list HT projector !-)


Harman/Kardon customer service is excellent by all base lines. I wrote to technical support even before I purchased the product and every time received reply from an actual person rather than automatic reply. All the replies are informative and complete and welcoming for more questions. Of late I have never experienced such a prompt service. Only companies that believe in there products can provide such service

Strengths
Room shaking sub-Excellent High & Mid range capbility of Satellites-Can match any decor especially made for plasma looks-All included kit-Auto signal sensing of Bass module-120 watts for satellites and 200watts for sub


Weakness
Mounting kit supplied is not easy to use-Only HKTS speaker stands can be used -Speakers are all Silver finish, but wires supplied are black.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Speakers at an Unbelievable Price, May 6, 2006

By 

Zubin Sukheswalla - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS 14 6-Piece Loudspeaker System (Electronics)

I have searched for speakers that would compliment my room. My priorities were price, build quality, connectivity, and thundering bass (yes I said it, most of us don't really care about the fine nuances of sound, all we need is decent speakers and some thundering BASS to make your heart flutter). I am no expert in the art of speaker selection or speaker sound but I have ears and consider myself pretty knowledgeable in the art of hearing (which we all are, so I am nothing special).

Price:
I bought these speakers at less than 350$ and believe me they make every penny count. If you look on Harman Kardon's website, this combination is the top of the line. Now, considering Harman Kardon's history I was willing to bet that these speakers were decent before I bought them. I was utterly wrong. These are fantastic for the price. I couldn't buy a comparable 12" subwoofer for that much alone if I wanted to.

Build Quality:
These are perfectly well-built, heavy and robust speakers. The accessories though are a little cheap quality. By accessories I mean only the plastic mounts and nothing else. The wires are thick (Sorry, don't know gauge #) and pre-soldered and are ready to go. Installation on their mounts is a little tricky if you have your room already prewired. Exercise caution and you won't break the plastic mounts while you do it. The speakers themselves are heavy and hence if you put too much weight on the speakers (like you hand) while trying to install them on the wall standing precariously on a stool or ladder you might shatter (yes shatter, not crack or break) them. If you want to use the speakers as table mounted they come with a provided attachment for flat surfaces. This was for the 5 satellite speakers. The only thing I would recommend as a upgrade about these satellite speakers is that they have pinch-clips for wire connections and not banana clips. This will not be a major problem if you use the factory provided pre-soldered wires or if you solder the tips of your own wires. Again, this delves in to the territory of good sound and great sound. The center channel speaker is supposed to be place on a flat surface and does not come with any wall mounting accessories. Also, the 4 satellite speaker mounts can only pivot side to side and not up and down so make sure you know how you are going to mount them in a prewired room with the wiring outlets in the ceiling. I wouldn't recommend using the mounts provided for ceiling mounting of speakers. From seeing how flimsy they are I think they are specifically designed to hold up the speakers from the bottom up and not like a cantilever which will be the case if you mount them on the ceiling.

Now comes the sub-woofer. OH BOY!!!! This is what you call a subwoofer. Huge and powerful. You all know by now that it is a downward firing 12" diameter subwoofer housed in almost a 24" high cabinetry. BUILD QUALITY is spelt, enunciated and redefined with this subwoofer.

Connectivity and Features:
The 5 satellite speakers have the usual red and black pinch clips (which again are not bad at all). The subwoofer on the other hand is decked out. It is self powered, so you don't need a receiver where the sub channel is powered. The subwoofer has a filter switch. If you switch it ON, it will automatically filter the high frequency sounds and play only the low frequency ones in the channel. Now that doesn't mean you can connect your satellite speaker channel to it and expect it to work well. That brings me to its next feature which in my case saved me from buying a new receiver. It has a high level output and speaker level input with banana clips. These inputs and outputs basically let you use the left and right front and rear satellite speaker channels of your reciever to connect through your subwoofer so that it can filter out its own subwoofer signal. This is particularly useful in case you own a receiver without a subwoofer out or if your receiver subwoofer out is a pinch clip or banana clip instead of the compatible rca-jack like pin (hereinafter referrred to as a line-out cable). I've looked in Radioshack and you can build yourself a two wire to line-out cable but don't complain about the sound if you didn't do a good job. So now you know how crappy my receiver is since it doesn't have a regular line-out cable for the subwoofer. (For reference purposes I got this Pioneer receiver from Walmart in a 200$ home theater system package for my apartment. The receiver is pretty good for limited connectivity. It is rated at a 1000 watts output which I highly doubt though.) Ok, coming back to the subwoofer. It has automatic low frequency signal detection circuitry which means that it will not be active when there is no bass in the signal for extended periods which is great for channel flipping on your tv. You really don't need that huge thing to consume energy when you are flipped to a news channel and continue watching for sometime. Oh most importantly, it has its own independent volume konb which allows you to control the maximum the subwoofer could go to without cracking the sound which is generally dependent on the size of your room and the signal from the receiver. So once you set it you can simply adjust your receiver settings for the subwoofer as per your choice. Also, something of minor importance to me but could be an extremely useful feature for someone else. You can reverse the phase in which the subwoofer works. For instance if you have your satellite speakers sound like producing bass at a different note than the subwoofer it could possibly be that your subwoofer is out of phase. Reasons for this happening I don't know. So by flipping the switch you could technically reverse the subwoofer phase and make it sound more coherent with the rest of the sound and video.

Thundering Bass:
I think by now you have it figured that I am total fan of the subwoofer. Well this is where it started. Performance!!! Knowing how crappy my receiver is with no direct connectivity to the subwoofer this piece of equipment is an absolutely heart fluttering bass producing machine. Don't get me wrong on the other satellite speakers. They are very good too but the center of attraction is the subwoofer undoubtedly. Ok let do some justice to the satellite speakers. The four satellite speakers are great. They produce their own little bass and can also produce clear screeching sound that will make you cringe like an airplane landing on the tarmac, loud and majestic sound but when the wheels hit the tarmac the screeching sound is perfectly reproduced. Basically they reproduce sound very very well and truthfully. The center channel speaker is very powerful and priduces clear voice separation and also blends in very well with the other speakers when an action scene comes around (but that also partly depends on your individual speaker volume settings on your receiver). Coming back to my star performer. This subwoofer will rock your apartment, house, walls, furniture, humans, pets, neighbors, and pests...ok the last one I made up. Home movie watching will change after you've heard this beast perform and I don't even have the recommended connections to make it work at optimum so go figure if you have good reciever already.

This is my review. It is obviously my opinion of this system. Do your own research before you buy your own but I thought since it is such a great system it should receive the recognition it deserves and also budget-minded buyers with a good ear for sound will know what this system has to offer and make their decision more wisely. Having said that, if there is anybody doubting my intentions or capability of enjoying a movie at home, I own a 65" toshiba TV (65H85C). I love my movie experience and I wouldn't waste my time writing this long detailed review if the sound didn't compliment the picture, which by the way is freaking huge. Oh by the way my receiver (when I have the money to buy it) will most definately be the Pioneer VSX-1015TX. Look it up. It will blow your mind away without burning a hole in your pocket. Good Bye!!!

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Aesthetics, Good Value, January 11, 2005

By 

Superstream (Corvallis, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS 14 6-Piece Loudspeaker System (Electronics)

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.