Customer Reviews

Harman Kardon HKTS 20BQ 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System (Black)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let me start out by saying that all my previous systems were Hbid all in one Sony crap factories. I'm actually a TV and radio engineer, but I've never been willing to spend the money on my own consumer grade audio equipment....now I'm glad I did. This system is incredible. I got it with the Yamaha 667 receiver, so basically the receiver was free; too good to pass up.

Pros:
Amazing sound...it's like I'm in a movie theater
Quality design; speakers are well built and heavy and the shine on them is great. sub looks like a piece of art
Great mounts and 16 gauge cable included.
Packaging was immaculate; reminded me of Apple products
Professional gold connectors on rear of speaker; high quality
powered sub with adjustable levels


Cons:
Cable for surround is a little short (typical length for surround cable included with most systems)
Speaker set is really expensive if you don't get the deal with a receiver


This set comes with small speaker stands and mounts if you choose to mount the speakers. I mounted all of mine and they sound amazing. If you want to mount the speakers, you'll need two screws for each speaker and drywall studs if that's where you're mounting them. The speaker cable is more than enough for the fronts and about 33 feet for the surround.

I'm breaking these in with "Dark Night" right now and it sounds incredible. I'm still playing with the settings for my receiver, but it seems like little adjustment is needed if you don't want to. I turned up the surround a little cuz I like a louder surround effect.

If the deal to get these with the Yamaha receiver is still available, I highly recommend this purchase.

I don't have too much comparison for Polk or other good speakers, but I can honestly say that these speakers both look and sound incredible. Unless you're an extremely picky audiophile, you will not be disappointed. This is one of the best purchases and best deals I've ever received.

If you're tired of the crappy Hbid systems, this is a must have. If you're not satisfied with the amazing speaker sound, I guess you can always use the 4 satellites for surround and get a couple Polk fronts or something.

Note: My living room is about 15X40 and the sound is still great. Went out for a smoke and wondered if my neighbors wanted to kill me due to the bass.

Let me tell you right away that this Harman Kardon speaker package has high quality written all over it. Right from the excellent packaging to the individual speaker/sub-woofer construction and overall appearance, everything is immaculate. And yes the sound quality is indeed mind blowing as stated by the other reviewers.

As usual I got this packaged with the feature rich Yamaha RX-V667 as part of the current Amazon promotion. The Yamaha receiver has so many features that I am yet to explore most of them and will come up with a separate review shortly. But my initial impression is very good and it does everything perfectly that I expected from it. So far I have generally used only Sony HTIBs as home theater option. To be frank I am no audiophile and was pretty happy with them. Infact one month back only I purchased the Sony HT-SS370 from Costco to replace a 5 year old Sony HTIB . It also has great reviews in Amazon and I was pretty happy with it. However then I came across the Home theater promotion currently on Amazon, I decided to take the plunge to find put how much better can these expensive home theaters sound when compared to my all-in-one cheap Sony. After going through all the choices, the Yamaha-Harman combo appealed the most to me(based on the glowing reviews here and elsewhere) and was also just about in my budget.I must tell you its a different experience altogether. These speakers can produce such intricate and delicate sounds from my movies and music that I was totally unaware of previously. Probably my Sony speakers are a bit louder than the Harman at comparable volumes but if you consider sound clarity and crispness there is no comparison. I played the Avatar BlueRay and believe me during the jungle scenes I could hear certain sounds which I never even heard at the 3D Movie theater. It made me feel as if I was physically present there with sounds coming from all possible directions. The sexy-looking powered sub-woofer has enough juice to rock a standard 15 by 15 room. At moderate high volume it started shaking all my doors and windows and my wife got so nervous that our neighbors will come out complaining that I had to lower it down. I also tried playing lots of music (mainly English Classics and Bollywood film songs) and again I was extremely satisfied with the outcome. Low, mid and high frequencies were all coming out crisp and clearly. I think the Yamaha receiver also has a big hand behind this though.

Overall this system is a winner and anybody looking for high quality home-theater system should definitely consider this Amazon special combo. My Sony HT-SS370 is going back to the Costco warehouse today and I am extremely happy even after spending 4 times the cost for this Yamaha/Harman combo.

I had been going back and forth with purchasing these speakers, but when I saw it was paired with a Yamaha Amp, I couldn't say no. I essentially got the amp for free. After anticipating its arrival, and checking the tracking details every hour it had finally arrived.

The speakers were sealed in a very protective packaging. Wrapped in foam and cloth, the speakers had a certain sparkle to them. the sub-woofer also came in its own separate box.

Setting these bad boys up was a breeze. The speaker wires were perfect length, maybe a bit long, but I have a smaller living room.

Now the sound. I hooked these up to my new Yamaha amp (that i got for free!), and these guys shock my entire apartment. I took the advice to test these with Dark Knight, and I was simply amazed.

Overall, these speakers paired with the Yamaha 667 Amp are an amazing deal. I was skeptical spending $700 on a sound system, but it was the best $700 I have spent

These speakers sound amazing! They were easy to set up, and they come with wall mounts if you want to make a real surround sound. The sound very sharp and clear, and can handle the deep bass and high treble. They are a wonderful purchase. Word to the wise though, make sure the tv's speakers are all the way down, or disabled.

These speakers simply do not compete with similarly priced sets ($800) from other manufacturers. They are very "tinny" in sound, in that they have a very poor frequency range, stopping short of decent mid/lows. They are quite clear, though, but you'd be far better off buying your surrounds by the pair than paying close to full price for these speakers, or getting a superior set from another brand for the same price. And the sub is a very sad speaker. It's not near loud enough, not near clear enough, and not near low enough.

For a computer or very small room these will do, but again only if you catch them on sale. If you haven't experienced good speakers then you won't know what you're missing (and therefore won't feel like you're missing it), but I highly recommend looking at other brands such as Jamo, Mirage, Energy, KEF, or even Polk. Don't let a saleman convince you it's normal to cheat yourself on the frequency range just because they're surround speakers.

If there's a single specification I would recommend looking for in your surround speakers it's the lowest frequency response: I would not go above 60Hz if you want a good range of sound that provides a solid, realistic environment.

I have been unable to locate the lower limit frequency of the satellite speakers for this system, but I would bet it's between 89-98Hz, far too high. Even though the manual claims 35Hz-20Khz response that low is strictly for the subwoofer, which does not qualify as a quality 35Hz sub.

I would say these are actually of the $350-400 range in regards to price/quality.

We recently decided to jump in and join the "surround sound/home theater" club and had asked a friend who is fairly well-versed in the different brands and quality out there. Based on our price range and needs, this was one of the speaker sets he had recommended, along with the Yamaha RX-V667 7.2-Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) receiver. Then, not 2 days later, I saw that Amazon was running a deal where if you bought those 2 particular items together, you only payed 2/3rds of the cost (basically, we essentially payed full price for the speakers and got the receiver for free!). I couldn't believe that it had been the same 2 items we had been looking at, so we were thrilled to see the sale on the items "lumped together". Setup was relatively simple (just read the manual) and with a little help from our friend, we were able to get our whole system all set up in just a few hours. We have been very pleased with the sound quality of these speakers, and the only thing that could make them better would be if it came with even just 2 wall mounts. The speakers seem to have very "custom" bases, so we are going to have to research if there is a specific wall mounting system we have to use for them. I will update this when we find out.

I bought this with the Yamaha RX667 in a deal offered by amazon. I have them connected and they sound great. No problems so far.

My story is complicated but at least interesting.

I ended up having to replace a TV because of a 1px column in the middle of the picture. Fortunately, one of those big box stores honored the warranty and i ended up getting a sweet new Sony 55" 3D HDTV for only $300. Seriously..

The TV had awesome reviews, but the one nagging problem was it, like all flat panel TVs it had crappy sound. So, since the TV was so cheap, I decided to upgrade my low end HTIB and become a big boy and buy an adult sound system.

I bounced all over the net, looked at a wide range of audio systems and the more I looked, the more confusing it all got.

Then I read a review on Amazon about these HK20BQ speakers. The reviews were all stellar (thanks guys!) and it helped narrow my search. Then I read a review that commented on the promotion Amazon is offering with these speakers matched with a Yamaha reciever.

That sold me. Almost. Still had to hunt more, and read more. But i kept coming back to this set and finally decided to go for it. Even used the Amazon/GEMONEY option with it interest-free if paid in 6 months.

Typical Amazon transaction, with both pieces shipped within a few days and arrived last Thurs.

A monster box, weighed a bunch, but i tore into it. Found all the speakers wrapped in a foam and an inner layer of a cloth-like packing that kept the piano-gloss finish on the speakers perfect. I almost felt like I should be wearing white cotton gloves.. :)

Unpacked and set things up, relatively easily. There were some complaints their mounting hardware lacks a little and I'd not totally disagree. But for a flat wall mount application it's fine. In my case, I had old speakers and those brackets had the exact same mounting holes as the HK mounts and a few screws, washers and bolts, I had them mounted to the existing wall mounts. I think you'll find this is intentional and the HK brackets are intended to mount to other wall mount systems to give you bends and angles the HK won't do. Point being, the pairing of my wall mounts to HK's were easy and effective.

Got them installed on the wall, got the front speakers and the massive powered sub all connected to the Yamaha, and after double-checking everything, finally fired these bad boys up.

Without any adjustments, without even knowing how to run the Yamaha at this point, my first opinion was simply mind-blowing. I cranked up Star Trek from 2009 and fast forwarded to the 1st attack scene and sat back on the sofa.

Even at loud volume, it was crystal clear, and all the little intricate sounds you'd expect in a theatre that were totally absent from my el-cheapo HTIB system were all there. True surround is incredible and this was the case. All the sounds whizzing around me were awesome. Quiet scenes all had power and clarity. Voices were perfect, the base was way overmodulated until i figured out how to adjust it, but it was very cool. The floor literally shook..!

You can probably tell I'm really happy. I generally don't write reviews, but this earned one and a well-earned BUY IT opinion from me.

These speakers look nice, are a manageable size and other than really long speaker cable runs comes with everything you'll need, unless you're like and want to use angle brackets.

Now, the Yahama RX-V667 that Amazon pairs with these speakers will get it's own review shortly, but I can tell you that this is really a great paired system. It has all the bells and whistles you're ever likely to need and with it being effectively free, it's really an unbeatable combination.

If you're looking for a new sound system and want something that'll rock your world, I can't imagine anything out there for $700 that'll give you the same bang for the buck as what Amazon is offering.

I'm constantly amazed at how many products Amazon sells that have prices that are truely unbeatable.

And while I could find these speakers a little less elsewhere, when paired with the Yahama, there was nothing that came close.

My wife teased me that she may never get me to go out to a movie any longer with the quality of this system and who knows.. maybe she's right.. :)

Enjoy!

LITTLE speakers BIG sound! The HK20BQ 5.1 are the perfect size for the family rec room. They are connected to an Onkyo TX-NR708 and drive sound for a Blu-ray device, Wii, & PS2. They fill the finished basement with a rich sound field that delivered from a nearly invisible presence. Compared to Mirage & Bose systems pre-purchase. Decision came down to the sound field reproduction, warmth of the sound produced, price, & the inclusion of mounting H/W with the product. I am very satisfied with the purchase.

At first I was skeptical about these speakers but then listening them in a local store and comparing to some floorstanding speakers that were 4 times more expensive left me scratching my head. I actually liked the sound produced by HKTS 20BQ better. The middle and upper frequencies are very clear while more expensive brands (I will not name them here as I do not want to create a flame ) produced some more or less noticeable "tint".
After that "audition" I could not help but buy the speakers for my home TV. I also have some huge old Fisher speakers, still I prefer listening HK.
I must say that the lower end could be improved. I just watched "300" and noticed that Xerxes' very deep voice on a few occasions would be intermittently caught up and dropped by the sub-woofer creating some disconnected effect. This does not happen however with music or sound effects. I probably have to look if my receiver (Yamaha RX v667) will allow me to adjust the lower crossover frequency to fix this.
On the side note the speakers look very attractive, much better than pictured on the photo. I have cats at home that like jumping on and scratching new things, so I am glad these speakers have metal grid instead of fabric.