56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
Wonderful speakers!
I'll just confirm and add a little bit to what everyone else has said about these truly great speakers. They sound great, first and foremost. They feel very solid, like they are made entirely of metal (a good thing!). In fact, while many systems sport satellite speakers weighing around 2 pounds (USA), these weigh closer to 3 pounds.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
They do fine, but they will not blow you away.
I spent quite a while looking for speakers and decided on this set because they were economical, not because they would knock my socks off. I'm not an audiophile and didn't think I'd care THAT much about audio quality. However, the reviews I have read here overstate how good these speakers are.
I have a rather large TV room, and when I got these speakers in...
This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS-18 High-Performance, 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System (Black Gloss) (Electronics)
I'll just confirm and add a little bit to what everyone else has said about these truly great speakers. They sound great, first and foremost. They feel very solid, like they are made entirely of metal (a good thing!). In fact, while many systems sport satellite speakers weighing around 2 pounds (USA), these weigh closer to 3 pounds.
The image on the Amazon page for these speakers does not do them at all justice! The base speaker is very big, looks like a fine price of furniture, and could possible sub as a side-table (but don't do it...hehe)!
I have mine connected to a Denon AVR-1908 receiver. I mention this because it took me a few days to figure the best setup for these speakers, and I want to mention some pointers. My receiver allows choosing between 'small' and 'large' when it comes to the front, back, and center speakers. For these speakers, set them all to 'small'.
But, most importantly, be sure the sub-woofer is turned on on your receiver! I used the system for a couple of days before I realized the bass speaker was not on! That's because the front speakers were set to 'large', so they took up the task of filling in the missing bass (so it was hard to notice the bass wasn't on). I figured out how to turn the bass on in the receiver, and - WHOA! - the entire room shook!
Which brings me to a special pointer - you can tell if the bass speaker is getting a signal by the COLOR of the light on top! If it is off, there is no power. If it is yellow, it is on, but no signal (or too low a signal to register if low volume). Blue means on and there is a signal!
So, in conclusion, these speakers are awesome for the price! Speaking of which, the price of Amazon fluctuates for this item more than the stock market! I have seen it go up and down on the same day as much as fifty or even two hundred dollars! So monitor the price and strike when it is low (I got mine for LESS than four hundred dollars!).
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This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS-18 High-Performance, 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System (Black Gloss) (Electronics)
I bought these speakers because I wanted to go a step forward in the experience of enjoying movies at home and replaced my old Sony home theater system. I also bought the Harman Kardon AVR245 receiver to match the speakers. The result is amazing. I use my mac mini as media center and have it connected to the AVR245 with an optical audio cable and the result is great. I fully recommend this product and if you can match it with an Harman Kardon receiver, then you'll have an incredible sound for less than $1000.
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This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS-18 High-Performance, 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System (Black Gloss) (Electronics)
I told myself when I purchased this system that I would write a review on it. I just received the HKTS 18 system today and have played a few things on it now. This system replaced some Sony towers and bookshelf speakers which were purchaed around 5 years ago. To set this up, I am running a Harman Kardon AVR 635 receiver that pushes around 75 watts per channel.
Positives: This system is absolutely beautiful. I had never seen these speakers in the store, but upon receiving them from UPS today, the individual surrounds are just about the perfect size and have a great weight to them, which shows quality. I am usually one who likes to take the grills off to feel the quality of the woofers and mids, but these don't come off, which I'm willing to accept. The subwoofer is a 10 inch, piano finished beauty. It looks like a piece of art in the corner. I played the Bourne Ultimatium and the sound was absoultey superb. Everything sounded absolutely realistic and I was amazed that such small speakers could produce such good sound. Outside of movies, I played some mucic from my media player. I noticed that if you place the sub woofer in a part of the room which you are not near, the blend of the bass seamlessly fills the room. It is just fantastic.
Negtives: The first thing that stood out is that the sub woofer is open faced on the bottom, meaning that it is suseptible to damage. There is no grill underneath to protect it which I found a little shocking. Though I also think the shiny piano finish on the woofer is very nice, it can be easily scratched almost like the old black ipods. As for the surrounds, I actually don't have any complaints.
Overall for the $400 to purchase, these speakers just rock over my old Sony towers. I think having a Harman receiver and matching home theater speaker set goes a long way. This is a good purchase.
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This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS-18 High-Performance, 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System (Black Gloss) (Electronics)
I feel it is only fair to take the time to write a review for this product since other reviews played a big part in my decision to purchase one. The HKTS-18 speaker system met all my expectations and even surpassed them on some points. The unit sounds as good as it looks, which is to say it looks of quality and has the sound to match. It was a straight forward installation and depending on how anal one is regarding snaking & fishing speaker wire, the time spent can vary (I spent the better part of a day). One point of potental difficulty is that the speakers have a bit of weight to them - quality of design - and the included wall mounts attach at only one end of the speaker. This looks good but can be a tricky support on drywall. If one is planning to wallmount these speakers, I would strongly suggest screwing directly into a stud if possible.
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This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS-18 High-Performance, 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System (Black Gloss) (Electronics)
The speakers sound great with my HD DVD and Blu-ray players. Incredible bass. Consider setting up your A/V with front and surround speakers set to "large" - that works great with my Sony amp. The surround speakers look especially good when installed in a corner due to their triangular shape. I was a bit sceptical when I read that it came with its own mounting hardware (espcially since I already had universal mounting that I could use), but it was easy to install, and looks/works great. I also purchased the H/K stands for the front speakers, which also look great. All-in-all, this is quality through-and-through.
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This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS-18 High-Performance, 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System (Black Gloss) (Electronics)
The sound is actually better than some of the Bose speakers I've heard at a fraction of the cost. I spent 12 times as much for another set of surround speakers and the difference between that and this Harmon Kardon set is not huge. I highly recommend these speakers.
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This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS-18 High-Performance, 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System (Black Gloss) (Electronics)
I bought these speakers for my dad and thought that they would be pretty good speakers since they kept getting good reviews....Once I hooked them up for him, all I thought was Oh My God....these speakers were amazing.
The clarity was crystal clear, the base was nice and clean and extremely deep. When I watch a movie, it feels like your actually part of the movie b/c of the life like clarity.
I never thought these little speakers would be as nice as my Infinity Floor standing speakers with 15" of woofer plus my JBL surrounds....but they are. So, when I buy a flat panel TV, I will definitely be purchasing a set of these for myself to replace the speakers I have....And to think, my speakers ran me about $1800 and these were purchased for $400....wow!
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This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS-18 High-Performance, 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System (Black Gloss) (Electronics)
I just finished installation of the HKTS-18 system.
The sound quality is good, especially due to the powerful sub woofer, and it meets my overall expectations.
My only problem was in mounting the speakers. My family room was prewired by the previous owner for surround and had some old Yamaha speakers mounted with Omnimount type of mounts. I wanted to upgrade the sound as well as create a sleeker look.
I mounted the HKTS18 main speakers to the front wall and they look pretty clean. The problem that I ran into was to install the rears, which were previously wired from the ceiling.
The only way to mount HKTS18 is to run the wire straight through the wall and into the speaker mounting bracket. (When the wall mounting hardware is connected to the speaker, the speaker wire clamps are not accessible from the outside of the speaker, only through the mounting bracket opening that mounts flush to the wall). This mounting design makes it impossible to mount if the wire comes out of the ceiling or if you don't mount the speaker exactly on top of the speaker wire wall opening. There is no way that I could find to use another mounting option like an Omnimount.
Because my rear wall is an outside wall on the slope of my roof it was not feasible for me to rewire the rears (although I did make a strong effort including crawling in the attic and even calling a home theater installer for advice).
Finally, I ended up installing floating corner shelves that I picked up at Home Depot and standing the rear speakers on the shelves. This solved my problem but it not as clean of a look as I was originally hoping for.
If I knew what I know now, I would have ordered similar mains and sub, but installed in-ceiling speakers for the rears.
I hope this helps anyone with a similar ceiling speaker wire scenario.
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This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS-18 High-Performance, 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System (Black Gloss) (Electronics)
After receiving the speakers, I noted that one of the satellite speakers was defective. I contacted Harman Kardon by email and found the correspondence with them to be very helpful. They replaced the defective speaker after I furnished them with proof of purchase from Amazon. This whole transaction took less than two weeks. After being self-employed for over 40 years I rate their customer service one of the best. I would highly recommend Harman Kardon for both quality of product and customer service.
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This review is from: Harman Kardon HKTS-18 High-Performance, 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System (Black Gloss) (Electronics)
I just recently purchased the HKTS-18 from HARMAN/KARDON and I have got to say that I am very pleased with the sound quality from these loudspeakers. For the area I was setting up my home theater in I could really only go with a satellite style speaker, and not wanting to go with an HTIB setup, I went with a sub/sat combo instead. Im not to pleased with the current HTIB packages that are out right now because: 1. You get what you pay for and 2. The receivers that are packaged with the systems are usually very limited. Setting up these speakers was pretty easy, Whether you've had previous experience setting up a 5.1 system or not. The casing of each speaker are finished in a high gloss and have a nice weighted feel to them. HK went with the push pin style connector on these speaker's which im not too pleased with, but was not that big of a deal.
Sound quality was very clear, crisp and bright which is expected from this speaker style. All speaker's are voice matched for a seamless transfer between all channels. I would have liked a larger center channel as the one provided is the same size as the other four speaker's. HK does not offer a center channel upgrade, so if you'd like to change it out you would have to go with a different brand which I do not recommend. The provided powered subwoofer has a 10" down firing speaker that is sealed in a bass reflex (ported) enclosure. Low-frequency sounds are true,deep,and room-shaking. I would say that this subwoofer is capable of handling anywhere between 25-35Hz. The style of the enclosure is in the same high gloss finish as the other 5 speakers which makes for a very stylish/sleek look and stands about 18" tall. One big plus is that almost all the bell's and whistles that you would expect from a more expensive higher end sub are present on this one such as a line-level LFE input, audio-sense or external-trigger on/off and a multicolor LED power indicator.
Next is my receiver. I wanted to go with one that would offer me the latest in audio formats from Blue Ray and HDDVD movies as well as HDMI input/switching. So for my budget and room size I decided on the TXSR-606 from Onkyo. This receiver has exceeded my expectations completely and being a previous Onkyo owner, I was expecting alot. Dolby Tru HD and DTS HD Master audio sound tracks sound amazingly life like output through my HKTS-18. The audyssey 2 calibration system that the TXSR-606 offers helped for an easy proper stress free setup.
So all in all I am very pleased with the out come from these two items paired together and my home theater experience has become more enjoyable. I find myself going back through my old DVD collection to revisit great movies and with a new twist on audio.
System includes:
Sharp-Aquos-LC32D62U-32-Inch-1080p
Onkyo TXSR-606
Harman/Kardon HKTS-18
Toshiba HD-A30 via HDMI
Panasonic BD30-K via HDMI
Xbox 360 via HDMI
Z-line TV/Audio stand
[...]
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