Harman Kardon’s Enchant soundbars and speakers seek to cast a surround sound spell in your living room
Harman Kardon’s new soundbars, wireless speaker and subwoofer look great and will all be available to buy in March
The vice-like grip Sonos had on multi-room audio solutions loosened a little last year following the controversial launch of its new app, giving competitors renewed hope of securing themselves a more substantial piece of the pie.
It’s timely, then, that Harman Kardon – itself an established operator in the space – has just announced a refresh of its Enchant series of Wi-Fi-enabled soundbars and speakers.
Harman Kardon first launched the Enchant series at IFA 2018, just months before unveiling another portfolio of smart audio products – the Citation series – at CES. While we’ve not reviewed any of the brand’s Enchant gear, we have looked at a couple of Citation speakers, the Citation 300 and Citation One (MKII), and more recently the excellent Harman Kardon Citation Multibeam 1100 soundbar.
Judging by what we’ve seen of the latest raft of Enchant products, they take design cues directly from Harman’s Citation line – no bad thing given how good those products look.
The step-down model is the Harman Kardon Enchant 900. It’s smaller, trims the speaker count to nine, drops DTS:X and is almost half the price at £430. Both bars support Harman’s Multibeam technology, however, which harnesses beamforming to create a wider soundstage than would typically be achievable without adding extra speakers.
While both soundbars function as standalone units, they can be connected wirelessly to the other two new products Harman has launched: the Enchant Sub (£430) and Enchant Speaker (£200). Should you buy two Enchant Speakers, the pair can be used as rear stereo speakers alongside either of the soundbars.
All four products can be controlled and customised via the Harman Kardon One app, allowing you to create a multi-channel home entertainment system in one room or spread sound around your home in a multi-room setup.
Wi-Fi streaming options for the bars and speaker extend to Apple AirPlay 2, Chromecast Built-in, Spotify Connect and Tidal Connect, and there’s also support for Bluetooth streaming.
Is that enough to mount a serious challenge to Sonos’ reign as the go-to brand for multi-room home audio? It is, of course, far too early to tell, but if Harman Kardon’s new Enchant products can deliver engaging sound to complement their stylish aesthetic and the multi-room functionality is smooth, they’re in with a fighting chance.
