Shopping Cart
- Complete 5.1 home-theater speaker system
- Dual midrange drivers in both satellites and center channel
- Eight-inch, 200-watt, powered subwoofer
- Four identical, video-shielded, two-way satellite speakers
- Includes all cables, satellite table stands and wall brackets for satellites and center
Exceptional sound quality takes advanced engineering. To deliver an extraordinary listening experience for today’s high-definition entertainment, the HKTS 30 satellites and subwoofer have gone through Harman Kardon’s world-class engineering and design process. This process gives the HKTS 30 system the high-end performance of a premium system while keeping it affordable, unlike many other satellite speaker systems – including ones costing far more
Harman Kardon HKTS 30BQ 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System (Black) - You may also like :
Harman Kardon HKTS-15 5.1 High-Performance, 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System (Black Gloss)
35Hz - 20kHz frequency response (-6dB)8 ohm nominal impedence86dB at 1W,10" wooferCenter channel has dual 3" drivers The Harman Kardon HKTS 15 is a beautiful ...
Harman Kardon HKTS 30SAT-2 Speakers
Stands, Brackets, and Cables IncludedDesigned for HKTS 20 and HKTS 30 The Harman Kardon® HKTS 30SAT speakers add back-channel surround sound to HKTS 20 or ...
JBL CS480BG High Performance, complete 6-Piece Home Theater Speaker System with Brackets (Black Gloss)
8-inch subwoofer rated at 125-watts (peak)Titanium-laminate dome tweeters for outstanding high frequency soundSingle 3.5" midrange satellite driversVideo shieldedWall brackets included for satellites and center channel ...
Harman Kardon BDS 800 5.1 Channel Blu-ray Home Theater Systems – Black
Complete, integrated home theater systemD cor-complementing designSublime Dolby sound qualityCrystal-clear HDMI perfectionUSB port for multimedia The harman kardon BDS 800 is one of the finest ...
Harman Kardon HTFS 3/E Floor Speaker Stands
Designed to position any HKTS satellite at an ideal height for seated listeners, these aluminum floor stands* feature a cable-management system to keep speaker wires ...
Clickbank Products
Fantastic look, competent sound…mounting is not robust…,
Summary: These speakers are all about the design. They look faaaabulous. Sound is decent, but I would find it hard to justify them as an upgrade to existing speakers based on sound quality alone.
I was very excited to have the opportunity to review these speakers. Our stereo / video setup is a 10+ year old Sony combination surround sound system with tower front speakers, small rear and center satellites, and a sub. Very decent mainstream quality sound emphasizing power over quality.
This system has four satellites with a very small footprint (smaller if you wall mount of course) and a matching center channel. Subwoofer is pretty standard milk crate sized. All executed in a beautiful high gloss piano black. I was excited to think that I’d recover some valuable real estate with this system.
Upon opening the box I was greeted with very carefully wrapped contents. While perhaps not the most environmentally friendly, the multiple layers made sure these little jewels were in perfect condition, despite a large ding on the outside of the box, courtesy of UPS. These speakers look even better in person! Very high quality construction.
Upon swapping them out with my existing speakers (I didn’t use their enclosed wires, I have 12awg oxygen free flat copper to all the existing speakers) I ran a quick sound test. Very decent, but not knocking my socks off. I played “Mars” from Holst (The Planets) then Michael Murray’s Telarc recording of Toccata and Fugue in D-Minor. Both were decent, with Mars coming in a little lighter than I’m used to in the midrange. Will need to tweak the eq settings. It wasn’t convenient to do an A:B comparison but after comparing a few passages ranging from “Dead Can Dance: The Serpent’s Egg” (super low bass from an organ) to OK:Go and Barenaked ladies, I’d rate these at least a full notch over the Sony speakers – clearer crisper high tones with a flatter mid range. I don’t have a calibrated sound meter or test disks anymore so I’m basing this on my own perception.
Satisfied with the speakers I started to mount the front satellites on the wall. Uh oh. The wall mounts have two issues. First is that they are designed to use the cables that came with it so you can hide them within the mount. My cables are too fat. After a few tries I shave down the insulation and smush the flat wires with some pliers and I’m in business. Sort of.
The next problem is that the mounts are designed to go in with two screws – one that you hang the bracket on, then another to secure the bracket. Problem is, there’s some play to allow the bracket adjustment. The screw doesn’t hold it securely enough to prevent rotation. I ended up adding a serrated lock washer to the drywall screw on the upper attachment to bite into the plastic. Do be careful – if you overtorque this upper screw you are certain to crack the bracket.
Finally, the center channel bracket seems an afterthought. On one hand it’s better than my existing center which has no wall mount option, however this bracket could really be just a little larger to allow you to ensure that it is straight (like making one of the holes a slot) Also, all of the wall mounts require you to put these metal plates on the bottom with tiny screws. Not convenient. Some sort of snap on or single larger screw design would have been much preferred
Overall I give it a 10/10 for appearance, 8/10 for sound quality, 7/10 for mounting convenience and an 8.5/10 for value. I’d definitely get it if I didn’t have a set of speakers, but probably would hesitate to upgrade an existing set of speakers. I don’t think my father would have considered these true audiophile speakers, but I guess I’m not that much of a purist. They sound good and look fantastic, which is a decent combination for me.
Disclosure: I received this item through Amazon Vine, if you have any questions or comments, or if you found this review helpful, please let me know!
Was this review helpful to you?
|Aesthetically pleasing and sounds great!,
We’ve had this sound system for a while and love it.
Aesthetically: These are very pleasing to the eye. The speakers don’t stick out in our decor and the subwoofer is compact enough to be out of the way. There’s also no fabric on any of the pieces, including the sub woofer, which is a huge plus for people with kids. (My kids ripped our last sub woofer’s fabric). The sound comes out the bottom of the sub woofer also, which is also very nice. I couldn’t find a place where my kids could attempt to shove coins either. It’s very kid-proof!
Soundwise: The sound system has really enhanced movies. We watched ‘Star Trek’ (Chris Pine version) and it sounded so much better and made the crucial fight scene at the beginning of the movie more realistic. It sounded like we were in the movie. It was almost like being in the theater.
It comes with wall mount brackets, which is what we plan to do. Once we get the longer speaker wire, we’ll do the final install with them being mounted to the wall. They can sit on stands though if that suits your needs.
My husband was the one who did the install and he said it was easy as pie. We also bought our stereo receiver from Amazon to use this system.
The only negative I would mention was the length of the speaker wires. We’ll have to buy longer wires because of the size of our room. However, I have “great room”, which means a really long living room area. I do think that for most people, the length of the wires wouldn’t be an issue. If we wanted to leave them down on our end tables, we could probably skate. But we want to mount them on the wall, so we need the extra length.
Overall: This system rocks and we couldn’t be happier.
Was this review helpful to you?
|Fantastic upgrade to bundled “theater in a box” systems.,
Many, many years ago, I bought a “theater in a box” system from Sony. It came with an amp, 5 satellite speakers and a powered subwoofer pushing (what I thought was a great) 120 watts.
About 6 months ago, my Sony receiver died and I bought a Denon to replace it. The Denon receiver puts out 75 watts x 5 channels. After hooking it up to my old Sony speakers and playing some Rock Band to test it out, my first thought was “HOLY COW!!” The audio quality from the extra power alone (The Sony was 40w x 5) was an amazing revelation. Months later and I decide the anemic Sony speakers with a single driver in each unit (including the center channel) wasn’t cutting it anymore.
I’ve always been a big fan of Harman sound quality (JBL, Infinity and Harman Kardon) so these were front runners for a replacement set. I considered some other brands like Boston Acoustics (which I use in my car), Polk Audio, Klipsh and some other home audio stalwarts. After watching a movie at my parents’ place using JBL speakers, I remembered my love affair with these brands and decided they would be my first choice.
After getting them set up and putting on some of my favorite music (mostly rock, alternative & punk), all I can say is “WOW!” For the price, I can’t imagine better sound. Having 75 watts pump into these babies with 2 midrange drivers and an honest-to-goodness tweeter is a revelation. My old Sony speakers are junk now compared to these.
The subwoofer is leaps and bounds better than what I had before. It’s not quite as good as the JBL sub my parents have but my room is smaller and it works great for the type of audio I’ll be pumping through it.
The imaging on these speakers are fantastic. In truth, they’re not like the NHTs that my cousin has, but two of those bookshelf speakers cost as much as this entire system. You may not find a better “bang for the buck” system as you’ve got right here. Some of the money undoubtedly goes toward the Harman brand name, but their reputation for audio exists for a reason.
My only (minor) gripe is that the mounting options aren’t very well thought out. The table-top stands are fine if that’s what you’re gonna use. If you plan on mounting these on a wall or on speaker stands, make sure that they are very solid mounts. The satellites use cheapo plastic mounts and aren’t very flexible in how they attach. Even my bargain basement Sony’s used a threaded mounting hole. The satellites weigh a couple pounds each so make sure the stands you get are stable enough to carry them.
IMHO, these speakers are right at the cusp of “diminishing returns.” You could easily spend a few hundred dollars more, but I’m not convinced that the audio quality is appreciably better (remember that I’ve heard NHTs running through 300 watt power amps). You’ll likely have to spend 2-3x more to hear an appreciable difference, but then you’ll also have to have a much higher end receiver.
Was this review helpful to you?
|