expired Posted by Navy-Wife | Staff • Dec 28, 2024
Dec 28, 2024 8:05 AM
Item 1 of 3
Item 1 of 3
expired Posted by Navy-Wife | Staff • Dec 28, 2024
Dec 28, 2024 8:05 AM
Harman Kardon Go+ Play 3 Portable Bluetooth Speaker (Black)
+ Free Shipping$129
$350
63% offHarman Audio
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Before I start on the speakers, I must say the unpacking experience is as good as any you'll ever find. Inside the cardboard shipping box, each product box was wrapped in a tissue paper sleeve to keep markings off the boxes. Inside the boxes, the cables are nested in the inner box that surrounds the speaker. Removing all of that, the speaker itself is wrapped in a white felt-like fabric material. Really nice, and the speakers arrived in pristine condition. The batteries even came charged so the speakers worked right out of the box - a nice touch with electronics.
On to the speakers. I bought two to try the stereo separation in my kitchen, but they are rather large, and the handle arches over and takes up a lot of vertical space. I have the cabinet surface space, but the height is excessive under the cabinets. In an earlier posting someone mentioned removing the handles, but if the handle is gone there isn't anything on the speaker to help pickup and carry without risk of pulling and tearing the fabric that surrounds the entire body, which brings me to my next point...
These are considered portable speakers, however, NOTHING in the build quality is made for portability other than the huge handle. There are nice looking speakers, with a glass touch panel on top and fabric all around it. There are no protective features to protect that fabric from accidental damage banging around while moving it. There's no way I'd take these on a picnic or camping or to the ballpark or to the beach or anywhere else you'd think of needing a portable speaker. They are substantially heavy, which is good for a speaker, but not necessarily good for a portable speaker. These need a dedicated space on a counter or a shelf to be protected and admired.
Also, there is a bottom-facing subwoofer speaker on the underside of the speaker. It adds a lot of fullness to the sound and you can definitely tell it works. However, this is marketed as a portable speaker but there is no grille or any protective feature to keep any object from damaging the speaker as you move it from place to place. There are nice rubberized feet on the bottom corners that raise the speaker a half-inch or so, but given the width of the overall speaker, it would be easy to set the speaker down on something - anything - that would poke right through that fully exposed speaker on the bottom. Even a curious kid will see it and want to poke at it. It boggles my mind why they didn't put a grille of some kind over a bottom-firing speaker on the bottom of a portable speaker!
After playing around with them last night for about an hour, it was an easy decision to return these. They do sound good, about right for a $200 speaker, but the lack of protection for the delicate features of this heavy speaker makes this an impractical portable speaker. Combine that with the large size of the arching silver handle, then it also becomes a large and unsightly house speaker. There are better-suited home speakers, and there better-suited portable speakers at this price point. In short, this is the most "unportable" portable speaker I've ever seen!
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Best deal by far for a great sounding Bluetooth speaker.
The hyperboom has room correction too but it doesn't work when two speakers are paired, which is very disappointing. Hyperboom gets a slightly better rating than the Harman for music, but the Harman has slightly more accurate reproduction. Hyperboom gets louder with less far compression but has never been this cheap. Harman has no app, which is kinda crazy.
just FYI..
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just FYI..
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just FYI..
just FYI..
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