Harman Kardon Aura Review

Aura is a wireless speaker with relatively compact dimensions and can therefore be placed just about anywhere - from shelves, tables, desks or the floor. Wherever you choose to place it, this speaker will draw attention with its unusual appearance. With a height of 10.6 and a diameter of 8.5 inches, Aura has enough volume to deliver a solid sound. The bottom section is covered with a grille in either black or white adorned with the Harman Kardon logo, and on top of the grille is a ring with touchpad controls. In addition to the plus and minus for volume control, there are also buttons for changing the sound source, power and to connect to Wi-Fi. There is also a headphone jack (3.5 mm).

The most attractive part of the Aura is the upper part, which is transparent and dome-shaped. Its contours are curved inwards towards the center and ends up forming a tube that functions as a vented opening at the top. In the middle is a rounded bulge with blades or fins reminiscent of a turbine engine. At its top is a round metal plate, surrounded by an illuminated circle. When the device is in sleep mode, this light will circulate and also be quite the eye-catcher when the machine is turned on.

More interesting is the wireless connection though, and Aura supports AirPlay, Bluetooth, as well as DLNA. Bluetooth connection is all very easy and simple - phone, tablet or computer will quickly find Aura and connect with it. The Bluetooth function does however lack support for advanced aptX codec.

Another way of using the Aura is by linking it to a local area network via the integrated Wi-Fi adapter. It is important that the button for WiFi is pressed for at least a few seconds for your computer or smart phone to connect with the Aura. You can then open the settings page in the browser and choose the name of the local network, and enter the correct password. Overall its a simple procedure and once done you can stream music from a media server for example.

Design and Construction

The Aura is raised on rubber legs to allow some space for the 4.5 inch bass driver in the lower part. This runs on the power from a 30 watt amplifier. Six 1.5 inch drivers are also driven by a 2 x 15 watt amplifier and handles the mid and high frequencies. These units are located behind the grille and allow for an omnidirectional 360 degree sound. Harman has also incorporated digital sound processing to further improve sound quality and expand the stereo image.

Aura Controls

The active audio source is indicated by using different colors on the source button. It can be confusing at first but not difficult to get used to. It is not hard to remember that blue stands for bluetooth and green is for DLNA, but it would be nice if it could display more information. This makes the Aura overly simplistic - no remote and no proper display. However, this is solved by using the Harman Kardon Remote application, which works very well. The HK remote app is nicely organized and, above all, simple. The same application can be used to control other Harman Kardon devices.

Sound Quality

Aura has a few distinguishing characteristics. It can play very loud in comparison with similar devices and it does so without losing control. There´s no discernible degradation of the sound, nor any noticable distortion. It is possible to make a lot of nasty noise if the Aura is placed on a rickety shelf or table, but on its own it sound absolutely solid.

We listened to a few vocal tracks with the volume fully cranked up and considering what type of speaker this is, we were surprised and amazed at how good it actually sounded. The Aura seems to have a subtlety that other speakers in this category usually do not have. Music played at all volume levels sounded balanced, and the effect of the 360-degree sound worked wonderfully. You can walk around the room or just rotate the speaker around its axis, and you will notice that the sound does not change.