14 DAY TRIAL // Harman Kardon continues to launch luxury items for audiophiles. Nova is its latest such invention, including high-quality components and useful features in a spherical, smooth and shiny package.
Well, I say it's a spherical shape, but that's not quite true. The Nova looks more like a ball that got two parts sliced off, then got its flat sides treated at the same beauty salon, so to speak, as the rest of it.
That, however, was the whole point. Harman Kardon only makes products according to high class fashion, and sticks to them prices that match.
There's even a passive radiator that provides a powerful bass (passive radiator with turbine enclosure), and the insides may not be visible, but they definitely make themselves heard. Then again, they aren't completely invisible because the shell is somewhat transparent.
Specifically, the Harman Kardon Nova Stereo Streaming Sound System gets 2.5-inch drivers, 1.25-inch tweeters and the Harman Kardon DSP (Digital Signal Processor), which improves voicing and soundstaging. What's more, the frequency response is of 70 Hz to 20 kHz.
As for connectivity, the newcomer mostly relies on Bluetooth, and can receive signal from smartphones, stereo systems and MP3 players.
It still has physical connectors though. After all, not all audio sources have Bluetooth, especially HDTVs (Apple TVs included), set-top boxes like Roku, etc. Thus, Harman Kardon gave the Nova analog and optical inputs.
"Say hello to the next generation of hi-fi and say good-bye to complexity and clutter," said Michael Mauser, president of HARMAN Lifestyle.
"We put serious audio reproduction and staging into a unique sculptural enclosure that most people will not recognize as a speaker system at all. Harman Kardon Nova is an object of art that fills your room with great sound."
Harman Kardon's Nova speaker ships with a power adapter and a 3.5mm audio cable at $299 / €223 – 299.