Harmon Kardon Enchant 1300 Review

The soundbar market has been moving ahead with great strides, especially in place where space is a premium and the true boss of the home (nope it's not you mate, it's your wife) demands less clutter and cables.

The trend of making slimmer TVs with tiny bezels also helps as the sound coming out from the TVs is as thin as their bezels.

So now we review a product which comes in at the high-mid levels and promises to give sound, convenience and maybe looks in a reasonably priced package.

First the technical blurb from their site:
https://www.harmankardon.com/soundbars/ENCHANT+1300.html?dwvar_ENCHANT%201300_color=Graphite-USA-Current

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DRumUABQPs

The soundbar is situated in front of my Pioneer TV, and slips in nicely with a low profile form factor.

The subwoofer, which is wireless, also fits nicely into the front left corner of my room, where there's a power socket convenient located. 

The sub is sold separately, but you can have both for under two grand USD$. 

Some key technical points:

- auto calibration (without having to hook up a microphone) : one-button MultiBeam calibration adjusts the sound settings to suit your room

- wireless subwoofer with a simple pairing move that took only seconds

- 3 HDMI inputs (HDCP 2.2 and 1 ARC enabled output)

- optical, USB and Bluetooth inputs

- different surround modes

- Chromecast built-in for streaming

- Google voice input

The main unit goes down to 70hz on the box, and if you add the optional 10" wireless subwoofer, it will goes down to 40Hz (on the box).

Pairing the two was a painless 10second job, if you read the manual and found the button at the rear of the main unit. 

So how does it sound?

I think that for the majority of users who have not had a proper 5 or more speaker surround system, this system is pretty awesome. For movies the dialogue is clear, and the subwoofer is impressively deep and gives a nice thud and explosions are well defined. It's the surround effect which feels a little less than what you get with a proper surround system, and you should not expect more even though they promise a lot more on the box.

It's more than enough to keep your focus on the screen or TV and delivers dialogue and bass in spades. Even when you watch a sports event or listen to the news, it's far better than any modern TV.

As for music, it impresses most for music which is beat based, and when it finds a rhythm, it doesn't let go. You will definitely tap your feet to the beat.

If you like jazz, vocals and such, you may feel the mids are a bit thin, and that's something that most soundbars fail to match a decent two channel system in. But there's good soundstaging, depth and clarity. It made me forget my 10 grand stereo system when I played some techno, and even when I was listening to the soundtrack of Terminator.

So if you like convenience, want to add some meat to your TV's sound, wish to cut away the cables and understand that it's not the same as a true surround system, you will be pretty happy with this.

I know, I am and for the price, it compares well to it's rivals, the Yamaha systems and it much better than the Denon Heos system, which retails for around the same money.