Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #9594 in Receiver or Amplifier
- Color: Black
- Brand: Harman Kardon
- Model: SB16
- Dimensions: 24.50" h x
18.75" w x
18.75" l,
43.00 pounds
Features
- Soundbar Includes two-way, dual-driver left and right soundbar speaker modules, each with two 3" (75mm) midrange drivers and
- Wireless, 100-watt, powered subwoofer with a 10" (250mm) driver in a ported enclosure
- Soundbar amplifier power: 25W x 2 into 8 ohms, 20Hz - 20kHz, at <0.07% THD, with both channels driven simultaneously
- 3-D Virtual Speaker surround mode that creates a complete surround-sound experience without any extra speakers or wires
- Programmable soundbar that can obey your TV remote?s volume, power and source commands,
- A 3/4" (19mm)-dome tweeter, video-shielded. Enabling a single remote to control your whole home theatre system
Harman Kardon SB16 Soundbar and Wireless 100 Watt Subwoofer (Black)
Product Description
Home theatre installations typically involve five loudspeakers, a subwoofer or two, and lots and lots of speaker wire. Not every room can accommodate all that stuff, and not every homeowner wants to live with it. The harman kardon home cinema soundbar system offers an elegant and far simpler alternative: a single amplified loudspeaker unit connected directly to your television, DVD player or game console, and a single wireless subwoofer that you may place anywhere in the room. Offering traditional stereo playback or realistic 3-D surround-sound processing, the SB 16 delivers true harman kardon performance with the absolute minimum number of components, and with no wires in (or out of) sight.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
47 of 52 people found the following review helpful.
By James E. Jones
I was in the market for a soundbar for the game room in the new home I'm purchasing. After researching all the reviews, I decided to go with the SB 16. First things first: The sound is amazing. The faux surround really is impressive and the shape of the room doesn't matter. The sub has adjustable crossover and a phase switch, so you can find that perfect sweet spot for your room. $600 sounds steep, but you are getting a lot for your money.Now for the bad news: I wondered why I never saw any negative reviews for this thing, and I think it is because the system is too new and the problems have not yet been exposed. The sub is wireless so you can place it anywhere in the room. I've been reading a lot about these wireless sub systems and didn't think much of it until I got it home. My apartment is abound with wireless devices: 2 iPhones, a Kindle, Macbook, iMac, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii are all pulling from wifi. I know that's excessive, but I'm a gadget lover. Well apparently my wifi is interfering with the subwoofer connection. I noticed that every time my wife would switch web pages on the laptop, the sub connection would shut off and back on. There are four channels to choose from, but all experienced interference. This drove us both crazy, and we couldn't find any documented issues. Even Harman Kardon informed us of getting the unit serviced. I'd only had it 4 days, so I just opted to take it back to Fry's. Some other inconveniences are that even though the unit connects through an optical cable, it doesn't recognize the dolby digital signal and all components must be switched to digital stereo. The Harmony 900 doesn't recognize the unit either. Since it doesn't come with a remote, I had to program it to my TV remote, which documented in reviews, results in an annoying message popping up on my screen when adjusting the volume. This issue doesn't seem to occur with newer TVs, but my 3 year old DLP is affected.I ended up getting a Bose Cinemate II in an even exchange. My ears like the HK better, and I really appreciate the sound field adjustment options versus the Bose's single subwoofer volume dial, but the Bose wins big in convenience. The sub is wired meaning zero interference, but less placement options. I didn't plan on setting it in some far corner anyway. The unit automatically detects the source so no having to switch from digital to analog, and the Harmony remote recognizes the unit. The two speaker setup is also better for me in the long run. I'm using the system for my gaming rig, and having a wii sensor or my inevitable Kinect sensor sitting in front of a soundbar just looked weird. When and if these kinks are worked out, I'm sure this system will be awesome, but if you have a bunch of wifi devices, stay away from the HK.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
By Jason H. Nagao
Pros:Ease of setupExcellent sound qualitySimple functionalityFlawless integrationCons:No volume indicatorSurround sound (but was expected)We received our Harman Kardon SB16 last night. Be warned, the box the system is delivered in is HUGE! Once opened, you will find two main boxes, one containing the sound bar and a second containing the subwoofer. In a matter of 15 minutes, we had the system unboxed, powered, and wired directly to our TV via the provided optical cable. There's an RCA cable and brackets to mount the sound bar, which we didn't use.The next step was programming the remote, which was quirky due to (unfortunately) user error. I tried to program our DirecTV remote which was an utter fail (I concluded that this was due to its "Universal" nature). Grabbed our Samsung remote and I had it programmed in about 10 minutes. Once the unit was programmed, it learned the signal from our DirecTV remote. Our TV doesn't have the "no sound" message that other reviewers commented on, which we knew before hand (thanks reviewers for mentioning that!).Sound-wise, I am in Heaven! The sounds are so crisp and clear. The bass is perfect (after some fine tuning). We really have no complaints about the sound quality. I have to note that we weren't expecting great surround sound from this system (it is just a sound bar and subwoofer). The "3D Surround" feature is okay. If you're looking for a top notch surround system, this is not it.Also, one tiny quirk that bothered me was not knowing where we were in regards to volume level. It would have been nice to have a display indicating you were on, say volume level 10. I like knowing I have two more clicks before it goes to "zero". But, this is more of a personal preference.The quality of the product is better than other units on the market. The sound bar feels very sturdy and looks "clean" on our TV stand. The gloss black finish of the subwoofer makes it easy to place in our living room. Even with its very large size, it doesn't look awkward or out of place. The wireless feature was a great selling point. Plug it into the wall and you're good to go. So far we do not have any interference from our wireless router, cell phones, wireless printer, wireless laptops, etc.Overall, we couldn't be happier with our purchase. After reading many reviews (the good and the bad) we felt that this system was perfect for what we needed: A simple, high quality sound system, to provide excellent sound quality to fill our average sized apartment living room. Don't let the price scare you. Spending what we did on the product, I was a bit hesitant and wanted to find anything wrong with it so we could send it back. Needless to say, it's a keeper!
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
By Jimmah!
Wow, this units could have been amazing except for one key fatal flaw. Beware!!!! When I hooked it up to my TV, I wanted to use the Digital Optical link. I tried both the analog and digital. The digital sounded much better.In using the SB16, I realized it won't work for any of my digital TV channels(it worked for standard analog channels) via the optical link. In talking with both customer service for Harman Kardon and my TV manufacturer, the problem was clear. The SB16 is designed to only decode PCM audio data via the optical link. It fails to be able to decode 5.1 signals.The extremely smug tool I talked with at Harman stated....it isn't a surround sound unit. Yes, it isn't, but when the signal from the TV is 5.1, it should be able to decode. In this case, the 5.1 is the format for the data streaming into the SB16. It should be able to handle data in both the PCM and 5.1 format. Harman's answer was that I should downgrade my TV so everything is just PCM. My less than a year old TV doesn't have this option. It makes sense that it wouldn't. Why should it downgrade the better audio linkage standard?If you don't plan on using this via the optical link or can deal with PCM data only, this unit has excellent sound quality. It is a very nice unit. That said, the optical link is the optimal way to connect and 5.1 data is becoming the new standard. Why Harman wouldn't have this unit ready for the near future is beyond me.My rating of 1 star may seem harsh. I find this flaw critical. You may not. I'd like others to know about this major flaw in the optical linkage, so they don't have to deal with this issue after a purchase.
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