The network has at least two brilliant reviews of this brilliant system. The first, of course, is a video by Mikhail Borzenkov. Just space, not reach, not surpass:
And the second review on stereo.ru. He is positive, sensible, cool.
The soundbar came to me about three weeks ago, and I used the Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 as the main home system. Each of us has its own specific usage, mine – games, iTunes and Netflix. But, of course, you need to tell about everything.
Unpacking and connecting
It is great to read about things in the reviews, but few write how the installation, unpacking and connection went. This is especially true for unpacking. The soundbar comes in a long box, if you make a pen, it is easy to carry it from the car to the house. You can even do without a pen.
Everything is much more complicated with a subwoofer. I sincerely believe that buying a Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 is worth the full set to get the most out of emotions (otherwise why all this equipment is needed at all). The “saba” has a heavy box, it’s better not to do handles: it’s better to drag it like a baby. Unpacking is a separate fun: open the flap valves and follow the instructions, then everything will turn out perfectly.
It is better not to push the subwoofer into a corner, leave enough space around. Included with the soundbar there is a mounting system, this is a huge plus: if the TV is on the wall, you can immediately mark the places, punch holes and nicely place Enchant under the TV.
How to connect? The choice, of course, is yours. Included with the soundbar is an HDMI cable (I advise you to buy a “fast” cable, for example, Belkin has such a cable), and an “optics”, dear to my heart, and even an audio cable. I connected the PS4 Pro using a fiber optic cable, for the TV I used the HDMI ARC input, I had to plug the Apple TV into another connector. Why HDMI ARC? Because you can control the soundbar from the TV remote. But since the Enchant 1300 remote has clear buttons for selecting modes, it’s better not to remove it far.
I will not list the entire set of connectors, for life there is everything, including the good old “mini-jack”. You say: why is it needed? I will answer: what if you want to connect your top player to Enchant? For example, your beautiful Astell & Kern. Please connect, listen to music.
It started all at once, you just need to turn on the soundbar and go through a simple procedure for pairing with a subwoofer: press the Pairing button on the “sub”, then on the soundbar or vice versa. They quickly find each other, and rushed off.
When installing, do not forget to leave enough space for sound waves on the left and right of the soundbar. Well, in general, it’s better not to do it like me: there should still be more space around the “sub”.
Design and Management
I decided to combine these two points. The appearance of the device is this: you won’t pay much attention to this thing, but if you look closely, you will find a lot of interesting things. Hidden in the body of the speakers, recesses, neat buttons on top, a cool, heavy remote control – the remote allows you to not wander in the dark and quickly manipulate the various functions of the soundbar.
If you are standing somewhere near the device, you can go up and press the button yourself, right on the soundbar. Honestly, I have never used them – for all the time I pressed only the buttons for pairing. The console is just mega-convenient and understandable.
There is a small screen on the soundbar, it is pointless to photograph it: the volume level, the selected sound source, sound settings and other information are displayed there. The screen is informative, everything is fine with it.
Below I will talk about Google Home, but this is also part of the management – the program is fast, understandable, works great, it helps you quickly send your favorite radio station or playlist to the soundbar.
Unlike many other devices in this category, the Enchant series turned out to be cozy, kind of homely and, despite all the technical wonders, it reminds of high-quality expensive furniture. A cool interior element that can please the eyes, ears and even fingers – once again touch the fabric and wash it. We will talk about this a little lower.
Interior compatibility
Here I want to say many thanks to the designers of Harman Kardon for their delicate work. Usually soundbars look like plastic sticks, disgusting and stupid, – here is a thing with a capital B. Such a set will fit perfectly into any interior, be it a loft, the holy simplicity of a rented apartment, like mine, or the thoughtful interior of a person obsessed with Scandinavian design . The Enchant 1300 has a charm: you see here and you can feel under your fingertips both metal and a pleasant material that resembles wool, the same applies to the subwoofer. But the subwoofers, you know, do not look very good.
By the way, the soundbar on the wall should be placed like this:
Calibration
Suppose you unpacked a soundbar and a subwoofer, put everything beautifully or hung it, everything is incredibly cool and as it should be. Now is the time to calibrate the system – be sure that with and without calibration you will get different sound quality. On the remote control, you need to press and hold the Calibration button for three seconds, then shut up and wait about a minute. The soundbar will make furious sounds: the sound wave, reflected, is recorded by the built-in microphones, the information is processed, the speakers are tuned in accordance with the device of the room. The proprietary calibration is called Multibeam, I suppose that now we will see it in all the top products of the company.
Some tips. If you moved the Enchant 1300 to another room – recalibrate. Leave enough space around the soundbar, especially on the sides. Before and after calibration, you can listen to the same moment in a movie or in a game – I’m sure you will feel the difference.
Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 or Harman Kardon Enchant 800?
There are two models: the flagship Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 and the "eight-hundredth" model. They differ in size, inputs, but are generally similar – after all, the same family and the same people set up. A friend was visiting me and asked: “But my wife and I live in a one-room apartment, which device should we choose?” I didn’t yet know about the existence of the Harman Kardon Enchant 800, climbed to look for something compact, and here it is!
The same top design, the same top features. Instead of thirteen channels (read, drivers) eight, the output power is not 240W, but 140W – but this is VERY much! If desired, for the "eight hundredth", you can also buy a subwoofer.
You ask: well, what size apartment / room is suitable for each soundbar? I suppose if you have a large apartment and a kitchen combined with a living room, and all this farm is about forty meters or more in size, then the Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 with a subwoofer is suitable. If you live in a studio apartment, where the total size is about forty meters, the Harman Kardon Enchant 800 will help you get high every time you plan to watch a movie in the evening, turn on background music in the morning or listen to a tricky podcast in the afternoon.
Well, about the prices: Enchant 800 costs 49 990 rubles, Enchant 1300 costs 65 990 rubles. Also a reason to think which system to choose.
Work with Google Cast
In addition to installing, connecting, first turning on and first emotions, you have to do something else. Download the Google Home program on your smartphone, go through registration, then you will see that our Harman Kardon is “lit up” in the apartment. Start setting up right there. I was surprised how quickly everything happened: rrraz – and now the system is on my network, two – and the software update for the soundbar is already swinging, three – you can change the name and configure all sorts of parameters.
Why do you need Google Home? It's not for nothing that I call the Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 a home multimedia system, it's not just a soundbar. It works with the whole spectrum of modern sound sources, including smartphones and streaming services. For example, we take and bring to the soundbar Proton Radio from TuneIn. Or collections from Deezer. There are a lot of different ways to work with Google Cast, advantages: good sound quality, control from a smartphone. Cons: if you have an iPhone, then you will need to open the Google Home application, select content there and send it to the soundbar. Not as easy as with AirPlay 2.
You can also update the soundbar firmware on Google Home, which is nice. Well, Enchant 1300 will also work with other speakers supporting Chromecast: for example, if you buy Enchant 800 in the kitchen, they can play the same content together.
And if not Google Cast?
Please turn on the Apple TV, go to the music tab, listen to top albums (for example, Fractures / Anderholm) or playlists from Natasha Shelyagina’s Muzkultura channel. All the playlists are great, I get high every time, even when I open releases a year ago.
Another option is to connect any device via Bluetooth. I think that the developers of Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 themselves really wanted to use their equipment, so they added almost ALL possible connection methods – I won’t tire of repeating this phrase.
That's not all. I would not talk about the presence of a USB port for flash drives with content, but FLAC and WAV are supported here – an excuse to drop my purchases from Beatport on the media, and listen to how it feels (report: excellent). Check which files are supported here.
Along with music
Soundbar thirteen-channel. If you look at the internal device, then several drivers have aimed at you and two are directed left and right. Here in this official video, everything is very clear:
A sound wave fills the whole room. As I said, if you have a small area, you can choose the Harman Kardon Enchant 800 (and this is just fine). As urban legends say, usually soundbars are bought to watch movies, but legends should not be believed.
Firstly, I would still advise you to insert a USB flash drive with your favorite albums in high resolution: for example, Queen in FLAC and others. This is a very simple and quick way to listen to quality music, even if there is no Wi-Fi. You understood correctly, you can drag Enchant to the cottage, calibrate and use it even without the Internet. Type such a player. Well, why not? Everything works fine, the files, although with a slight delay, are launched, the sound is gorgeous.
Secondly, feel free to use Music on your Apple TV. Files in AAC quickly open: launched a playlist with new music – this is such a traditional playlist in Apple Music, – learned a lot, very well.
Thirdly, Google Home. Do not forget about streaming services: I brought Jazz radio out of TuneIn and sit, work. Cosiness, comfort, God bless us all. Even if it is a radio, the sound quality is excellent due to the volume – well, with flash drives, space is so easy. I really liked it.
Games and Harman Kardon Enchant 1300
After installation, connection and calibration, I launched Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. What can I say, after the soundbar built into the Loewe TV, it's just heaven and earth. Everything is voluminous! A lot of information – I didn’t hear many sounds at all, I didn’t know what was there. Even a fierce battle does not turn into a mess, you can highlight each action. Let me remind you that the PS4 Pro is connected with optics, this is the best option. The soundbar tells you where the shooting is coming from, on which side the steps are, where something is happening on the map. It is especially cool to play in hardcore modes and on night maps – Firing Range, silencer, adrenaline. Absolutely different sensations, that's what we pay for, right?
Then he launched Sniper Elite 4. She was now handed out for free to PS Plus members. The game seemed rather boring to me, especially with the De Lizle carbine, I don’t need to wait for noise to disguise the shot, you can kill all the Nazis from the bushes, the AI are dumb regardless of the chosen difficulty level. But beautifully, X-ray, you can try to approach the task creatively. In short, here Enchant 1300 excites good background music, the sound of gunfire, a voluminous picture of what is happening around, as if you were sitting in the bushes with "De Lysle". Naturally, no built-in TV speakers will ever draw such a picture.
Played in Sekiro. Every sound of the sword is like beating you. Biting, violent, painful. Curiously, developers have been paying great attention to sounds, soundtrack, effects for a hundred years, but if all players are able to notice visual miracles, then everything connected with our ears is somehow passed by. We do not hear the work of talented people! Why? Yes, because high-quality tools for this purpose are expensive – although you can start with good headphones. In general, I was stunned by the sound in Sekiro and decided to beat her to the end. But this is a completely different story.
Whatever you play, the Enchant 1300 will give you an unforgettable experience: FIFA, racing, WoT – but anything. Just a different level. If you took care of the picture, bought a big OLED, get high, the next required step is the right soundbar with many functions, such as Enchant 1300.
What about the movie?
With the movie, everything is fine. There is a special mode for evening viewing. In general, do not forget about the settings wired into the system for music, movies and so on. If you buy, try each, not paying attention to the name.
So, Night Mode increases speech intelligibility, while loud sounds are smoothed out. It is gratifying that the developers understand everything about modern life: he came home from the office, went to the shower, had dinner, the family went to sleep, you can’t sleep, got out into the living room to poke on Apple TV, found something, started it, looked calmly, didn’t bother anyone without headphones, went to sleep. I didn’t turn off this night mode at all.
It's not for nothing that I said about Netflix: many are now starting to use the service – there used to be a language barrier, but now there are subtitles and dubbed films, so watch a movie as you want. But, most importantly, Netflix has an awesome sound – it’s clear that compared to the Apple TV the movie library is smaller, but they are better prepared. Maybe it seemed to me, but it’s breathtaking: I reviewed a couple of Tarantino films, branded Polar (oh, this is the top), The Outsider, Shaft. Exciting, as with games, but if you don’t have a good sound, you just lose half your impressions.
Verdict
In retail, the Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 costs 65,990 rubles, a subwoofer costs 34,000 rubles, I would advise you to start with a soundbar, try, listen, and if you lack low frequencies, buy a subwoofer. If you have the means, then immediately buy the kit, get the maximum of emotions. I especially recommend the system to owners of Apple TV and game consoles: add the Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 here – and you will begin to receive new emotions from home appliances.
Another category of buyers when the Enchant 1300 might be interested is those people who are thinking about updating their home audio and are afraid to buy a serious movie theater that consists of several components. Many of us live in rented apartments, that is, moving with all the consequences. And here the Harman Kardon set is ideal for installation in any apartment: it is easy to connect, easy to transport, easy to pack – and let the movers worry about the pleasant weight of the subwoofer.
I assume that the opportunities laid down here will last at least ten years, after which the Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 can be moved out of town or continued to be used. A portable speaker of the company, such, with a silver pen and cradle for iPhone, has been faithfully serving me at the dacha for about ten years, lives in a bathhouse in the relaxation room and everything is fine with it. There's a cradle for the iPhone 3G.
I highly recommend buying the Harman Kardon Enchant 1300 and its younger brother, Harman Kardon Enchant 800. These are some of the best soundbars on the market for a combination of characteristics. I didn’t find any minuses, I won’t find fault with the absence of AirPlay 2 – each company chooses its own side. Most importantly, Enchant works great with Google Home, and thanks for that.
Thanks to Harman Kardon for the opportunity to get acquainted with a curious system, well, follow the link if you decide to buy (yes!). It seems that there is a discount on the first order for the promotional code, a pop-up window appears – if you don’t see it, wait).
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Chief editor of the blog – Erika J. Wells .
