Harmon Kardon Esquire review
Expert’s Rating
Our Verdict
The Harmon Kardon Esquire delivers on style and build quality with its premium look and feel. It also provides impressive battery life and additional features like NFC pairing, controls and hands-free calls. However, sound quality isn’t as good as even the online price tag would suggest.
Harmon Kardon’s Esquire is another Bluetoothspeakervying for your attention, wanting to play music from yoursmartphoneortabletorlaptop. The official price for the Esquire is £170 but you can pick up for around £120 at retailers like Amazon. Bluetooth speakers can be found for more so it’s hardly outrageous. See also:Best portable speakers of 2014.
It has a somewhat unorthodox square design which allows you to either lay it down flat or stand it upright. It’s available in black, white or brown.
The top side has large buttons for power, volume and other controls like playback. An LED indicates power and connection status while five small LEDs on the side show the battery level. Also on the side are a 3.5 mm auxiliary input and a Micro-USB port for charging.
Harmon Kardon Esquire: premium look
The device has a premium look and feel with an aluminium frame running round three sides and a rubbery plastic bottom which provides good grip. The rear cover is finished in leather, while the included carry case is a bonus.
It’s relatively straightforward to pair the speaker for Bluetooth using the NFC option if you use a suitably equipped Google or Microsoft phone. Tap the devices together in the right place (which can be a little tricky) and the rest is done for you.
A regular mini-jack input is included, useful if your device doesn’t have Bluetooth or you prefer the best-sounding connection.
We note that the unit doesn’t advertise the inclusion of the aptX codec, so assume it can only use the lower-quality SBC audio codec when receiving digital audio over Bluetooth.
Harmon Kardon Esquire: hands-free phoning
A neat feature which now common for wireless speakers is hands-free phoning with your smartphone. A button on the speaker mutes the microphone; long pressing the phone button activates voice control on your phone.
Harmon Kardon Esquire: audio quality
For its mid-range price point the sound quality of the Esquire is just satisfactory. It’s by no means poor but equally doesn’t produce anything special.See alsoGroup test: What’s the best portable Bluetooth speaker?
The speaker has an impressive sense of musical speed and, like many Class D amplifier products, sounds more impressive at higher volume levels. It takes two 45 mm drivers each driven by 10 W amplifiers, with a specified frequency response of 80 Hz-22 kHz.
Overall we’d describe the sound as flat but with a couple of crests – we expected a little more for the price.
Bass is pretty punchy even without a dedicated bass driver or passive radiator, but it can get overpowering depending on the type of music you’re listening. The mid-range is fairly dull but vocals are usually clear which makes up for this somewhat. The higher frequency range is drowned out by the mid-range. Pump the speaker’s volume up and the sound fills out.
Harman Kardon lists battery life at 10 hours. In our tests we found after around that point of steady playback we still had about 40 percent left – according to the LEDs on the side anyway.
Specs
Harmon Kardon Esquire: Specs
Author: Chris Martin, Reviews Editor, Tech Advisor
Chris got his break as a reporter at infamous site The Inquirer and has been at Tech Advisor for more than 12 years. With a BA degree in Music Technology, audio is his specialism, but over the years he has reviewed all kinds of gadgets, from smartwatches to mesh Wi-Fi to coffee machines.
