Harman Kardon Omni 20 Wireless HD Stereo Loudspeaker, Single

2018-10-22T20:00:00

Long term review: The good: I bought a Omni 20 about 2 years ago. The sound is amazing, and I like the compact design. Nothing in the price range that I tested came close in sound quality. The Bad: 1 month before the warranty expired it started making distorted crackling noises during playback. A reset would cure it for a short while, but it kept coming back more frequent. Delivered the speaker back to the store, who sent it in for repair under warranty. After 3 months and numerous complaints they stil haven't gotten a reply from Harman. And the problem has still not been solved. Ridiculously bad customer service. Reading some of the reviews online, I'm definitly not alone. When it works it's amazing sounding. But let down by really finicky bluetooth connection, poor components and a hopeless app. If I want to connect a different device to the speaker I have to first turn off bluetooth on my other device, reset the speaker so it forgets the previous device, and then try to connect with the new device. It somehow can't quickly switch between BT devices and needs a reset every time. Poor design? YES! If the store offered me a new speaker I'm not sure I would want a new one. Very dissapointed.

Karel B.

Originally posted at

2018-06-27T20:00:00

This is my second Omni 20. For the size of my 60W HK speaker it is the best sound so far. No distortion what so ever. Cristal clear sound. Fast connectivity. Easy to use. The app is also very good. Will definitely purchase more HK products. Also strongly recommend this speaker.

Vick

Originally posted at

2018-03-03T19:00:00

We have the Omni 20 and Onmi 10, and have for a had the 20 for about two years and the 10 for about 1.5 years. They sound amazing but we can almost never get any of them to work. And pairing is out of the questions! We use the HK app, we have updated everything and pretty much any time any of us wants to play music it the speaker can't be found... We have occasionally gotten them to work so we know how to use them. So very unhappy with these and to have spend this kind of money and then having to rely on my son's UE Roll when we want to hear music is ridiculous.

AmandaPKennedy

Originally posted at

2017-12-26T19:00:00

I had been looking at this speaker for awhile and I'm glad that I waited because I caught the Xmas sale. The omni 20 puts all other bluetooth to bed!

DB34

Originally posted at

2017-12-10T19:00:00

I bought the speakers for black friday and then they broke after 10 days. Doesn't support Apple music or Spotify via WiFi which is a shame.

Nikl

Originally posted at

2017-11-20T19:00:00

I bought this 3 weeks ago and i'm very happy vey good product.

Dan79

Originally posted at

2017-06-16T20:00:00

After a year of ownership the sound quality deteriorated to a crackly distorted quality I called Customer Service and was told that they could not do anything about the product as it was past the 1 year warranty and tried to give me a coupon. I've had Harmon Kardon for years with there old clear speaker system and currently in my Benz, which now I'm afraid is going to go bad. Never again will I make this mistake.

Dorien B.

Originally posted at

2017-06-14T20:00:00

As said in the previous review I don't find any problem in connecting to wifi or Bluetooth, however, the instructions are not very clear and seem the app need to be updated.

sarak2000

Originally posted at

2017-05-26T20:00:00

+ The sound is really great + Looks good - Harman app is not user-friendly and has a lot of bugs - switching between sources and getting speakers in standby mode is a huge hassle - Audio delay when speakers are paired prevents audio playback with video

Paulf88

Originally posted at

2017-03-15T20:00:00

Not my first but definitely my last Harmon/Kardon product. It lasted about a year. $300 for one year's use isn't worth the price.

JBATX

Originally posted at

2016-12-25T19:00:00

The instructions are awful concerning how to pair this speaker to an iMac. The device sits 2 ft. from my computer and at one time was miraculously paired by bluetooth to my computer. It did sound great, once. For some unknown reason the bluetooth connection failed and I can no longer get it paired while at the same time all other devices that pair via bluetooth (keyboard) do so easily. Expensive and frustrating piece of junk.

do b.

Originally posted at

2016-12-25T19:00:00

I purchased this as a gift for my mother and she loves it. The sound quality is amazing. Sounded so well I purchased three more Harmon/ Kardon products from best buy for personal use and as a gift to my wife and niece. All of whom love it.

dallasfan005

Originally posted at

2016-12-24T19:00:00

The stuff sounds absolutely amazing, but the app is just useless.... The 2-3 sec delay with bluetooth is also annoying. Pls improve the app.

Modesty

Originally posted at

2016-10-14T20:00:00

bought because of the supposed quality and severely disappointed after 9 months the speaker worked for one tune then went horrible,now where oh where is that receipt...I will never purchase another HK product ever again if this does not get resolved.

dvdblls

Originally posted at

2016-07-22T20:00:00

The sound is amazing but its a headache connecting multiple speakers. I was so happy with the product that I went out and purchased another since they were on sale. I wound up returning one because it is a pain connecting both through their app. I also wish it had a battery but its heavy and sits on my desk so not a big deal. I'll give it a 3.5 on sound quality and looks alone.

dramma12

Originally posted at

2016-06-15T20:00:00

Love the sound produced by the speaker. It would be great if HK take more effort to improve the app. For example selecting source via the app and more services such as Spotify and TuneIn. It is a hassle to move myself to the speaker and switch the speaker to bluetooth source every single time so it would be great if I could switch the speaker mode to bluetooth via the app simply like the other speakers which I own.

juzferyou

Originally posted at

2016-05-30T20:00:00

I enjoy every minute listening music with this speaker. I wish I could afford another

jaja

Originally posted at

2016-05-28T20:00:00

I really wish it didn't have to be plugged in to function, but if you can get over that downside, this speaker is amazing. It looks classy and sounds classier.

scottj

Originally posted at

2016-05-07T20:00:00

Omni 20 speakers have a sound delay when using bluetooth and an exceptional sound delay when using 3.5mm audio input. Audio input unusable when linked as audio output from a television due to the lag between audio and TV image Television tested on other speakers and audio systems with no issues.

Gavin1

Originally posted at

2016-04-28T20:00:00

bought 2 but found out after installing HK app that when streaming via wifi that you are limited to streaming only the music services included in the HK app, some of which are not available in US, and none of which are major streaming services. (no apple, no google play, no spotify, no pandora, etc). can only play my streaming services via bluetooth. If you only want to play via bluetooth or only want to play music already downloaded onto you device, you're ok. major reason I bought them is I wanted to have better sound quality of wifi vs. bluetooth, plus I wanted to stream from my choice of streaming services, not someone else's choices. also, setup of wifi and bluetooth connections is not easy nor particularly intuitive.

dave d.

Originally posted at

2016-04-12T20:00:00

I bought 2-20's and 4-10's and an Adapt. I misunderstood what the adapt was for. I have all my music on my laptop and i thought i could connect to the adapt by Bluetooth and stream Iheart radio or my music to the Adapt and have it play through all of my speakers. Unfortunately, not possible. The speakers sound great but connectivity is lacking. I also can't seem to get playlists to show up on my galaxy items. I would have bought 2 more 20's if the system could handle more than 6 speakers. Hopefully this will all be solved with software upgrades in the future. If the Adapt could take a Bluetooth signal and throw it to all of the speakers, I would be very happy. Tom

TomH

Originally posted at

2016-04-08T20:00:00

The speakers are great. However the controller App allows you to play all songs that you have purchased in the order that they were purchased, or single songs only. The fact that youy can't edit and create a playlist is just a shame.

Chicken D.

Originally posted at

2016-04-08T20:00:00

After multiple attempts at both WPS and Manual set up of the HK Controller App I could not get it to work, which is disappointing. Bluetooth linked up quickly. Sound quality is satisfactory as a replacement for table top radio, but not as a quality audio system. I utilize it primarily to listen to NPR and other talk, sports, and music stations via TuneIN, it cuts out quite often when buffering. I am glad that I purchased the HK Omni 20 at a heavily discounted price, otherwise I would have returned it. I check "Yes" on recommend, but this is conditioned on price and intended use.

EconCycler

Originally posted at

2016-02-17T19:00:00

Got this for My birthday about 6 months ago. The sound is amazing and is honestly enough to fill most spaces. I recently moved in to an apartment, and i now want to mirror music from my computer (in the living room) to the omni 20 in my kitchen. Can't just turn up the sound and anger the neighbors. There is no easy way to do this, that i am aware of, and there isn't a windows app or software support for this. Bluetooth would be fine, but my wireless add-on card is a bit wonky when using bluetooth and wireless internet, plus negates the "CD quality" experience from steaming via wifi. Some really great things about the speaker itself, but falls short of a full experience that others supposedly provide.

Benaginns

Originally posted at

2016-01-29T19:00:00

Purchased this today in Sydney, Australia. Love the sound. My one and ONLY issue is you CANT SWITCH OFF THE LIGHT unless from the mains. The bright orange light is too much in a bedroom. PLEASE FIX in a future firmware update PLEASE.

Sammy72

Originally posted at

2016-01-13T19:00:00

I bought my Omni 20 one month ago. Quality of the product in term of sound is very good even though it might lack a bit of power. The possibility to use Bluetooth is great. Nevertheless I have been very disappointed by the application you cannot listen sound through wifi without it but online audio service is limited, deezer is not available in the us and I cannot use my French account and finally you cannot send music directly from your computer to your Omni by wifi. Bluetooth mode allows it and even to broadcast on line content but you loose in sound quality.

Geof

Originally posted at

2015-12-26T19:00:00

These speakers sound great and have good volume, but the app and setup are terrible. The manual that comes in the box is useless. The PDF manual available on the website is more helpful. After literally hours, with multiple routers, I was finally able to connect to my wifi by unhiding my SSID connecting each Omni 20 and updating them. I then rehid my SSID. I have no idea if they'll be able to connect to the network again after they go into standby. The audio that's streamable via the app is very limited so most likely you'll normally want to stream via Bluetooth. If speakers are in different rooms you must choose one speaker as master, connect to it via BT, then you can link other speakers (by pushing the link button on each remote speaker) so they play the same audio as the master, but as far as I can tell, it's impossible to turn off sound from the first speaker and only listen in another room. If you can find a good deal on an Omni, a single speaker makes a decent Bluetooth-only speaker, but once you add another Omni you're forced to connect them to a wifi network. Then you're stuck running the master even if you're not in the room. The app itself is horribly unintuitive and there's no way to get help from within the app. I had to refer to the PDF manual to figure out how to use it. It's unbelievable in 2015 that network setup can be this difficult. I'd originally planned to add more speakers, but it's highly unlikely I'll ever get another HK product after this experience.

sarah

Originally posted at

2015-12-18T19:00:00

Purchased on the Black Friday sale what a great sound for the price

Larry 1.

Originally posted at

2015-11-30T19:00:00

Bought both this and an Onyx. This for me and the Onyx for my fiance and I to have on the go. (We live on the shore so we go to the beach a lot). This sounds exactly like the much more expensive Onyx leaving me to wonder if it's actually worth the extra $200. They're both amazing speaker. Bass is excellent (not overpowering) and mids and highs are clear. The app could be a better though, but we don't really use that much anyways.

s a.

Originally posted at

2015-07-13T20:00:00

Just recently purchased the Harman Omni 20 for our home. There are several ways to connect but I connected via bluetooth. I tried connecting from my Macbook and Samsung phone. It has a nice full sound that carries throughout the whole room which was nice since we have an open floor plan. The quality of the sound does not change even when you increase the volume. The only thing I did notice was when I connected to the laptop, there was some static initially (for a split second and then the sound is clear. Note: The description says it's wireless but you actually need to plug in. There is no battery option.

compteacher

Originally posted at