The Harman Kardon Aura looks more like a work of art than a speaker, but it can do the job of both. While the $399.95 device looks striking, with a clear, curved dome and subtle lighting, it's also a functional and powerful wireless speaker that supports Bluetooth, AirPlay, and DLNA playback, and puts out an impressive amount of power. It's a strictly stationary model, like the Editors' Choice Marshall Stanmore ( at Amazon) rather than the battery-powered Bose SoundLink III ($214.99 at Amazon) , but you're getting room-shaking, full-bodied sound in trade for that portability. It excels as a one-piece sound system and stands as our new Editors' Choice for high-end Bluetooth speakers.

Design

If you're familiar with Harman Kardon SoundSticks ($169.95 at Harman Kardon)  desktop speakers, you might confuse the Aura ( at Amazon) for the SoundSticks' included subwoofer. If you're not familiar with the SoundSticks, the Aura's 10.8-inch-tall, 8.2-inch-diameter clear rounded cylinder of a body evokes some kind of modern art, or maybe a plasma globe. The Aura is neither subwoofer nor science project; its clear body holds six 1.5-inch mid-to-high-range drivers in addition to a 4.5-inch, down-firing subwoofer so it can produce a full range of sound besides sub-bass. It doesn't crackle with plasma, though a white LED does provide a gentle glow in the center of the speaker.

The Aura is designed to deliver omnidirectional sound, but it's still fundamentally a 2.1-channel audio system that puts out 15 watts to each of the right and left channels, and 30 watts to the subwoofer. The company arranged the drivers to produce a similar sound field regardless of the direction the speaker is facing. The Aura also has a clear front and back defined by the black base below the dome, with the former holding the Harman/Kardon logo and a hard-to-see, touch-sensitive volume slider, and the latter holding a USB port for Wi-Fi setup and firmware updates, 3.5mm and optical audio inputs, and a power port.

Touch-sensitive Source/Bluetooth, Power, and Wi-Fi buttons run along the right side of the speaker, between the volume slider on the front and the ports on the back. While the buttons light up under different circumstances, the Aura's main status indicator is the internal central LED ring that shines up through the dome's shaft. The ring displays its current status and connections by lighting up and rotating in different directions. It's not particularly intuitive, but it's simple enough to get used to quickly.

Connectivity
You can connect your mobile device to the Aura in a variety of ways. It works as an AirPlay speaker for iOS users and as a Bluetooth speaker for all users. It also supports DLNA if you store your media on your Wi-Fi network, and can accept 3.5mm and optical wired connections from your mobile device, computer, or television.

Setting up AirPlay is relatively easy, with options to automatically or manually set up Wi-Fi with a wired or Bluetooth connection with Harman Kardon's free iOS and Android app, share your iOS device's Wi-Fi settings directly through a wired connection, or manually configure the Aura's Wi-Fi through an ad-hoc menu system.

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The Aura's volume controls are separate from the connected device, but the Harman Kardon app lets you directly control the speaker's own volume and bass levels, and access music stored on the network over DLNA.

Performance and Conclusions

For a relatively small, one-piece speaker system, the Aura puts out some impressive power. It handled our bass test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," without a hint of distortion despite our test bench and my head both rattling from the synth hits. It doesn't reach quite into the lowest of the low end like sound systems with larger, separate subwoofers, but it certainly seems to bump up against its claimed 50Hz frequency response limit.

The strong bass response doesn't come from skimping on high-mids or high-end, though. Metal tracks like Anthrax's "Madhouse" and Slayer's "Raining Blood" sound exciting and well-balanced across the board, with the driving drums impactful, and the sharp-edged electric guitar shredding having enough presence and texture to sound full and bright, without seeming remotely tinny.

Turning the proceedings down a few notches, Miles Davis' "So What" also sounds excellent on the Aura, with the upright bass getting enough low-frequency response to sound warm, rich, and (if you manually crank the bass up from the Harman Kardon remote app) suitably rumbly. The stand-up bass balances well against the rest of the sonic spectrum, neither fading against the brighter piano and horn notes nor making the track sound muddy. Subtler sounds, like the movement of fingers on the bass strings, came through clearly as well. 

The Harman Kardon Aura combines a very attractive, unique look with excellent performance and a plethora of connection options. Its $400 price tag is pretty steep. But with both AirPlay and Bluetooth support and a sound that rivals the Marshall Stanmore in a smaller, less retro-looking package, it's an excellent choice for a one-piece wireless sound system and a clear Editors' Choice. If you'd prefer a less powerful, more portable speaker, the Bose SoundLink III is still one of the best battery-powered models out there.

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