The big Harman booth at Audio Advice Live 2025, which took place in Raleigh, North Carolina, from August 1-3, was packed with displays from the company’s many brands, including JBL, JBL Synthesis, Arcam, and, yes, Harman Kardon.
Among the products being demonstrated was the new Harmon Kardon Enchant 1100, a flagship 11-driver, 5.1.2-channel Dolby Atmos soundbar that, at $999 (around £750 / AU$1,500), is priced comparably to the Sonos Arc Ultra, one of the best soundbars, and a model designed to be the centerpiece of a multi-room home theater and music system.
Like the Arc Ultra, the Enchant 1100 can be expanded upon by adding an Enchant Sub wireless subwoofer ($449, around £340 / AU$700) and Enchant Speaker wireless surround speakers ($349, around £260 / AU$540 each).
With an upfiring Dolby Atmos driver embedded in the top surface of each Enchant speaker, adding a pair to the Enchant 1100 bumps things up to a 7.1.4-channel Dolby Atmos configuration, for even greater home theater immersion.
The Enchant 1100 can be linked with Enchant Speakers situated around the home as part of an app-controlled multi-room music system – another area where it crosses over with the Sonos Arc Ultra. In that scenario, the Harman Kardon One app can be used to stream music over Wi-Fi from apps including Spotify and Tidal to the system’s various speakers. Four total zones are supported by the Harman Kardon One app, along with eight total devices.
In addition to the 1100, Harman Kardon is offering the Enchant 900 soundbar ($549, around $410 / AU$850), a smaller, 9-driver model with similar features to its big brother that can also be used in a 5.1.2-channel Atmos theater setup.
All Enchant models are scheduled to ship in October of 2025.
The DTS:X factor
One way the new Harman Kardon Enchant 1100 beats the Sonos Arc Ultra is by including support for the DTS:X immersive audio format along with Dolby Atmos. Not having DTS:X was a major complaint we had in our review of the Arc Ultra, and Harman Kardon was savvy enough not to go down the same dark path.
Another issue we had with the Arc Ultra in our review was its connectivity, which is limited to a single HDMI eARC port. The Enchant 1100 features both an HDMI eARC port and an HDMI pass-through input with Dolby Vision support, along with an optical digital input – another feature the Arc Ultra lacks.
I didn’t get a chance to check out the Harman Kardon One app at the demo, but I’m expecting that the app, which lets you make sound adjustments and perform automatic sound calibration, along with setting up and controlling the system, will be easier to use than the Sonos app, which has been buggy to the point of scandal in recent years.
There was too much crosstalk from the various clashing demos in Harman’s Audio Advice Live booth to get a true sense of the Enchant system’s capabilities, but in the few moments where I did get a listen, its sound was loud and punchy enough to bring action movies to vivid life.
I look forward to hearing how the Enchant Speaker compares to the Sonos Era 300, another compact Dolby Atmos-capable wireless speaker with upfiring drivers that can be used either as a surround sound speaker in an Atmos home theater system, or as a stereo speaker (standalone or paired). At $349, the Enchant is priced significantly lower than the $449 Era 300, making it a solid option for both types of setups.
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al.griffin@futurenet.com (Al Griffin)
