Harman Kardon Enchant 900 review

Succeeding in the entry-level Dolby Atmos soundbar range is comparable to competing as a newcomer in the Olympic Games. You are surrounded by the greats, and have to really put yourself out there to make an impact among the more seasoned and renowned sportspeople.

Harman Kardon’s Enchant 900 is trying to do just that, challenging Award-winners and five-star heavy hitters with its 5.1.4-channel Atmos capability.

Despite the ferocious battlefield that is the soundbar market at this level, the Enchant 900 stands its ground as a solid choice for movie fans.

Price

The Harman Kardon Enchant 900 originally launched at £430 / $560 / AU$800, but the price has crept up slightly at most UK retailers to £449.

That puts it in direct competition with the Sonos Beam (Gen 2), which launched at £449 / $449 / AU$649. The Beam Gen 2 has taken a What Hi-Fi? Award every year since it launched in 2021, with its precise, detailed and refined sound helping to secure its success.

At this price, the JBL Bar 300MK2 is also raising its fists against the Enchant 900. It came out at a slightly lower price of £350 / $450 / AU$549, and impressed with a bass-heavy, room-filling sound which earned it a coveted five-star review.

Build

The soundbar’s body has quite a sleek, minimalist design. That’s partly thanks to the fabric that covers the top panels, which are separated by a strip of black metal. It weighs just 3.5kg, so it is easy to move around the house. The Enchant model also measures 6.5 x 87 x 13 cm (hwd), and fits neatly in front of our 65-inch TV screen.

There are also brackets included in the box if you want to mount the soundbar on your wall.

Its remote is a similar affair in terms of design, oozing with silky smoothness that gives it a premium feel. From here, you can adjust the volume and source, as well as the bass and surround settings. There are also shortcuts to calibrate the soundbar (more on that soon) and to access your playlists.

Looking around the back, there is a cable cove housing the soundbar’s physical connectivity options. This includes two HDMI connections – one dedicated input and an output that can also receive sound from your TV via eARC.

You can pass 4K signals through the soundbar via the HDMI passthrough socket, and it supports Dolby Vision and HDR10.

Features

This Harman Kardon’s drive units are arranged in a 5.1.4-channel configuration and driven by a total power output of 195W. Under the hood, there are nine drivers, including four racetrack drivers and three tweeters. You will also find two up-firing drivers to deliver true Dolby Atmos support.

Harman Kardon is also employing MultiBeam technology, which “creates a spacious soundstage” without the need for extra speakers. It won’t handle DTS:X content, but the bar can take a DTS HD MA signal and apply the MultiBeam processing to give you a 3D audio effect.

You can control the soundbar through the Harman Kardon One app, which lets you fine-tune your sound performance. There are no sound modes on offer, but you can adjust the EQ settings via an equaliser.

You can also calibrate the soundbar from here as well, which plays a range of sounds to gauge the room’s layout and adjust the sound accordingly. We thoroughly recommend doing this as there is a notable difference in terms of the ’bar’s soundstage.

From the app, you can access a variety of streaming services, including Tidal, Amazon Music, and Qobuz. Additionally, Spotify Connect is supported by the soundbar. You can send music to it using Bluetooth 5.3 as well.

There’s also a Moment feature which allows you to play ambient sounds – ranging from the thrum of the ocean to the rustling of forest leaves – when you are not actively playing music or movies.

If you want to expand your system, the bar can be wirelessly connected to other Harman Kardon products as well: the Enchant Sub and Enchant Speaker. Should you buy two Enchant Speakers, the pair can be used as rear surround speakers alongside the soundbar.

Sound

When we boot up the Harman Kardon Enchant 900, we are greeted with an energetic, exciting sound that spices up our listening experience.

We play Dune Part Two on 4K Blu-ray through our trusty Oppo UDP-203 disc player, and test the Harman Kardon out as Timothee Chalamet’s Paul attempts to ride a massive sandworm. The soundbar delivers a much more spacious soundstage than the TV’s speakers, offering an immersive sound that fills the room.

Testing the surround sound processing feature, we find that the soundstage is wider and more enveloping; however, the soundbar loses a touch of focus and overall sounds somewhat softer. We find that rivals, such as the Sonos Beam Gen 2, manage to balance scale and clarity with greater nuance (more on that in a moment).

Switching the surround mode off, however, results in a narrower and slightly less engaging presentation. However, we get a snappier and more focused sound as a result. We find the scale to focus compromise to be worth it in this instance, as the improved sense of cinematic scale is worth the slight softening of the sound.

Moving to Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World, we find that the Enchant 900 sounds reasonably precise and clean in its Dolby Atmos presentation. As the small boats paddle away from the main vessel, we can still hear where the boats are, even when they have left the frame.

Earlier in the film, when the ship is being attacked by its warring neighbours, vocals are remarkably clear while still maintaining a good amount of character and emotion, even among the shattering of wood and booming cannons.

The beginning of Chapter Two in Blade Runner 2049 – our go-to bass stress test scene – reveals a flaw in the Harman Kardon’s low-frequency performance. As the futuristic vehicle weaves between buildings, the soundtrack calls for an incredibly tight and precise bass that should punch through the rest of the sound. It does not distort the bass like some soundbars at this price, but the lower frequencies sound blobby with the Enchant 900, leaving us with an unsatisfying lack of punch.

Still, it deals with the wide dynamic range well, as the scene begins with a tense quiet and builds to an impactfully booming wall of sound.

The Enchant 900 is also not the most subtle-sounding soundbar, especially in the treble department. During Unbroken, the whining of the plane’s engines sounds coarse and can somewhat overwhelm the rest of the soundtrack when pushed.

You can turn down the treble via the app, but this disrupts the balance between the frequencies.

We compare the Harman Kardon model with the Award-winning Sonos Beam (Gen 2), which does not offer the same level of room-filling sound, partly due to its smaller stature. It delivers a more authentic, detailed and subtle audio experience, however, which outperforms the Enchant 900.

What’s more, the slightly cheaper JBL Bar 300MK2 delivers a more controlled bass that offers greater impact during tense action scenes, thanks to better detail in the lower frequencies.

When it comes to music, the Enchant 900 maintains this enveloping and exciting performance, but its issues with bass and treble persist.

We listen to a range of music on Qobuz, from Aurora’s Churchyard to Everything In Its Right Place by Radiohead. With the former, the soundbar creates a good sense of anticipation by building from the quiet vocals to the bass-heavy chorus and keeps up the excitement of the track with its immersive audio. But the coarse rendering of Aurora’s voice makes the track feel harsher than it should.

Verdict

The Harman Kardon Enchant 900 focuses on experience rather than precision, producing a big sound that adds extra flavour to music and movies.

It’s unfortunate for the Enchant model that, at this price, it is up against such heavy hitters that just pip it to the post in terms of subtlety and bass. Still, it’s a solid choice for those looking to add an extra spaciousness and excitement to their audio.

SCORES

• Sound 4
• Features 4
• Build 4

MORE:

Read our review of the Sonos Beam (Gen 2)

Also consider the JBL Bar 300MK2

Read our Hisense AX5125H review

Best soundbars: options for every need, recommended by our experts