Smart speakers are finally seeing traction in India, thanks in no small part to Amazon’s big push behind its Echo lineup (including the screen-toting Echo Spot), but there’s one thing the Echo series have lacked in, across the board, and that’s audio quality. Amazon’s Echo devices are clearly smart speakers first, and just didn’t sound as good as dedicated speakers.
Sure, you could always pair the Echoes with other regular speakers, but that’s not the most elegant solution…and the Allure smart speaker from Harman Kardon, a respected name in the audio space, may just be the answer.
That said, at Rs. 22,490, the Allure is quite a bit more expensive than any smart speaker out there, so is it worth the premium? Let’s find out.
Pros:
- Head-turning design
- Thumping bass and better audio quality than other Echos
Cons:
- Funky light setup doesn’t sync with music
- Touch buttons tad unresponsive
- Bass a tad overpowering
- No wired connections
What’s Good?
If you’re unfamiliar with Harman Kardon’s offerings, you may be a bit taken aback by the Allure. There’s the clear plastic top half with a circular, 360-degree LED light that shines red, white and blue, and the meshed bottom is about the only indication that this is a speaker.
The bulbous, egg-like shape is reminiscent of some of the old Harman subwoofers, and the offbeat, funky design begs to be the center of attention no matter where you place it. At 8-inches tall, 6-inches in diameter and 2.5kg, it’s not really small.
It lacks a battery, which isn’t really an issue since it’s not meant to be portable, and the rubber base helps it stay planted on any surface.
Setting up the Allure isn’t via the regular Alexa app, instead you need the HK Alexa app to connect the speaker to your home network and your Amazon account, after which it will show up on the Alexa app where you can access/enable more Skills as needed.
You’ll need the HK app from time to time to update firmware, turn on/off the LEDs though.
The sonic department is where the Allure scores, with its three 38mm outward-firing drivers and 90mm subwoofer that fires downwards, allowing it to pump out some sweet-sounding bass down and out in 360 degrees, which means that no matter where you sit, you’re in the Allure’s sweet spot.
The added bass is fun to listen to, though it can tend to overpower some of the vocals at higher volume levels. No distortion though, but the vibration from the extra bass can be felt on lighter tables – best place it on a sturdy table or on the floor. Overall, even with its bass bias, the Allure is fun to listen to…more so when it gets LOUD!
As an Alexa speaker, the Allure works well – managing all the regular tasks such as playing music from Amazon Music and Saavn, creating reminders, answering queries and the like.
The Alexa capabilities are much like other Echo speakers, which means that while third-party integrations are better fleshed out, it’s stricter with language syntax than Google Assistant and doesn’t handle sequential contextual searches too well.
Some stuff that doesn’t work – switching tracks streaming over Bluetooth using Alexa, playing multi-room audio – are all fixable in software, so it will get better over time.
What’s Bad?
The top of the speaker has touch-sensitive zones to summon Alexa, change the volume or mute the mics, but they’re a tad unresponsive and it takes a bit of effort to understand just how to work the touch panels.
While the pulsating LEDs glow when the music is playing, they aren’t synchronized to the music, which would have been way cooler. They turn red when the microphone is muted, and light up blue when you say the wake word – Alexa.
No wired connection options, whatsoever – the Allure can stream music wirelessly over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but lacks 3.5mm/optical inputs. No support for any high-resolution audio formats over Bluetooth.
And finally, while the Allure has four far-field mics for picking up your voice, I didn’t find them sensitive enough to wake up to Alexa. The Echo Plus with its seven far-field mic setup was far better at responding, particularly when loud music was playing.
Why Buy It?
It’s not sonically perfect, sure. But the Allure gives Alexa-powered speaker portfolio a much better sounding, much louder and, for many folks, a much nicer looking option.
This is a conversation piece of audio equipment in its own right, and even though it’s lacking on a few fronts as compared to the Echo series, if louder audio levels and thumping bass is what you crave, this is a better speaker hands down.
Opt for the cheaper Echo Plus if you’re fine pushing audio out to another set of speakers, and want the IoT capabilities instead.
(Tushar Kanwar is a technology columnist and commentator and has been contributing for the past 15 years to India’s leading newspapers and magazines. He can be reached on Twitter @2shar )
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