Harman/Kardon Aura Studio 3 Speaker Review

The Harman/Kardon Aura Studio 3 Bluetooth speaker is a sleek home speaker with a unique dome-shaped design that sits vertically on a fabric-covered base. It has a small ripple-like design atop the dome, and there are soft pulsing lights inside of it which you can turn on and off.

This large speaker isn't very portable. Due to its wired design, it needs to remain plugged into a power source to work, so you can't easily take it with you on the go.

The Harman/Kardon Aura Studio 3's build quality isn't bad. Its dome is made of tinted plastic that feels as though it may crack or get damaged if it falls, and there are pulsing lights inside of it, on top of the drivers. Since it doesn't have an IP rating for dust and water resistance, it's best to avoid placing it in areas where it may be exposed to water, like in your kitchen. Its controls are on a rubberized strip in between the dome and the base. The base is covered in fabric, though it doesn't have a very premium feel. There are also three rubber feet underneath the speaker.

The Harman/Kardon Studio 3's tactile controls are located along the rubberized strip surrounding the speaker, and each has its own physical particularity. Its power button is sunken into the rubber strip, while its Bluetooth pairing button is slightly raised. Its + and - buttons to control its volume are texturized. There's also a tactile icon to turn the speaker's lights on and off. Since it doesn't have a companion app, this is the only way to control the speaker.

The lights inside the dome change as you adjust the speaker's volume, and there's some audible feedback once you've reached its maximum volume level. That said, the controls are very sensitive and can be activated by accident. There's also a delay when you touch the power button.

• Harman/Kardon Aura Studio 3 speaker
• AC cable
• Quick Start guide

The Harman/Kardon Aura Studio 3's frequency response accuracy is alright. Out-of-the-box, it has a well-balanced sound profile overall, with a balanced mid-range that ensures vocals and lead instruments are clearly and accurately reproduced. That said, higher-pitched vocals and instruments may sound a bit dull at times. It struggles to reproduce the deep thump and rumble in low-bass typically present in bass-heavy music.

In our subjective listening tests, we found the speaker's sound profile to be brighter in the high and mid-treble ranges than the graph suggests. Its struggle to reproduce low bass was also very evident, even causing the speaker to rattle at times. Unfortunately, it lacks sound customization features like a graphic EQ or presets, so you can't tweak its sound to your liking. It also lacks the sort of room correction feature present in the Harman/Kardon Onyx Studio 8.

This speaker has an excellent soundstage performance. This stereo speaker has great directivity thanks to its 360-degree design, so its soundstage is perceived as wide and natural-sounding.

The Harman/Kardon Aura Studio 3 has a good dynamics performance. It can get pretty loud without much compression present at max volume, so your audio sounds mostly clean during louder listening sessions.

Aside from its power port, the Harman/Kardon Aura Studio 3 features an AUX input you can use to wire your devices to the speaker.

This speaker has very good Bluetooth connectivity. It has low latency with Android devices, making it suitable for watching videos and movies over this connection. While its iOS latency isn't as good, it's still decent and doesn't cause syncing issues between audio and visuals. That said, some apps compensate for latency differently, so your real-world experience may differ.