Onyx 4 It has 2 woofers , 2 tweeters , 2 passive radiators Features - clear quality sound , deep bass , wide sounding. Problems - disruption starts at 80 - 90 % volume in battery mode , at 10% volume tweeter starts making crackling noise . It's not a big problem. Aura 2 It has 6 tweeters , 1 subwoofer Features - clear quality but low volume sound , very deep bass , same sounding from all directions. Problems - the bass makes rattling noise when kept at table or anything Solution - keep wooden pieces under aura 2 but away from its subwoofer and if it doesn't work then hang your aura 2 🤣🤣 I hope this description will help a little 🙂😀👍
bryan jnssn the sound of the Aura goes straight too, it has 6 forward facing transducers all around the lower part. The down facing woofer also push bass equally around the speaker. What comes out of the top is mostly air and some bass.
You just got yourself a new subscriber from this testing alone 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 EDIT - When I put my headphones 🎧 on you can really tell the difference. The Aura pushes out more base & The Onyx is more crisp with less base. Good job 👍🏾
Getting the Onyx Studio 4 after this review and test! My sister has the Aura and my mom suggested I replace my little broken speaker box with one of those, but I remember the sound not being exactly what I wanted. I watched so many videos with comparisons, but this one helped me decide. Thank you for taking the time to make it, and playing through the different genres and also the isolated mix. Very helpful!
Hey thanks for sharing your purchase decision, I'm so glad my video was able to help, your comment and feedback is golden!. I'm currently working on a new video, I hope to share more videos like this soon. but In the meantime thank you for your support.
Bagus Harits Arga Putra thank you for your comment, really appreciate it. My apologies for the lack of upload I’m just trying to balance my current job with RU-vid, hopefully someday soon will be able to do this fulltime. I’m currently working on a new review video hope to share that soon with you guys. In the mean time big thanks for your support.
Aura define unos excelentes bajos, pero en algunas ocasiones deja de lado las notas altas. Por el lado del Onyx 4, define menos las notas graves pero las agudas son perfectamente definidas. Por lo que la comparación es bastante compleja.
Thanks for the video, the video u have made is really outstanding and professional compares to many sound test video in the youtube channel. Keep it up!
2 días desde de que tengo el onyx 4, debo decir que por el vídeo el aura suena increíble, tiene mas rango de sonido, no solo que sea mas grave, sino que la calidad de los mismos es... Wow! El ónix suena muy bien, tienen medios y agudos mas claros, y a su favor con respecto a lo que se oye en el video, tiene unos graves muy buenos, que por lo menos en vivo de sienten mucho mas que lo que de puede apreciar en video. Escuché con fonos, unos Sennheiser hd 380 pro. Excelente video.
One of the best reviews out there. I'm impressed with your work. The sub bass isolation is really nice. The sub bass test clearly shows that there's good bass and bad bass which isn't so obvious during regular music playback. Good bass has a thud. Bad bass has thud with rumbling echos. The Onyx has good bass Aura has the bad bass. I'll prefer the clear crispy sounds from the Onyx to the bass heavy sound from the Aura any day. This is just personal preference. Most hard Rock fans will prefer the bigger punch from the Aura's bass emphasis.
I have the Onyx 4 and I must say that no matter where I place it the bass is so amazing. I have found out that if you place on an corner with radiator right in the middle the bass is extreme. Then I placed behind curved sectional and watched movie on phone it was beyond anything I have ever heard!!!!! I sold H/K etc at A.B.C. Warehouse in Holland Michigan
Чувак заморочился молодец . Вот так надо делать обзоры для людей , без трепла , чисто по делу . СПС😁. ( А Я СЕБЕ ВЗЯЛ ВАЗУ , И НЕ РАЗ НЕ ПОЖАЛЕЛ) колонка улётная .
The difference in the sounds is affected by the positioning of the speakers. The sub under the Aura reflects on the surface it's standing, thus making the dispersion sound greater, while the highs on the Onyx are more directional and clearer
OCMAN MEDIA I love the how deep the bass is on the Aura and the design is so cool but the mids and highs sound so clear on the Onyx, I might have to watch again to make up my mind
So we just did a test with my dad and brother with the Onyx 4, Aura 2, and Marshall Killburn. I played about 10 different songs on each speaker at over half the loudness instantly switching between the 3 of them. In the beginning the onyx 4 had my favorite sound. It reached the highest and the bass was almost as good as the Aura. The Aura had the best bass of all 3 and slightly better mids than the Onyx but the highs seemed a bit muffled. But this was also due to the fact that the drivers were aimed below ear level due to the design. I could have raised it however this wouldnt mimic a real environment as most people would set this speaker on a table which is where we had it. The bass was very good, very deep and neutral, and it was the only speaker that could play 360 degrees. The Killburn easily had the best most lifelike and forward mids. The voices were very real however it lacked a little low end compared to the others. The top end wasnt as extended as the onyx but it was very neutral and natural sounding. As the songs went on my opinion started to change mainly with the Onyx and Killburn. One of the reasons is that the Killburn is designed to have the bass and treble settings around 3(goes up to 10). Doing this made the speaker sound less mid rangey and evened out the sound. I also figured out that the bass tuning in the onyx is similar to many of the jbl BT speakers to where its not flat at all. When playing songs with many changing bass notes it would play some of them much louder than others. This got annoying over time. Also we realized the voices on the onyx sounded like they had a box around them. They sounded like they were coming from inside the speaker instead of being produced in the front of speaker like the Killburn. The Killburn with the slightly lacking low end had much more neutral bass and upper bass. It was very pleasant to listen to. In the end we chose the Killburn. The neutral sound and build quality and battery life won my dad and I over. Even though the bass reached 10hz lower on the onyx, it was useless because of the boosted character to it. The aura was our second favorite but we didnt like that it had no battery and it was a major pain to clean it and we read that bugs can get into it and theyre hard to remove. The onyx just sounded too boosted in the highs and mids and was in general our least favorite speaker in the aesthetics department. So thats my review.
Sergey Melnik very interesting review. Yes I totally agree the Aura lacked clarity compared to the Onyx, on the other hand the Onyx lacked deeper bass compared the Aura. It’s interesting how speakers might sound Ok on their own but once you put it against another speaker you start to hear the flaws more clearly. I used to be a fan of the Aura’s sound but now hearing how much detail is lost in the mix is baffling. Apart from the design flaws in the Aura just you correctly mentioned above, the Aura is still my favourite speaker aesthetically, but for sound quality? I’m not sure anymore. The Onyx is just a little too bright for me but definitely much clearer than the Aura. I guess the two speakers are just best suited for different genres of music. I guess the hunt for the perfect sound continues for me.
Sergey melnik the reason the aura had less highs and more bass is because it has no tweeter and a dedicated subwoofer rather than midbass drivers paired with passive woofers. Im not sure how the killburn is set up but i assume it probably has the mb driver and pw set up or mb drivers in a ported enclosure. The reason the aura studio doesn't have a battery is because the subwoofer draws to much power and wouldn't have very good battery life. And last if you think the hk onyx and JBL have similar tuning your correct harmon kardon owns JBL so it makes sense that they would sound similar.
i used to have the hk onyx 4 which i sold after 3 days of listening and i compare it to my marshall acton. The marshall is so much better than the onyx 4. It has more detail in all frequency and the sound is more natural. The onyx 4 is deliver more powerfull bass with lacks of detail because its using passive radiator and the bass speed is so slow so the double bass and the double pedal sound is not good but its good for EDM music. The marshall speaker lacks in low bass sector, to help the marshall low bass, I put it inside a box shaped bookshelf. The bookshelf will help redirect the low bass from the back bass reflex forward and the wood will resonate the bass so the bass become very low and the speaker feel so much better with that added up low bass. I put the eq at 4 on bass and the treble and it sound flat to me. I use msr7 as the reference. I'm just a happy marshall customer and i want to share it with u guys. i got a super cheap price on both speaker at $100 for onyx 4 and $190 for marshall and even the marshall is more expensive it still worth it. With Marshall you ll feel like u have a cinema setup on your home with only downside like no 3D sound and heart shaking low bass but the rest feel the same like on the cinema. Hope you can try it with your marshall killburn and share your thought because its identical with marshall acton. Thank you.
Wow, this was a remarkably good test. You could really hear the diff on headphones. Onyx is more clear and focused, Aura is more bass and wide. But Onyx takes it for me w its crisp mids. There’s literally parts of the track just not coming out of the Aura.
yeah thats so true. I was really surprised at that especially in the Blues and rock genre, was the worst performance from the Aura, the guitars were almost lost in the mix.
OCMAN MEDIA does the Onyx 3 and 4 sound much different? Cause you can actually pair the 3 with the Aura 2 to play together as one system. And I heard from reviews that the Onyx 3 is the only in the series that has this ability.
JesusIStheonlyway I haven’t compared the Onyx 3 & 4 side by side so I can’t really comment on the one with better sound. Have you tried pairing the Onyx 3 with the Aura 2 and does it work? That would be very interesting, although they both have dual sound technology so I believe it’s possible.
I sell these and i can tell you with the onyx studio 4 it is more directional meaning it can project sound further and will have a better focus on the highs and mids. the aura studio 2 is a house speaker its omni-directional meaning no matter where it is say in the room your going to have about the same sound and will have more focus on mids and midbass and some low end bass as well. The onyx studio 4 has 2 tweeters 2 midbass driver and 2 passive woofers. The aura studio 2 has six midbass drivers and a 3 inch subwoofer.
Hi, can you confirm that the aura studio 2 has 6 drivers? From what I read the aura has 6 drivers and the aura studio 2 only has 2 drivers, this is what keeping me from buying it. Thx in advance.
Hello John, according to the spec Sheet of the Aura studio 2 I can confirm it has 6 High - mid range transducers, but I will get a more confirmed info for you .
Hi I just got in touch with a Harman Kardon staff, and they confirmed that the Aura studio 2 has a total of 7 drivers, (6 High- mid range drivers and 1 sub woofer). hope this helps.
When you listen to various genres of music on 2 completely dif speakers back 2 back you can can truly hear which ones bring out the overall best in music. I enjoy music from so many genres & in various languages & I hear sound very clearly. When it isn't right, it's like nails on a chalk board to me. I've been eyeing the Onyx 4 but no one has presented me with a quality test of various music genre comparisons for me to actually determine if the sound will be what I'm looking for until today! Now I'm doing a happy dance 🤗✔ I'm not interested in TVs, videos, phone calls, flashing lights, trips, traps or straps with beer bottle openers! I want reasonably well rounded good sound quality hitting my ears but not presented in a too complicated package or taking up tons of room in my home. The onyx4 and I'm still trying to flesh out the onyx 5 are a blessing to my ears. I like your video style & testing technique. Pllease keep delivering this worthy testing method. I'm not sure where I'm going to land in my purchase but I am getting closer to my mark thanks to your help. Harmon Kardon speakers to my knowledge were always quality sound and I'm heading back to it's world. Thank you! Music has no boundaries & beautiful sound is elation🤘💕🎶
Michele Lee Hey thank you for your awesome comment and feedback, I am really happy reading your comments and experience, I'm glad the vedio could help, and yes Harman kardon is very good when it comes to audio they don't disappoint as much so I hope to keep featuring some of their products, currently working on a sony comparison with Onyx 4, and hopefully will also do the Onyx 5 on here as well soon. But in the mean time thank you very much for your support!
@@OCMANMEDIA I'm looking forward to your next reviews!!! Thank you for helping me on my journey to finding the right sound fit for me. Your outlook is inspiring👏🎶😊💖
i owned aura studio2. if i watched this video before buy, i don't choose aura. i think aurastudio2 has quite different sound, which is more clear and loudness. aura underestimated in video. but this review is the most information of two speakers. thanks a lot. so interest to me.
The Aura is an amazing speaker still one of my favorite speaker,, the problem is that it is not true 360 speaker. the high frequency drivers are positioned to the sides, so if you position the speaker in front of you it sounds darker, but if you are listening from the side you will hear a brigther better sound. Its hard to notice this difference when listening to the aura in real life but if you listen closely you will hear it. Most people will not position their Aura sidways, instead they are most likely to position it front facing, and sadly thats the dark sound coming from the front. Thanks for mentiong that, I must say you are a very good listener with great ears!👌👌
I've been waiting for this lol. Thanks😄😄 I owned aura 2 but let go of it bc of the boomy sound (its dome body causes this i suppose), it was too much for my taste. I got an onyx 3 later which sounds more balanced. I prefer the fabric grill on ver 3 to ver 4 also. Sounds are just slightly different between the two onyxs.
Son Tran Quang Interesting, I never owned the Onyx3, wonder how different it sounds from the the 4. But yeah that’s true the Aura has quite a lot of bass, I didn’t realise how closed it sounded until I did this comparison, was surprised at how much detail it lacked compared to the Onyx, I think most people will be generally happy with the Onyx. I personally like the Aura not sure why definitely not for sound quality, just something with how it looks, tho it comes with a problem of cleaning the interior. 😅
OCMAN MEDIA Aura 2 is hell of a looker yeah, I don't mean it doesn't sound good but that look is surely something. Using a vacuum can help with the cleaning. I got rid of aura bc of the clean issue also, lol. HK have a new one with closed transparent dome, Alexa activated allure but it doesn't look good to my eyes. The onyx 3 bass is a tad less powerful compared to the 4, but I prefer the warmer mid it delivers. The silver back bass radiator adds a nicer touch to the full seamless black body and finer grill of the 4 imo (a matter of personal choice hehe). Overall sound difference isn't too much as they pack same drivers, however you can pair another onyx 4 to get true stereo.
They technically are two very differently engineered speakers Aura is a 360 degree speaker and of course Studio 4 is directional. The Aura can go in middle spaces and studio 4 on a shelf.
Great videos, couldn't find a better video than this. Different individuals have different preference, the way you compare this 2 is really nice. People could judge by their own. Thanks for the effort ! By the way, do you think that aura 2 sounds muffle on it's Hi's is due to the mic position? Or it sound originally like this ?
Connor Mah Thanks a lot for your comment, I really appreciate it. To answer your question, when I was setting up the recording for this comparison I tried to get the mic positioned at the best point to capture a mix of 'room to direct sound' ratio so that the sound you hear is not too far off from what the Aura really sounds like. I tried to take into consideration the location of the drivers in the Aura while I was making the Recording to ensure I was getting the good amount of sound from the midrange drivers located on the lower half of the Aura, I also kept a good distance from the speaker to avoid over-saturation of certain frequencies, but not too far from the speaker to minimize too much early reflections or room reverb from colouring the recording, also the speakers were on an elevated platform about 3 feet high from the ground and the video was shot on a 50mm lens so the speakers appear zoomed-in but it’s actually just a bit further that it looks. In my opinion yes the Aura’s sound has a somewhat “closed” sound signature, the Aura sounds best on bass driven songs or electronic music, the lack of detail in the Hi’s becomes very noticeable when playing songs with natural or live instruments. Sorry for the long text but hope it helps.
Onyx sound nice and clear oldstyle when play Pop Blues Rock Reggae Acoustic Classical Jazz Whos like EDM R&B Hiphop Funk and good to play Jazz Classical Aura more comfort thank you so much for reviews the best review speakers let me make decisions so fast.😊
Before starting my question, I would like to tell you that I am so impressed with your VDO. Sound is superb. Picture is amazing. All in all, your review looks very professional. Contents is also great. My question is between 2 of these speakers, If I also plan to use for movies, which one you are going to recommend or any portable bluetooth speaker is good enough for movies. Of course, I also want it to listen music as well (Pop, R&B, Jazz, Intrument are what I normally listen). Thanks
Thanyakorn Unphanvas thanks for the kind comments , really appreciate it. The Aura is better for movies because of the sub bass sound also audio video lag over Bluetooth is minimal, however if you will use an aux cable then you can use any speaker. The thing to note is these speaker are tuned for punchy music so vocals are pushed down slightly, so when watching movies you will need to really turn up the volume for speech but when an explosion happens then your house will be vibrating.
What a bright reviews...The. style of reviewing is very informative., straight forward yet very simple.. I like it.. Your subsciber here.. 😍😍😍♥♥♥🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Yeah not sure why the Aura makes those wired vibrations mostly when it tries to push out sub bass frequencies, I still cant pinpoint where that vibration comes from but I guess its from the top of the dome, but still great sounding speaker tho, without the side by side the "closed sound" is not as noticeable. and yeah the Onyx 4 is just way clearer across the genres.
That is because aura is a surround sound hence it gives a feeling of ambient music. All the output of onyx is concentrated to one direction so it sounds cleaner
Emillio Chicco yeah I know my apology, it finally here, took me a while to do all the genres, but was fun putting it together. Hope it helps, let me know which speaker you prefer.
The Onyx has an advantage since all of it's speakers are facing the mic. The Aura's speakers are either down for the bass or wrapped around for the highs. Only 2 are facing the mic.
Best damn review I've ever watched Bar None!! The Studio 4 has it for me.. Would love to hear some straight up snare drums on it. Wanna know a good speaker?? Test it with a snare solo!! You can flub some base but, a true test is in the snare!!
@@dhruvkawlra9207 would really love to help but I haven't heard the Allure personally, so I am not 100% sure which is better, however looking at the spec sheet It seems the two speakers have equal output power and relative driver composition, but the Allure seems to have deeper bass (40hz) compared to The AURA (50hz) again I'm judging by the specs On paper I haven't heard the Allure sound. Hopefully If I manage to a HK Allure I will surely do a sound comparison with the AURA.
Can i request a comparison between HK Onyx 3 with Aura Studio 2? Heard that their bass sounds real good, anyway loving your content mate! Keep moving forward! xxx
Hey thanks for the support! It means a lot. I don't have the Onyx 3 at the moment not sure when I will get one, but if I do I would love to make that video I think it would be interesting.
BIG THANKS! to everyone that have subscribed so far, you guys are awesome!, I am currently working on a new video like this one and also other requested videos coming soon, please stay tuned. thank you.
Its a matter of personal preference when it comes to audio signature, I made the video for people to Judge for themselves , both speakers sound great in my opinion, Onyx favors clarity and the Aura favors bass, but if I must choose one then I will go with the Aura. Why? because with an EQ I can tune the aura's sound to open up a bit more while still maintaining good amount of bass.
After YEARS of depriving myself, I finally made up my mind and opted for the "Classic" HKOS 3's primarily for their Sound & Dual Speaker Linking feature. YASS! You can play Music via 2 HK Onyx 3's! And they look great in my Gypsy/Genie in a Bottle Ambience :). With only 1 Speaker playing at 6.5 to 7 volume a neighbor of mine used to call the cops on me, just for playing my music "too loud" on Holiday's?! Yes, HOLIDAY'S - And I was playing WELL WITHIN the Noise Ordinance Laws. To think what I'd have to deal with if I actually had my Vocal Production Studio set up! Hmmm...
About 3 min of this video and I heard enough. The Aura 2 resonates like hell when playing deep bass. This is probably (most certain) caused by the fancy acrylic top. I'd take the studio 4 over the Aura any day. However, it's clear HK made a quantum leap regarding speakers as they bought JBL. It's hard to find any better Bluetooth speaker...IF one is not prepared to shell out the big money for the B&W Zeppelin. This is one of the most amazing Bluetooth/docking speakers I've ever heard. My Zeppelin plays the ass off all the competition even if it's an old MK1.
Yeah the Aura's noise in low bass is a turn off for some people. Onyx 4 is more stable across the board. About the Zeppelin I'm actually not too sure about it, though I haven't heard it. I'm probably more worried of its price point and if its worth it. I know its got a newer wireless model out now.
Aura2 nice but is sort of muffled. Or the bass washes out the mids and treble. Still they perform great for the price range. I have the Harmon and it sounds great.
Honestly, if I could have both than it will be balanced. Onyx are so “out”, but the Aura are so in. The combination of those two will be superb. Thats the reason why I haven’t buy any of those till now 😔 In terms of design, I go for Aura, it has the mobility of 360 sound which is convienience.
@@suspensefulness Between the two speakers in the video and the Onyx 5 I would say the Aura studio was by far the best in low latency, delay was close to non existent (in my test using android and Iphone).
Hi your review style is good.way you videograph put background sound etc is cool..Try to upload atleast two review videos every week, if you wish to increase subscribers. You have real potential, you should try :) And yes include review of other electronic items as well if you are comfortable. All the best!!
amit chakraborty hey thank you so much for you honest feedback I truly value your encouragement and advice, Currently working on a new video hopefully will finish soon 😃.
Excelente comparación!! Tengo el onyx 4, mi pregunta es si lo puedo conectar con el aura para que suenen en simultáneo? y cual seria la aplicación para usar EQ? Saludos!!!
Hello, yes you can play multiple Onyx studio speakers at once, I am very sure of the playing two Onyx studio 3 together, and up to 100 Onyx studio 4 speakers together. hope this helps.