This portable smart speaker is the ace of bass
Harmon Kardon Citation 200.
With so many of us working from home, a good smart speaker makes a lot more sense and not just for turning off the lights or setting timers. A lot of companies are now getting into the market with a variety of sizes, features, and price ranges. Amazon’s range of smart speakers were first introduced six years ago and followed two years later by Google’s alternative, Google Home.
I’ve been using Harman Kardon Citation 200, a stylish smart speaker with full Google Assistant capabilities to see how it compares to the competition.
Audio companies like Bose, Sonus, Marshall and others have attractive and feature-rich smart speakers. The Citation 200 is much like Google’s own speakers with a fabric exterior, which gives it a softer and aesthetically pleasing look. The Citation 200 is a premium smart speaker that looks on-trend and available in a selection of colours.
Unlike most other smart speakers, the Citation 200 has a charging base and is completely portable with an internal battery that’s good enough to last up to eight hours playback.
The circular charging base has a figure of eight power port on the side and three gold plated pogo pins that provide 37watts of DC power for charging. Underneath the speaker is three flat circular metal contact points to conduct the charge from the base unit.Â
This makes it easy to place the speaker on the base in any direction and still be confident it will stay charging. You can also charge the speaker via the USB-C port (11.5 w) located on the back beside which you’ll find a wifi status indicator light and a mic mute slider switch.
On the top of the speaker are five buttons for volume up, down, power, Bluetooth and Google assistant. There’s also five LED lights to indicate charge and battery state and either side of these are mics.
Around the front are four LEDs beneath the fabric which work in exactly the same way as Google’s own speakers by illuminating for voice commands, reminders and volume changes.
There’s a stylish leather carry strap permanently installed for easy transport.
The Citation 200 has a lot of powerful features under the hood, including a strong set of audio formats including HE-AAC, LC-AAC, MP3, Vorbis, WAV (LPCM), FLAC and OPUS. There’s also support for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz wifi and Bluetooth 4.2.
I didn’t have any connectivity issues during my time of testing and the ability to take the speaker away with me and have up to eight hours of listening while untethered to my wifi was fantastic. I connected the speaker to loads of devices including laptops, Android phones, and iPhones as well as a dedicated high res audio player, without any hiccups.
Streaming music over Bluetooth is convenient for sure, but for the best sound quality for high resolution streaming services like Qobuz or Tidal, it’s best to use the built-in Chromecast feature which streams over wifi. If you’re working from an Apple device you can use AirPlay too, so there are lots of great ways to get connected whether you’re at home or on the go. And, the Citation 200 is IPX4 splash-proof which is nice to have if you get caught in a sprinkle.
One of the distinguishing features of the Citation 200 over most other smart speakers is that it can be used away from the base and power socket. The internal 4,800 mAh battery takes up to three hours to charge via the base charging station. This should provide up to eight hours of listening. I found in real use I was getting closer to six but to be fair I had the volume well past 50% and was streaming over Bluetooth.
Away from wifi the Google Assistant feature won’t work unless you also connect it to a portable wifi hotspot on your phone but I found streaming over Bluetooth from my phone was ideal.
The advantages of being portable are not limited to outdoors either as it’s nice being able to listen to music while you go from your living room into the kitchen or some other room the house.
Right from the first time I turned on the Citation 200 I was impressed by the sound quality. I use Qobuz to stream my music currently and all my favourite tracks come to life on this smart speaker.
The mid to high tones are clean and balanced with lots of detail while the bass is ever-present, but not overpowering. Bass junkies will love this speaker, but thankfully, you can control the bass and treble levels with a short-press of the Bluetooth and volume up (for bass) or down (for treble) keys together to make the adjustment. There are four steps for each setting, indicated by the Google LEDs on the front of the speaker. For my preference, I prefer just a tad less bass but for certain tracks and styles of music, I set it to the maximum.
I loved using the Citation 200 because it’s a great all-rounder. It has fantastic sound quality, beautiful design, Google Assistant with stellar wifi streaming and audio codec support as well as the ability to take it with you anywhere. Additionally, you can pair it with other Google speakers to create speaker groups. Even better still is the option to pair two of them to create a stereo pair — a feature I would have loved to have tried but alas, I only had one of them.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
