Harman-Kardon Citation
After a bit of a wait, the Citation range is finally here in Australia. With great looks and fine sound — what’s not to like?
Citation 500 Citation One Mk2 Citation Towers
Back in the day, harman-kardon used the Citation name for some serious amplification, but now it’s the banner under which the company has launched its ambitious and wideranging set of multiroom audio products, all of which use Chromecast and built-in Google Voice Assistant as their kicking-off point for wireless connections, along with AirPlay 2 for Apple users and Bluetooth as the omnipresent if not omnipotent back-up solution. Talking of omnithings, we’ve long had a high regard for harmankardon’s standalone wireless speakers and in particular its previous Omni multiroom range, which we never felt achieved its full head in Australia, despite the spherical Omni 10 being one of the best-sounding small speakers we’ve ever heard. So it’s a delight to see here that the Citation series has launched with not only the wireless speakers and soundbars that you’d expect from a multiroom range, but a group of products that travels all the way up to the impressive Tower model (pictured above), a fullsize floorstanding active speaker pair carrying 2 × 200W of power, capable of 24-bit/96kHz streaming — and still incorporating both Google Chromecast and Voice Assistant, so you can play music to them with no other equipment using voice control. There’s modern hi-fi for you! These also use the clever WiSA wireless technology which aims to simplify set-up, room placement and expansion into a surround-sound system — and throughout the range there are options to use the Citation speakers individually or build a system up to 5.1-channel surround.
Linking the designs is the use of aluminium detailing plus a dirt-repellant and flame-retardant wool fabric by Danish firm Kvadrat in 'Winter Gray' or 'Classic
prominence, similarly McCartney’s rolling bass on Come Together (2019 Remaster, from Tidal). Up higher we thought vocals to be served either well or less so depending on their characteristics; once turned up to significant levels the Citation 500 had a certain peakiness which could make anything that was thin to begin with rather edgy. Lou had emerged a little overly peaky, while John’s double-tracked Come Together vocal was just on the right side of the fence and had great cut-though as a result. The 500 did better in this regard with slightly smoother fare such as Van Morrison’s legendary performance on Moondance streaming from Spotify.
This is a stereo unit, each channel served by a 25mm tweeter and 13cm woofer, and it spreads music particularly well, especially from a nearfield desktop position, where we even enjoyed something approaching separation and a sense of acoustic depth within the soundstaging; the Morrison track had flute to the left which was genuinely left, while Morrison was firmly forward of the mix, piano to the right rear. As you’ll tell from our other reviews, this isn’t something many standalone speakers manage. From a distance across a room, of course, you’re back to more of a point-source sound, though still friendly and full — even fuller, given near-wall positioning, and with that edginess tamed by distance. Tyler, The Creator’s EARFQUAKE’s intro was expansively open and fizzy, and the three bass notes of the verses were all fully delivered — a good many systems drop the lowest of these.
A $999 price puts it among some strong competition. It matches these for quality close up, bar that occasional edginess, and as for quantity, it went mighty loud before any notes of distortion crept in. A solid performance here then.
Black' — the Kvadrat fabric uses New Zealand wool, we were told by Harman Australia’s non-resident Kiwi Michael Sherman at IFA in 2018, when the Citation range was first unveiled. We’ve seen Kvadrat elsewhere in hi-fi since then, on KEF’s colourful LSX wireless speakers for one, and it has also been taken up by fellow Danes Bang & Olufsen, a design recommendation if ever there was one. In some markets harman-kardon has been offering blue or pink Kvadrat-wrapped Citation One Mk2s, but here we’re offered, at least for now, all the black or grey models.
And how about that range! — 11 products in all, eight of them available through Harvey Norman including a couple of latecomers in July, and more to follow in December, we’re told. So far we’ve had our hands on three of them, and the news is all good.
Especially as in addition to Bluetooth, Google's Chromecast is at the heart of each unit. As well as providing access to endless streaming services, some free and some on subscription, the Google Home app allows you to connect and combine sources and speakers from different brands, as well as other Citation speakers. And the Google Home app is mightily simple to use. It takes only a few minutes to connect each unit to a network and run any updates. You’re ready to begin streaming from whichever service you choose. High-res audio playback up to 24-bit/96kHz is possible, and supported formats run to MP3, WAV, FLAC, HE-AAC, LC-AAC, Vorbis and Opus. And they’ll update automatically whenever necessary.
There's also AirPlay 2 on board, which gives Apple device owners another way to stream and address multiple speakers.
Conclusion
With Chromecast onboard, the Citation range gains easy use and high-res streaming as well as multiroom grouping, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth. The look and build are great, and the sound of the three we've tried puts them in the upper echelons of multiroom systems, yet the standalone wireless speakers in particular outprice many similarly-sized competitors.