Move over Sonos, I just tested a 5-star Harman Kardon speaker that’s cheaper

When the Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 9 was first delivered to me, I half thought that it was a wired-only speaker. After all, it has all the visual sophistication of one – and charges using a fig-8 cable, without any quick-release base design.

The Onyx Studio 9 is much more versatile than it first appears, though, with the associated app reminding me that this speaker has a built-in battery. Add a discreet carry-handle that's effectively hidden from sight, and this Bluetooth speaker is perfect for moving about the home.

After listening to the Onyx 9 in my home office for a number of days, the British weather decided to do an absolute about-turn, drenching much of the country in sun. That got me listening to the Harman Kardon out in the garden and quickly wondering: "Is this better than a Sonos Move 2?" and one of the best Bluetooth speakers that's largely unsung?

Price & Availability

You can probably already tell that I'm impressed by the Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 9. Which is why its price point only furthers my praise of this speaker.

You can buy one direct from Harman Kardon for £229.99, which is almost half the price of a Sonos Move 2. But other retailers stock it for even less (around £199), as you can see from the embedded shopping widget above – which makes it a veritable bargain.

In the USA, the official price is $299.95, but you can expect to pay around $185-$220 in current sales. In Australia, meanwhile, the speaker is yours for around AU$360. All roughly equivalent prices and all very reasonable for what you get in return.

What's New?

Harman Kardon has released a large number of Onyx speaker products, with the Studio 9 most closely resembling the Onyx Studio 6 that launched back in 2020. The newer model is visually more sophisticated, I think, giving it greater indoors appeal for the office, kitchen, living room – or wherever you fancy placing it.

That's clearly its intent, too, as there's no weather-proof rating for the Onyx Studio 9, whereas the older 6 model had an IPX7 rating – which would theoretically mean you could sink that speaker in a metre of water for half an hour without worrying about it. Not so for the 9, though, which I think is reflective of its design.

The overall scale of the new speaker compared to the old is more or less the same, though. Think of the Onyx 9 as a little smaller than a 12-inch vinyl record, and that'll give you a good idea. The speaker maintains the 120mm woofer within, as per the older model, but triples the tweeter count to three for a more balanced overall sound.

The Onyx 9 has a much larger battery (4722mAh versus 3283mAh), designed to deliver 8 hours of output per charge via the more recent Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. Leave it plugged in and you'll never need to concern yourself with the battery, which takes 4 hours to refill. That battery can be used to charge devices, such as your phone, via the rear USB-C port, too.

How portable is the Onyx 9?

If you are buying the Onyx Studio 9 predominantly to move around the house from room to room, then I find the lack of any 'charging base' its biggest design downfall. Sure, unplugging a cable from its rear isn't difficult, it's just a less elegant way of handling a speaker designed with a portability intent.

I find it even more peculiar, as older Harman Kardon speakers – I've been using the Citation 200 model in my kitchen for years – do feature such quick-release bases. The Onyx 9 seems perfect for such a consideration, especially given its Sonos Move 2 competition offers precisely that.

Nonetheless, once that fig-8 cable is plucked out of the rear, you're free to move the Onyx Studio 9 around freely. The carry handle is a little 'shelf' beneath the logo at the top, which is nicely balanced with fingers perched underneath, and more discreet than a full looped handle design.

It's not too heavy a speaker, at 3.3kgs, so I've found grabbing hold of it to move from one spot to another easy. Yet it's weighty enough to withstand a gust of wind funnelling through the house, with its little wave-shaped protrusion of a stand to the rear holding everything up firmly.

If you don't wish to use the app to control the speaker then there are physical controls up top, which handle on/off, separate volume up and down, play/pause, Bluetooth connection, and a separate Auracast button for pairing with other speakers (I don't have a second speaker to test this – the app suggests only Onyx 9 and the Enchant Speaker are compatible).

Does the Onyx 9 sound any good?

From the moment I switched the Onyx Studio 9 on, I was impressed by just how much bass could emanate from this relatively small speaker. It's got lots of low-end – further enhanced by a passive radiator in addition to the woofer – but thanks to that trio of tweeters it can separate the higher frequencies, while the mid-range remains flat yet assertive.

The app offers a variety of listening presets, comprising Signature Sound, Vocal, Energetic, Chill, and Customize. The last of these opens up a seven-band EQ, so you can tweak +/-12dB across the spectrum, from sub-120Hz to over 8kHz. I've performed some minor tweaks and have the Onyx sounding sensational for my needs.

Interestingly, even when this little speaker is free-standing on, say, a tabletop, it can still thwack out the power and volume. That's partly because it has the core spec to do so (at 50W), but partly down to the automatic self-tuning, where the signature sound adjusts based on surroundings to upgrade the sound.

Despite having Auracast, this is very much a stereo speaker – you're not going to get any spatial audio effects here. I think that's perfectly fine, though, and with the tweeters angled in their fixed positions – not that you can see this through the material-clad front shell – the spread of sound provides ample width.

It's also worth mentioning that this is a Bluetooth-only speaker, so there's no Wi-Fi connectivity. That may limit some potential higher-end features, if you source music from a network-attached bank, for example, and there's no Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, AirPlay, or suchlike.

The battery life was decent enough for my listening sessions, where I managed around 6-7 hours from a charge. That's because I like to listen loudly, so the quoted 8 hours was out of reach. However, it was the percentage indicator in the app that I found more frustrating – the final 20%, which dipped quickly to 10% in mere minutes, gave very little notice of remaining playtime and promptly gave up the ghost from there.

Studio Onyx 9 review: Verdict

Harman Kardon's Onyx Studio 9 has surprised and delighted me. It's a sophisticated-looking Bluetooth speaker, which is designed to almost hide away just how portable a prospect it truly is.

At this price, I never expected sound quality so full – but the Onyx Studio 9 knows how to deliver low-end with gusto. Its trio of tweeters, meanwhile, handle the overall mix with authority and balance, delivering a suitably wide soundstage from a stereo speaker.

With products such as Sonos Move 2 on the market at about twice the price, the Harman Kardon speaker quietly slips into a non-Wi-Fi niche below, while blowing away many of the best portable Bluetooth speakers – by which I mean the more handheld, waterproof style ones.

Granted, the Onyx Studio 9 isn't water-resistant like some of those rivals, so it might be better off remaining indoors. Nonetheless, I've still had a blast using it in the garden too – where its considerable sound, coupled with some lush sunshine (not Harman Kardon's doing), has proven truly uplifting.

Also consider

If you want a full Wi-Fi system that can be used inside and out, then Sonos' Move 2 is the obvious buy. It's much pricier, but it sounds great, and delivers a wider range of ecosystem benefits for sourcing your music. It plays particularly nicely with other Sonos products, too.

If you want something even more affordable, that still delivers big bass, but is more rugged and waterproof, then JBL's Charge 6 is an impressive portable – complete with a carry strap. It's a very different product, granted, but it's great for the outdoors.