Harman Kardon Invoke: First Impressions [Updated]

Jumping into the voice activated IOT universe, Harman Kardon is set to release a Cortana enabled stand-alone home speaker, mystically named the Harman Kardon Invoke. We got to spend some alone time with one in a quiet room to give it a full test run. Say hello to the future…

The 2017 Q4 Holiday season will be known as the beginning of the Voice Activated Revolution as key third-party manufacturers embrace the technology Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon have been developing and perfecting over the past few years.

One of the earliest of the stand alone devices offered will be the Harman Kardon Invoke, which was featured at the Microsoft Build 2017 Keynote. It’s got Cortana virtual assistant baked in, so all you need is an internet connection to make use of all that it has to offer. Or you can just use it as a fancy home Bluetooth speaker, your call.

The Sound

In true Harman fashion, the sound on the Invoke speaker is very, very good. Excellent tonality across the audible ranges with bright clear mids and warmness throughout. Very little distortion is noticeable even at top volume.

There are three woofers, three tweeters, and 2 passive radiators to deliver 360 degree sound at 40 watts. That’s plenty powerful enough for any large room in a house or office. It’s not a portable unit so it pulls plenty of power and puts it to good use. 

The Cortana

Believe it or not, out of all the current Voice Assistants available, Cortana has the potential to be one of the most used in the next year. Why? Because all Windows 10 machines come with Cortana built-in and thats over 500 million machines right now.

The Invoke acts as a stand alone unit, so after setup you won’t need to interface with another device to use it. Just incant “Hey Cortana” and command your digital servant as you see fit. Setup requires a Windows 10 machine with the Creators update or a smartphone with the Cortana app installed.

Harman Kardon has done a really nice job with the microphones on the Invoke. It heard my commands from over 30 feet away with my “outside” voice while playing music at near top volume. This is thanks to the Sonique far-field voice recognition technology Harman has integrated into the Invoke. 

Natively Cortana works with Spotify Connect, Groove Music, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn so that’s a plus if you use those services. You can also make hands-free Skype calls, which is straight up awesome for us, we use Skype a lot. It also works with Works with Nest, SmartThings, Philips Hue, Wink, Insteon for all your Internet Of Things…things.

Cortana supports multiple languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Japanese. Although according to Microsoft you need to be in the proper region to use the proper language…we’ll see how that works out once the product is launched in other markets than the US.

The Feel

The Harman Kardon Invoke is silky smooth. It’s really nice! The speaker grill appears to be made from a single piece of aluminum. The plastic bits are matted, so no finger print worries and it feels high-end all around.

The ring along the top can be rotated to adjust the volume. The top of the unit is a touch area which gives swirly, almost magical visual feedback. A short tap answers or ends calls, stops music or any alarms. A long touch activates Cortana (if you don’t feel like saying “Hey Cortana” I guess) or ignores incoming calls.

The Pricing

The Harman Kardon Invoke will hit the street at $199. Given some of the other voice speakers are on the market for $149, consider this an upgrade, as it is most certainly that. The audio is vastly superior to anything thats out there right now. Thats set to change with the introduction of the JBL Link Series but since that’s Googles platform so were talking apples to oranges.

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Where to get one

$199.95 direct from Harmanaudio.com: Free shipping & returns

$199.95 on BestBuy.com: Free shipping & in-store pickup

$199.95 on Amazon.com: Prime shipping available

Conclusion

Microsoft has bet big on Cortana’s success, and decided that getting the audio part right meant working with the best in the industry. Smart move since I’ve yet to come across a company as capable of delivering the quality of product at the pricing Harman can.

The Invoke is top notch and will definitely help adoption. And since Amazon and Microsoft have announced that Alexa and Cortana will work together than this is a no-brainer two-for-one.

The Harman Kardon Invoke will be available November 2017.

• Rated Power: 40W
• Frequency Response: 60-20kHz (-6dB)
• Woofer: 1.75″ (45mm) x 3• Tweeter: 0.5″ (13mm) x 3
• Bluetooth Version: 4.1
• Power Supply: 19V/2A
• Power cable length: 47″ (1.2m)
• Wireless network: 802.11b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5Ghz)
• Dimensions (DxH): 4.2 x 9.5″ (107 x 242mm)
• Product Weight: 2.3 lbs (1kg)
• Supported audio formats: AAC, MP3, Vorbis, FLAC, WMA, WAV

Update: 10/20/17

Our Invoke arrived a few days ago, so we’ve had more time to use it in an office environment. A few things stood out for us this time:

The Touch Area

The visual feedback on the touch area is fantastic. It’s a high resolution display with swirls of many colors for different things. Very unique, I’ve never seen anything like it in a speaker before.

Setting Up the Harman Kardon Invoke

This is the only thing about this speaker I’m not a fan of. If you just want to use the Invoke as a Bluetooth speaker that’s easy enough, just hit the Bluetooth button on the back and connect. But if you want to use Cortana get ready for a 20+ minute setup process.

If you aren’t running Windows then you need to grab the Cortana app for your phone. OK that’s no big deal…until you go through the account setup process, where you need to:

1. Create a Microsoft account with and email or phone number
2. Verify your email address
3. Give your phone number as a backup
4. Verify your phone with a text
5. Give them your birthday (must be 17+)
6. Give Microsoft access to your Contacts, Calendar, Location, etc.
7. Add Cortana Widgets
8. Connect your Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn (by logging into all)
9. Connect to the Harman Kardon Invoke
10. Take a nap

This will take a while, as you have to login to multiple services if you want to use them.

And then Cortana started giving me cute little reminders out of nowhere on my phone to try this and that. In true Microsoft fashion they don’t leave it well enough alone. They are like a needy friend who calls you everyday…

Conclusions

We all still like this speaker a lot. It’s beautiful and sounds great. I thought the setup was a pain but you only have to do it once and that’s it. Now that it’s behind me it’s pretty cool to be able to set appointments and reminders without having to type them in. As Cortanas skill set grows it will be interesting to see what uses the Invoke will have for us.