Harman Kardon has launched two new speakers in Malaysia — the Aura Studio 5 and the SoundSticks 5 — and the timing is deliberate. Both products sit at different points in the brand’s portfolio and serve different listening contexts, but they share a common design direction: the idea that a speaker is no longer just something you hear, but something you experience. The addition of dynamic ambient lighting to both products, alongside meaningful acoustic upgrades in each, is an approach that treats sound and light not as separate features, but as two halves of the same experience.

Aura Studio 5: The Room Changer

The Aura Studio 5 is priced at RM 1,599 and represents the fifth generation of Harman Kardon’s signature transparent dome speaker — a form factor that has always been as much about presence in a room as it is about audio performance. This latest iteration refines both dimensions.

Acoustically, the Aura Studio 5 moves to a three-way speaker architecture: six full-range drivers and a dedicated subwoofer carry over from the previous generation, but a newly added precision-tuned tweeter makes its debut here, specifically targeting vocal clarity and upper-frequency detail. HARMAN’s proprietary Constant Sound Field technology works alongside this configuration to widen the soundstage and maintain consistent audio quality regardless of where in the room the listener is positioned — a meaningful practical improvement for a speaker that is typically placed as a centrepiece and listened to from multiple angles.

The more striking addition, however, is the lighting system. A new multi-layered projection mechanism casts dynamic visual effects across walls and ceilings, with five nature-inspired themes available: Ocean, Aurora, Blossom, Sunrise, and Fireplace. These are not static washes of colour — each mode pulses and shifts in response to the music, creating an effect that sits somewhere between ambient decoration and a light installation. Static colour options are also available for those who prefer something less animated. Both audio and lighting can be adjusted via the Harman Kardon ONE app, and the speaker supports stereo pairing and multi-room expansion through Auracast™ — Bluetooth’s broadcast audio standard for seamless multi-speaker connection.

“Our vision for the Harman Kardon Aura Studio 5 was simple: to seamlessly blend light and sound in a natural, captivating way that truly connects with the listener. This is more than a speaker. It is a centrepiece that builds ambience, elevates the entire room, and harmonises with the unique way our consumers live at home.”

Grace Koh, General Manager and Vice President, Consumer Audio, Harman Asia Pacific

The speaker’s physical design has also been refined — the transparent dome retains its signature look, now accompanied by a hovering Harman Kardon logo that appears to float within the chamber, adding a further layer of visual intrigue.

SoundSticks 5: A Design Classic, Updated

The SoundSticks has a rather unusual distinction for a consumer electronics product: the original model is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. That heritage creates a particular kind of pressure when updating it — change too little and the new version feels complacent; change too much and you risk losing what made the design matter in the first place. SoundSticks 5, priced at RM 1,899, navigates this carefully.

The signature silhouette — a cylindrical down-firing subwoofer paired with two arching satellite speakers — is retained entirely. What changes is what happens inside and around it. Acoustically, SoundSticks 5 upgrades to a 3-way design by adding newly integrated tweeters to each satellite speaker, joining the existing mid-range drivers and dual silk dome tweeters to improve vocal and instrument reproduction with greater definition. The down-firing subwoofer continues to handle the low end, delivering what Harman Kardon describes as deep, accurate bass — an important consideration in a speaker that is often used on a desk or in a relatively small room where bass can easily become the dominant frequency.

The new ambient lighting system mirrors the approach taken on the Aura Studio 5 — the same five nature-themed dynamic presets, the same static colour options, and the same app-based control through the Harman Kardon ONE app. Crucially, the lighting appears on both the satellite speakers and the subwoofer, ensuring the effect is consistent across the full physical spread of the system rather than concentrated in one unit. Available in transparent white or a smoked glass-effect black, the SoundSticks 5 works as a sculptural desktop object as much as it does as a speaker.

Control has been rethought too. Touch-sensitive controls are now positioned at the base of the right satellite speaker — discreet enough to preserve the clean lines of the design, while providing quick access to volume, lighting, and EQ adjustments without reaching for a phone. Bluetooth 5.4 handles wireless connectivity, and Auracast™ enables multi-speaker pairing. A notable practical addition is HDMI ARC support, which allows the SoundSticks 5 to connect to any modern television with a single cable and deliver Dolby Audio for TV, film, and gaming — an acknowledgement that the speaker’s desk footprint and aesthetic make it a natural candidate for living room use as much as studio or office contexts.

“The Harman Kardon SoundSticks has always seamlessly blended elegant design with superior audio quality. Our newly launched SoundSticks 5 is an innovation that celebrates the original’s forward-thinking legacy, delivering a purposeful advancement in both visual audio and the consumer experience.”

Grace Koh, General Manager and Vice President, Consumer Audio, Harman Asia Pacific

The Harman Kardon Aura Studio 5 (RM 1,599) and SoundSticks 5 (RM 1,899) are available now through Harman Kardon’s official stores on Lazada and Shopee, as well as via Swap Asia. Further information at my.harmankardon.com

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Photos courtesy of Harman Kardon