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Harmon Kardon Sound Sticks II Not Working Quick Fix
I've encountered this twice now and the period of time between each occurrence made me forget what the fix was. I apologize if this has been repeated elsewhere or if it's super obvious, but - even as these SoundSticks are works of art, they have some "hidden" aspects that are easy to lose track of especially if you "set and forget" them and control audio from your computer like I usually do.
1. It's easy to forget that the touch volume buttons on the right-hand speaker are very sensitive and do not "click" or press in with any tactile notification. So anyone moving one (cleaning woman, your kid looking for the key to the medicine cabinet, you accidentally etc.) can easily mute them simply by grazing the "-" button briefly.
2. (And this is the embarrassing one) I'm not sure if this is the same with the older models, but with the newer subwoofer (I have the II series with the black round speaker stands) There actually is a "power on" function on the same black plastic knob that turns up or down the subwoofer volume ON the actual Subwoofer. After plugging and unplugging all my connections several times, wiggling, fiddling, and getting ready to believe I had inadvertently fried the power amp with my intermittent, low-office--level volume streaming of Death Cab For Cutie - I somehow did NOT consult the manual or the online PDF manual but luckily had a hunch and pressed in the black plastic sub-volume knob and Voila - the light in the subwoofer came back on. Since I was trapped under my office desk with a flashlight and had all the other volume control sources up to about 9 (for troubleshooting, like you do) I then had to scramble out from under to quickly turn down the room-shaking Spotify stream that was now blaring at previously unprecedented volume in my office.
After that I remembered the same exact thing had happened a year ago and it is easy to nudge that button with your foot or a vacuum cleaner or a remote control car or a curious guinea pig etc. So again - sorry if this is a simplistic, obvious tip (I'm embarrassed even posting this as I've been an audiophile, musician, and DJ for some 30 years) but the lesson here is that sometimes, the elegant, simplest answer eludes some of us power-thinkers.
If my embarrassment can help but one stranded listener, it will have been worth it.
Hi, I'm having problems with my soundsticks! They were working just fine, full volume and everything, and all I did was lift up the woofer part and tilted it to the side for a few seconds - and all the volume cut out!
I checked all the wires and inputs and everything was normal ...eventually some of the sound has returned but nowhere near full volume! I also checked the volume on the soundsticks, but can't get anymore volume out of it - the volume out of the woofer is definitely not what it should be. It used to be that when I plugged into my laptop the stereo reverb or whatever it is made a crackly sound - like it was working - when I plug into my laptop now, I get no such sound....i'm getting less than half of the capable stereo sound out of it!
Has anyone experienced similar problems and know of any helpful hints? Can anyone help? THANK-YOU!
I've encountered this twice now and the period of time between each occurrence made me forget what the fix was. I apologize if this has been repeated elsewhere or if it's super obvious, but - even as these SoundSticks are works of art, they have some "hidden" aspects that are easy to lose track of especially if you "set and forget" them and control audio from your computer like I usually do.
1. It's easy to forget that the touch volume buttons on the right-hand speaker are very sensitive and do not "click" or press in with any tactile notification. So anyone moving one (cleaning woman, your kid looking for the key to the medicine cabinet, you accidentally etc.) can easily mute them simply by grazing the "-" button briefly.
2. (And this is the embarrassing one) I'm not sure if this is the same with the older models, but with the newer subwoofer (I have the II series with the black round speaker stands) There actually is a "power on" function on the same black plastic knob that turns up or down the subwoofer volume ON the actual Subwoofer. After plugging and unplugging all my connections several times, wiggling, fiddling, and getting ready to believe I had inadvertently fried the power amp with my intermittent, low-office--level volume streaming of Death Cab For Cutie - I somehow did NOT consult the manual or the online PDF manual but luckily had a hunch and pressed in the black plastic sub-volume knob and Voila - the light in the subwoofer came back on. Since I was trapped under my office desk with a flashlight and had all the other volume control sources up to about 9 (for troubleshooting, like you do) I then had to scramble out from under to quickly turn down the room-shaking Spotify stream that was now blaring at previously unprecedented volume in my office.
After that I remembered the same exact thing had happened a year ago and it is easy to nudge that button with your foot or a vacuum cleaner or a remote control car or a curious guinea pig etc. So again - sorry if this is a simplistic, obvious tip (I'm embarrassed even posting this as I've been an audiophile, musician, and DJ for some 30 years) but the lesson here is that sometimes, the elegant, simplest answer eludes some of us power-thinkers.
If my embarrassment can help but one stranded listener, it will have been worth it.
