In March of this year, a new line of Harman Kardon Fly headphones was announced – large Fly ANCs are really perfect for flying, and for work at home or in the office, and in general for everyday use, but small Fly TWS are high-quality headphones for every day. That is, you can ignore the word Fly – there are no flights yet, but everyone needs high-quality headphones. At Harman Kardon, we are not so often pleased with new products, the more curious it was to print the packaging and try the headphones in action – I’ll start with TWS, a review of large ANCs will be released in the near future.
Design
I really like the approach of Harman Kardon, it’s always joy when you open the box – STYLE, everything is as it should be. The black case is trimmed with eco-leather, the cups also have such material, neat light indicators, metal parts are hidden under the attachments. Cool!
Regarding the little things, there is generally a lot of good here. The sounds of connecting and connecting the headphones are their own and understandable, the connector on the case for charging USB Type-C, the dimensions of the case are small, you can carry it in any pocket. You can’t make a mistake with the location of the headphones in the case.
For the first connection, I only needed to get the headphones out, put them in my ears, after a while HK Fly TWS appeared in the Bluetooth menu, there were no problems with connecting and reconnecting. The working range is about seven to eight meters, I checked it in the office. The Google Fast Pair technology is supported for fast connection to Android-based devices – a push comes, only for this you need to disconnect them from another device.
Voice quality is at a normal level: you can talk in the office without any problems, but I almost always preferred to switch to an iPhone. I really liked the way the channel designations are made: they are clearly visible, you cannot confuse the left and right earphones.
The operating time of the headphones is about 6 hours (in real life it all depends on the volume level), the case gives another 14 hours. That is, you can use headphones without interruption for almost a day.
Landing
I tried to wear headphones, almost everything suits me. In the case of Fly, there are no questions. Standard attachments, the shape of the headphones is universal, I can easily sit with such cups for an hour or two and not notice discomfort. Only one moment pisses me off a little: if you are going to watch a movie while lying on the bed, then the touch pads can touch the pillow, the playback will suddenly stop. And the touch pads in the application cannot be disabled.
Control
The touch pads on the headphones allow you to control playback, answer a call, launch a voice assistant (Google Assistant or Alexa), and you can adjust the volume, which is very nice. True, I still did not understand how the adjustment works – there are no problems with the rest.
Application
I installed the program on my iPhone, it’s easy to find it in the App Store: enter Harman Fly, and it will appear immediately. The utility only supports two HK earphone models: Fly ANC and Fly TWS. A little training in gestures, I immediately started a firmware update (a long process, count on half an hour at least), and in the application, you can also enable the TalkThru and AmbientAware functions – the first will help you communicate with people without removing the headphones from your ears, the second will warn you about loud sounds nearby. Rather, they will be heard better even when you are listening to music at full volume.
An important part of the app is the built-in equalizer. There are presets, jazz, bass, vocals, but, most importantly, you can create your own settings and remember them. I highly recommend indulging, the sound picture changes, you can achieve the desired result.
Music
Let’s listen to music using iPhone 11 Pro Max, Apple Music, Spotify with maximum sound settings. It is not known if there is AAC support here, I guess there is.
Let the first track be “Not the Limit”, this is Nike Borzov, the album “A Drop of the Creator’s Blood”. It was interesting for me to understand whether the headphones are able to convey the drive of this track – it was possible, the main theme is not stuck out, the vocals sound as intended. I suppose that many hours were also spent here on bringing the master to mind – I listened to this track on different headphones, everywhere it is quite pleasant. The only complaint about Fly TWS is that the drums seem to be slightly blurry. But these are small drivers, they should convey the mood, that’s enough.
The second track, WhoMadeWho & Adana Twins – Immersion, leisurely electronics. In general, not bad, low ones do not clog the picture, every effect can be disassembled, there is no porridge. It’s nice to listen to music.
Let the third track be jazz on Spotify, Kamaal Williams, the Wu Hen album, I highly recommend it – airy, voluminous, cool. Swing it to test the headphones.
Basically, half the volume or slightly above half was enough for me. I also listened to podcasts, and audiobooks, the headphones cope with the voice perfectly, characteristic notes, aspirations, everything is audible.
