Customer Ratings & Reviews

Cortana is the only thing this speaker doesnt get praised like google home or apple homepods. Sound itself is good but cortana is just horrible.

So far so good ! I love it, only amazon alexa with the screen can provide you more entertainment, you will love it, very loud speaker

Would buy again if still available. Please note that it disconnects sometimes.

Works really well as a bluetooth speaker but the smart speaker functionality is abysmal. It also glitches out a lot too.

At first I was hesitant in buying this item since I am used to Amazon Echo. It was on sale for Black Friday and I decided to give it a try. I am amazed on how easy to set it up. I have NEST and Philips Hue and setting up with CORTANA is a breeze. Harman Kardon sound quality is unsurpassed by its rival. I have Bose Soundlink 3 and HK sounds more crisp, deeper base and great volume. I highly recommend this item. Grab it now with big savings. Love it...

For music you only have the choice of Groove Music, iHeartRadio or Spotify. No Pandora, no iTunes, and no Amazon.

Yet another home assistant solution. I'm really torn about the Harmon/Kardon Invoke using Microsoft's Cortana technology. This late comer to the game has a lot to overcome due to the limited connected applications but this is only because of Cortana. For music you only have the choice of Groove Music, iHeartRadio or Spotify. No Pandora, no iTunes, and no Amazon. Now I fully expected that Amazon Music would not be connected due to competing devices but no iTunes or Pandora? When I tell Cortana I want music it tells me it's a better DJ when using Spotify Premium. Hmmm... maybe I don't want to pay for another music streaming service. There is a work around, sorta, which I will cover later. Cortana does connect to Nest, Wink, Hue and Samsung Connect home devices but I had issues with taking control of my Nest even though they were connected. And Cortana does connect to Outlook and Skype so you can check your calendar and make hands free calls. Okay, most of what I have covered is more of a negative review aimed at Cortana and not the Invoke. I'll attempt to focus on the Invoke but since I use Google Calendar and Amazon Music I'm struggling with finding the usefulness. Setup was easy. You must download the Cortana app for either Windows 10 PC, Android or iPhone. The app walks you very clearly through the steps and you have your Invoke connected in no time. The Invoke is attractive. The charcoal color and solid metal materials give it a very appealing look. The biggest advantage of the Invoke is the sound quality. It beats the others hands down. Much richer and enjoyable and like the others it provides sound 360° around the speaker. So here is the work around for using unsupported music sites... since the sound quality is great you can also take advantage of it as a Bluetooth speaker. This kinda takes the convenience of hands free services away but you can use Siri or Bixby or Google on your iPhone or Android to play almost hands free music. You still need to push the activation button on your phone to the voice recognition to work but it will work. If sound quality is your deciding factor in a home assistant device then the Invoke is the way to go. I'm sure the services and capabilities will continue to grow. If you need a home assistant device that has more connectivity out of the box then you might want to check out the alternatives. I'd recommend the Invoke with the above mentioned qualifiers.

The Invoke speaker looks great and seems solid and well-designed. As a natural language assistant (or is it an AI speaker? a smart speaker?), it definitely sounds better than Google Home - it sounds good, in general, and functions just fine as a bluetooth speaker (though for that function alone, there are better options for less money). The sound is clear and has a rich warm tone - but there can be distortion with some music at higher volumes (though it's still way better than Google Home) - as you might expect, the sound was better and less distorted over bluetooth from my iPod. I did my setup through a Windows 10 PC - and while the setup was straightforward, it was a little time-consuming (took about 20 minutes for me including an update to the Invoke). As far as operation goes, I guess the best summary of my experience with the Invoke is that it is likable but klutzy. Microsoft fanatics and Skype adherents and some people with a paid Spotify account will adore it - but for those of us who are just looking for a chatty information assistant and some background music there are frustrations. The biggest failing, in my experience, has been Cortana itself - it has consistently flubbed even some simple requests - and it tends to take a long time to respond (I think a five second delay to retrieve the local weather summary is pretty bad!). Looking at my voice command history, I can see that Cortana butchered some of my words. The top surface of the Invoke is touch-sensitive and is designed to respond to taps - so far that functionality has been working inconsistently. Another limitation is in Invoke’s ability to access music - you can request musical selections only from iHeartRadio, Spotify and TuneIn - and I find that it fails give me selections from some fairly uncontroversial requests. Finally, the Invoke will allow you to make handsfree calls to named contacts on your Skype account - but I have a cell phone so I didn’t see that as particularly desirable (and to be honest, I wasn’t even aware that Skype was still a big thing). Harman Kardon did a great job with their sound design. But the Invoke really has a long way to go to catch up with the Google Home and Amazon Echo and Alexa products - and aside from the uniquely nice sound of the Invoke, I can’t suggest a single desirable feature or functionality that would elevate this product over its competitors.

This is not the easiest item to setup. And the operation of it is not for the simple thoughts. Make sure your items are compatible for 100% usage.

This is a good speaker if you don't mind it to be stationary. Wish it is a cordless instead is corded.

Had difficulties setting up system. After set working good. Wish there was better instructions

The Harman Kardon Invoke is a great looking smart speaker. It has a sleek design that fits in with most any environment, and has a power cable that is easy to hide. Setup is very easy, with plenty of verbal prompts to help even the least tech savvy users get the smart speaker set up quickly. The companion app is available for Windows, Android, or IOS, so this isn't a Microsoft specific product, except that you do need to have or create a Microsoft account. Once the set up is done, you'll be working with Cortana, Microsoft's digital assisstant, whose name comes from an Artificial Intelligence from the video game series Halo. Cortana is similar to "OK Google" and Apple's "Siri." Cortana is responsive, and didn't have any trouble understanding me. The audio quality of the Harman Kardon Invoke is excellent, and fills small to mid-sized rooms really well.

I bought because of Harmon name and reviews said it was good. The set up is dumb and had to download an app to register the device only to use the Bluetooth feature. Sounds good for what it is but hardly any bass.

Connecting to it can be a bit of a problem sometimes

Don't buy this sorry excuse for a speaker. It doesn't sound good, at all. It's pretty great for playing Spotify, the same as Cortana is, on the computer; so, you don't need it. You can buy a J.B.L. Link 10 (even though it isn't perfect (it's better), like I did. If you connect it to your windows computer, by bluetooth, you can talk to Cortana, through the Link's microphone. I never could figure out the left and right stereo setup, and when I addressed it, both would reply out of synchronicity. Also, one of the biggest things is that you have to keep them plugged in, and the charging bases are huge and badly designed.

I connected the Harman/kardon Invoke Speaker with Cortana to my PC and it was so simple that it took maybe 3 minutes. I set it up in my great room which is approximately 900 sq. ft. and Cortana can hear me all the way from the other side of the room (well over 20 feet). The sound is crystal clear. It took maybe 2 minutes to enable it to my Philips Hue lights and works like a charm and didn't interfer with my Echo Alexa or Dots. The sound with music is absolutely amazing. I keep the volume at 50% because at 70% it is very loud (even in this huge room), although it would be great at the higher volume at fairly loud parties for music and still crystal clear. I think Cortana will evolve and maybe outshine Alexa once she gets more skills added and isn't so limited in music connections. I am very pleased with it.

This speaker is awesome! I’ve used it for waking up with an alarm, listening to music, researching bits of information, calendar reminders, and more. Voice recognition is excellent. My wife has a strong accent and this speaker still responds to her. My only issue with speaking to this speaker is needing to use specific words. I understand it’s the same for all similar voice-activated technologies (Siri and Alexa), but it’s something to get use to if English isn’t your first language. I have this in my home gym and it works excellently with timers and reminders. Want to do 60 second planks, just ask it to set a timer. Want to end your workout at a certain time… just ask. Best part is I can turn the volume up or down hands-free. If the treadmill gets too loud, I can still hear music with simple commands. Spotify works seemless, but is limited unless you have a premium account. When asking Cortana to play a specific artist, she says she can do that better with access to a Spotify account. Not a big deal as it does create a channel of music for whichever artists requested. The sound of these speakers is amazing. It has clear trebles and deep bases. Couldn’t have asked for better sound! Overall, I am very pleased with this speaker. I use it almost daily in my gym and will be looking into a second one for the family room.

I am so far enjoying my Harmon / Kardon Invoke with Cortana. I have tried all the major voice assistant speakers and this one has a niche if it fits your life. Overall, do not expect integration to the degree that others offer. If you are deep in the Microsoft ecosystem and use Spotify, TuneIn or iHeartRadio this should be a great product. I’ll start with the negatives this time. First, it is not the best option for a wide variety of smart home devices. The amount of support is somewhat minimal and the number of “skills” is low. I expect this to grow over time and Microsoft has stated they plan to support Pandora in the future, but it just isn’t there yet. Setting up skills is also awkward in the Cortana phone app and feels like an afterthought. Main ones that I found are Nest, Expedia, Capital One, Dominos, Samsung Smart Things, Fitbit, Phillips Hue and a few more. I previously listed the supported music apps. Now for the nice parts. The build quality is superb. It doesn’t feel plastic, it feels mostly metal. The volume ring has a smooth motion to it. The Cortana light is just uber cool to look at. Voice recognition is pretty good and has the power of Bing behind it. Say what you will about Bing, but it really does have good results. All the voice assistants have their quarks and Cortana is no different, but I found the accuracy to be high. Sound quality is very good to me overall. I used this with Spotify and most of the sound was pretty high end and room filling. I enjoy this a lot. It has replaced my previous competitor as my office voice assistance since it looks cool, works well with the info from my Windows PC and has great sound quality. I do not think it is best if you want a jack of all trades, but it met all my needs!

The Invoke is a truly great smart speaker - especially if you can get it on the sale price when it's $99. I actually liked this speaker a lot BUT I did end up returning it and I'll explain why. Let me start out by saying the Invoke is simply beautiful. It is tall and cylindrical and looks like something you would find in some high end home. The outside grill feels like it is made out of a thin metal, the top rotates for the volume and it has this almost soft click when you do adjust it that just feels very high quality, and there are no ports except for a clean power in source. The top also features my favorite part which is the touchpad that houses the LED that is very bright and displays a circular motion when it's thinking or pulsates when it gives an answer. The setup out of the box was very simple and straightforward with the Cortana app which is in some ways even better than the Alexa app. Cortana herself is also probably the best sounding assistant out of the others which include Google and Alexa. The sound quality from this speaker is just absolutely amazing. It provides 360 degree sound output and while it doesn't have a strong bass, it does provide really good mid and highs. So, why did I end up returning this speaker if I have all of that praise to give it? Well, for starters there isn't a whole lot you can do with Cortana at the moment. There were a good bit of questions or things I would ask Cortana and it would say "Sorry I can't do that at the moment" or "Sorry I don't have that functionality yet". Alexa has been out there for a while now and can tout 25,000 skills versus Cortana's 230 skills. Personally, I think that out of those 25,000 skills you may only really need to use a dozen or so, but the point is that Alexa at least has the option there whereas Cortana at the moment doesn't. There is, however, a big silver lining: Cortana will soon be able to work with Alexa and supposedly you can say "Cortana ask Alexa to...". and it will work with your Alexa devices to do whatever skill you need it to. When I was trying out the speaker I put it in my kitchen while my living room and bedroom were serviced by Echo Dots. The only smart home thing I have at the moment are some Phillips Hue bulbs, but Cortana took a noticeably longer time to turn on or off a light versus Alexa. Alexa did it almost instantaneously. However, the main reason I decided to take the Invoke back really came down to one main thing: I wanted continuity. I own two Echo Dots hooked up to an external speaker. I use multi-room audio. I like being able to go from one room to the next and have some semblance of things crossing over, however with the Invoke not supporting multi-room audio or the ability to communicate with my Echo Dots it just seemed pointless. Would I buy the Invoke again if they offered multi-room audio or improved their skill set and speed? Definitely. In a heartbeat I would. However, at the moment they don't. So, would I recommend this speaker to you? Yes! But, only if this is your first smart speaker or if you are planning on this being your only smart speaker in your home. I have to give Amazon credit: they offer a variety of Echo devices that you can fill your home with. I only wish Microsoft would do the same with Cortana, or perhaps open the Invoke fully to being compatible with the Echos.

I have always like Harmon Kardon as a brand for speakers. This is even better with Cortana built in. It was easy to configure with the Cortana app on my iPhone and it was able to join my network rather quickly. There are many things you can do with Cortana and it is very similar to the other offerings but the difference with this device is that you can pair it to your phone or other media device and stream your music through it. The sound is clear and for a smaller speaker, the bass is pretty good. We are using this in our kitchen and everyone has a different way of using it. Some are listening to the holiday music available on iHeart Radio and others are playing their favorite playlist. Either way you use this, you will not be disappointed. I would highly recommend this for a smaller room, it sounds great.