In the living room, many people want a better sound quality than possible through the wireless speakers that are playing elsewhere in the house. The Harman Kardon Citation Amp that you use with your own speakers is one way to achieve that. Thanks to an HDMI input and expandability with wireless rear speakers and subwoofer, it can also deliver surround.
Harman Kardon Citation Amp
Would you like to combine wireless speakers in certain rooms with a music system with your own speakers in the living room? Then you can, for example, with a multiroom amplifier such as the more expensive Sonos Amp or the Bluesound PowerNode 2i. Also for the Harman Kardon Citation family there is such an amplifier available, with the completely predictable name Citation Amp. It is very similar to its rivals. Yes, it is again a compact device with built-in streaming and with an HDMI-ARC input. This means that you can easily use the Citation Amp to listen to music and for TV sound. You have to take care of the speakers yourself. Maybe you still have an old set or maybe you are looking for something user-friendly to control a pair of handsome design speakers that you have long been interested in.
Harman Kardon Citation Amp – Spec
| What | Stereo amplifier with streaming |
|---|---|
| Power | 2 x 125 Watt (8 Ohm) |
| Connectivity | WiFi (2.4 / 5 GHz), Ethernet |
| Streaming | Chromecast, AirPlay 2, Bluetooth (AAC) |
| Connections | Optical, coaxial, cinch in, sub out |
| Extras | Expandable with wireless rear speakers and / or subwoofer |
| Dimensions | 21.5 x 7.5 x 23 cm, 3.1 kg |
| price | 599 euros |
Stereo and surround
The Citation family is Harman Kardon’s answer to Sonos products. The 599-euro Citation Amp is just one of several Citation devices, including a series of wireless speakers, two sound bars and some other products. They all have streaming and multi-room options via AirPlay 2 and Chromecast. In addition, many Citation devices are equipped with a microphone so that you can operate them via the Google Assistant. With the Citation Amp, that microphone is not there and you have to work via another device if you want voice control. Like a Nest mini for example.
The Harman Kardon Citation Amp is made to drive a pair of your own speakers. If you only connect that, you have stereo playback. Ideal for music and not so bad for movies either. You can build a surround setup with the amplifier by purchasing a pair of Citation Surround speakers (approximately 400 euros) and / or a Citation subwoofer (340 to 800 euros). We would have liked to extend the test with these extras, but that will be for a later date. In any case, note that, unlike with many rivals, you cannot just use a few Citation speakers as rears. You should really opt for a set of Citation Surrounds. They connect to the Amp via WiSA, not via WiFi. Perhaps this was chosen because WiSA is better equipped against lag and failure than the WiFi that also contains your TV, smart thermostat, smartphone and WiFi-connected washing machine.
Unfortunately, you cannot switch on other WiSA speakers, such as those from System Audio or Klipsch, for the rear channels. Within the Citation story, WiSA is also really only for those rear channels, you cannot, for example, connect a WiSA-compatible center. We cannot be very critical about that now, because it does not seem to us that the Citation Amp is really intended for people who are looking for a kind of AV receiver .
May in the closet
The Citation Amp looks exactly as you would expect: compact, black and with a high anonymity score. Just like its rivals, actually. It is not surprising that not much has been done with the appearance of a device like this. It is simply a device that most people may hide somewhere in a TV cabinet. The Amp can also serve to control built-in speakers, for example; In that scenario too, you probably hide the device far out of sight in a technical room or a cupboard. However, placing it behind a wall-mounted television is rarely an option. With a thickness of 7.5 cm, that seems challenging. It’s not impossible, it just depends on the bracket used and the recesses at the back of the TV set.
A pat on the back for Harman Kardon that they include an IR extender in the box. This is useful if you indeed put the amplifier in a cabinet or hide it elsewhere. Thanks to the cable with IR eye, you can still continue to use the supplied remote.
By the way, a remote? Anyway, and you don’t often get that with a multiroom amplifier. It is a typical Harman Kardon remote with not too many buttons (but controls for the optional rear speakers and subwoofer) and that fits well in the hand. The volume level of viewing food can of course also be adjusted via the TV remote control, the volume of music that you stream can also be adjusted via your smartphone or tablet. Still, it’s nice that a remote control is included. In addition, there are also touch buttons on the amplifier itself.
Many ways to stream
To put the Citation Amp into service, you must first connect it to your network (wireless or ethernet). You have two ways to do that. The best way is to install the Google Home app on your smartphone. The Home app will likely automatically detect the amplifier and guide you through the setup procedure. This is what you should do if you want to stream via Chromecast. If you have an iPad or iPhone with a recent iOS version at home, you can also set it up via the WiFi settings of that mobile device. The Citation Amp automatically appears there as an unconfigured AirPlay device. The disadvantage of an AirPlay configuration is that for Chromecast use you still have to register the amplifier in Google Home afterwards.
The Citation Amp therefore does not have its own app. If you want to play music from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube or another streaming service, you can work via the app of the relevant service (Chromecast and AirPlay) or via the AirPlay icon in the iOS control panel.
Both Chromecast and Airplay work very stable and well in our experience. Music is transferred lossless and in CD quality. Do you want to do it differently? Then you can also play your own music files with a DLNA / uPnP app such as BubbleUPnP or mConnect. Hi-res material is also welcome. In our format test, ALAC and FLAC files played up to 192 kHz, making the Citation Amp more interesting for audiophiles than the Sonos Amp.
Finally, you can also stream music via Bluetooth. That goes very smoothly, as you would expect. On the remote, briefly press the Bluetooth button to put the amplifier in pairing mode and a few taps on your phone later, the pairing is established. In terms of codec support, you can count on up to AAC. We would have found AptX or LDAC even better, but it sounds okay.
Multiroom via a detour
The fact that this device does not have its own app is a fundamental difference from Sonos and Bluesound. Do you find it more convenient to work via a music service app than via an app from a manufacturer that has a service integrated? Or not. Well, that’s a personal preference. However, you also have to consider the rest of the family and what they find useful (or else you play the helpdesk all the time).
But what about multiroom? An advantage of Sonos is that you can easily group speakers, for example to play a sultry playlist synchronously in the dining room, kitchen and terrace during a romantic dinner. If you are listening to music with several family members throughout the house, it is also easy to listen to internet radio in a bedroom via the Sonos app, while someone else in the living room has the system handle TV sound.
All those things are also possible with the Citation devices, but the operation is a bit different. You actually have two options for grouping speakers: via Google Home and AirPlay 2 . If you work via Home (and therefore Chromecast), you must first create a group in advance. For example, in ‘Lower floor’ you can put the speakers in the dining room and the Citation Amp in the living room. You will then simply see Lower Floor appear as a new (virtual) speaker when you press the cast button. With AirPlay 2, you simply tap the speakers that should play the selected music. Which of the two options you choose may depend on which mobile device you are using correctly. After all, AirPlay 2 is not an option if you are an Android user. In our experience, AirPlay 2 is slightly more reliable than Chromecast during multiroom use.
Advanced options via the browser
Chances are that you will mainly listen to music via streaming with this device. But that is not necessarily necessary. The interesting thing about the Amp is that you do have other options, thanks to the physical connections on the back. Harman Kardon even gives you many options in this area compared to a Sonos. In addition to an HDMI-ARC port for a connection to your television, there are two digital (one optical, one coaxial) inputs and an analog cinch pair. You can therefore connect a turntable and CD player. There is also a sub-out, so you can use your own wired subwoofer instead of a wireless Citation Sub.
But how do you properly adjust that subwoofer, you may ask yourself? This brings us to a more mysterious aspect of the Citation Amp, as it turns out to run on a software platform that is very similar to that of very different devices from the Harman stable, such as the Arcam SA30. This part of the interface is browser-based. By surfing in a web browser to the IP address of the Citation Amp, you get access to many additional settings, including a cross-over setting to integrate a subwoofer. In the menu you will also find a setting for the input level of the aux input, which is useful if you connect a record player. For those who think: “How archaic, working via the browser”, we would like to add a little nuance. The settings via the browser are only relevant for the advanced user, an average consumer may never use them. A browser interface also works always and on any device. You won’t get in trouble just because you happen to be running an older Android version on your tablet. A browser-based interface is also a gift for installers, who prefer to make quick adjustments via the browser on the laptop rather than having to install an app again. Advanced setup web interface is really typical for pro applications. The fact that the Citation Amp targets the installer in addition to the consumer is also noticeable by a few other integration options, such as a trigger out and a line out. It is also Crestron and Control4 ready.
Powerful amplifier
We connected the Citation Amp to the Sony KD-65AF9 in the test room. As we are now used to with this TV set, we have to restart Android TV to get the HDMI-CEC communication in order. That depends on the Sony. After that, the cooperation between amplifier and TV set runs without further hitches. The Citation Amp is immediately recognized as an external audio solution, we don’t even need to change the output to ‘PCM’. Apparently the amp just processes Dolby Digital signals that roll in through the Netflix and Disney + apps. That just makes the installation easier. The HDMI input is also continuously monitored. When you switch on the television, the amplifier will automatically come into action or (if the device was playing music) switch to TV sound. Very comfortable too.
When we unpacked the Citation Amp in our listening room, the big Focal Sopra N ° 2’s were still in place. Let’s emphasize right away that we would never suggest that you want to pair an amp like this with 10K speakers that really emphasize audiophile performance. But we will connect them anyway. As it turns out, the Citation Amp itself can control them (basically, they are sensitive speakers of 92 dB), but at a higher volume there is still a sharp, clear side to music that we stream from Qobuz. Not entirely unexpected, this, and it is better than expected. It mainly says something about the amount of horsepower under the hood. That 2 x 125 Watt on the box does not seem to lie and it is very stable. And here is also something surprising: Harman Kardon uses innovative technology called Digital Loop Amplification to drive this small Class D amplifier. Without descending into a very technical story, this technique ensures that the properties of the connected speakers have no impact on the performance (and therefore the sound quality) of the amplifier. We expect DLA to emerge in more high-end designs, Harman Kardon already gives a nice taste here.
Back to the here and now. We try both the Bowers & Wilkins 607 speakers like the KEF R3s, two completely different bookshelf speakers with which you can build a beautiful interior-friendly music system. Ultimately, we stick with the KEFs, because that is just a bit better in our taste. The R3s also have a more powerful layer, which is nice when watching spectacular TV movies and series. They radiate widely, which, for example, occasionally really made us look up when watching the Netflix hit series ‘Lupine’. Music and some sound effects played much more spaciously in the room than expected, sometimes it almost seemed as if extra speakers were involved. We don’t find any evidence that the Citation Amp uses a phantom center mode like the Sonos Amp, but it almost seems like that. Dialogues really come out of the screen, which greatly enhances the feeling of immersion. Yes, a high-end soundbar can do this even better, especially in terms of surround experience. But how the Citation Amp with the two KEFs creates the impressive moment in which Lady Gaga in ‘A Star is Born’ crawls behind a piano on a festival stage and ‘Always Remember Us This Way’, that would make for a slim soundbar can be damn tricky.
Harman Kardon Citation Amp – Conclusion
The price point of $ 600 and the capabilities of the Citation Amp make this Harman Kardon amp a real challenger to the Sonos Amp, but it has a number of extra skills and one feature that is quite surprising. The class D technology used is really something very special for this class and gives this little amplifier serious muscle. It really surprises in that regard. The choice of speakers is of course crucial. Choose something larger that can produce deeper bass, and you are also good at watching TV. In terms of music reproduction, the Citation Amp can also compete with similarly priced hi-fi amplifiers, with the advantage that this device has HDMI.
In terms of operation, Harman Kardon has radically opted for a Chromecast and Airplay 2 approach, without its own app. So you miss the convenience of all functions that are bundled in one app, such as with Sonos. But if you are used to casting or using AirPlay, you will immediately be able to use the Citation Amp smoothly. The strong link with Google and Apple also opens the door to integration into a broader smart home story, including voice control.
Pros of Harman Kardon Citation Amp
- Matches well with many speakers
- Expandable with wireless rears and subwoofer
- HDMI-ARC and other physical inputs
- All streaming services via Chromecast, AirPlay 2 and Bluetooth
- Remote and integration options
- Priced lower than rivals
Negatives of Harman Kardon Citation Amp
- With higher volume and demanding speakers, the sound is slightly sharper
- Multi-room functions a bit more complicated
