Review: HK AUDIO Lucas Nano 300 Portable Sound System



List Price: $979.00/ Street Price: $699.00

Whether you are a working professional songwriter or just trying to break into the business, conquering the small venue is key to getting your songs heard. The dilemma we all face is how to get great sound when the venue isn’t set up for performance and without trying to lug a lot of your own sound equipment into the small space generally allotted for performers. The radically small and radically designed HK Nano 300 is the answer. You can get great full-range, stereo sound out of this incredibly small package that will impress the crowd and get you noticed.

The Nano 300 is a complete package of subwoofer, satellite tower speakers and specially tuned electronics. It’s pretty safe to say that if you are a fan of innovative design you are going to find everything about this system to be impressive -— not to mention the great sound that it produces. In fact, there is so much big sound that comes out of this little unit that your audience will be looking around to find the big sound system and they won’t believe it’s the ultra-compact Nano 300.

The first thing you will notice is that the entire system when packed to travel is only a little larger than a cubic foot and weighs under 25 pounds. This means it is easy to ‘single-hand’ carry and has a tiny footprint on stage. For easy transport, the unit has two bar-like handles that make it easy to pick up from any angle and the satellite tower speakers securely lock into the base unit when not in use.

There are major differences between the Nano 300 and other systems with a subwoofer and satellites. First, the sub and electronics are all in a uniquely shaped base unit fashioned from a lightweight and anti-resonant polyamide that is shaped to enhance bass while reducing unwanted resonant frequencies. The base houses the subwoofer and a lightweight Class D power amplification system that drives the sub at 160 watts and the satellites at 2×35 watts in stereo mode (70 watts mono). Don’t let the wattage fool you. The efficient design of the subwoofer puts out solid, impressive low frequencies. The base also has a built-in three-channel mixer with inputs for microphones, instruments, line-level and external devices like MP3 players, laptops and CD players.

Something you won’t see on other satellite systems is the locking mechanism on both the Nano 300 base unit and the satellites. The locking mechanism allows the satellites to connect to the base unit in a single stack without wires -— extremely handy in a very tight space and for quick set-up. For the best stereo sound, you can also put the satellites on stands. An optional kit from HK includes speaker cables, a pole that fits into the base unit and a compact stand so both satellites can be elevated and separated. Since one of the major benefits of the HK Nano 300 is stereo sound, the optional stand kit is a great investment. You can use other stands as the satellites since the 3/8″ threaded insert integrated into the housing readily adapts to all kinds of hardware, like conventional mic stands, trusses, e-drum racks or wall mounting brackets. Additional satellites can be connected together to provide a ‘double stack’ for more high and midrange frequencies. If you really need to cover a large space, the base unit provides a port for linking multiple HK Nano 300s together.

Once the system is set up, you’ll find the built-in mixer to have everything you need to cover a small gig. Note that you won’t find traditional tone (treble, mid, bass) knobs on the Nano 300. Instead, the unit provides a level control for the sub to help tune it to the room and a contour knob which provides some equalization for each channel to get the best tone of your voice, guitar or piano. For effects, closer control of equalization for your vocals or instruments or more channels, you can use one of the inputs on the base unit to add a mixer.

The HK Nano 300 is a remarkably flexible and powerful system that will get you in and out of your gigs quickly and get you noticed. It’s big sound in a small package. In fact, you and your audience will be amazed at the big, full-range stereo sound from such a little system.

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