This is a great little receiver. I agree with the other reviewers about the sound quality. Except that the one reviewer was wrong about needing the remote to program the memory presets. I never had a remote so I had to figure out how to program the memory presets without one. It takes a little time playing with the buttons but once you get it you never forget. I aquired this unit from a friend back in 2010 (8 years ago already). Due to the lack of voltage from the old rental house we were staying in at the time, it wasn't long before I blew the amp section, costing me $150 at my local repair shop to fix. Everything has worked great since moving to my newer house with a more modern eletrical system. The amp itself is not terribly powerful, so I use a monster JBL 12 inch 200 watt subwoofer to handle the bass. This receiver is perfect for it because of the subwoofer jacks on the back which allow me to control the subwoofer volume from the master volume on the receiver. That sure beats constantly trying to match the subwoofer amp volume with the receiver amp volume! Still going strong after 8 years. The high fidelity natural sound blows my mind! I do find the highs to be a bit harsh, so I tend to listen to it with the treble turned down to the nine o'clock position.

The AVR 10 HK is excellent and has been with me for 10 years. I purchased this from Singapore for US $ 100. Great sound and excellent fidelity. One problem though. The amp doesn't switch on apparently in humid conditions. Is that a common problem or is there a problem with my AVR 10 HK specifically? Humidity in coastal India can be very high especially during rainy seasons. Somebody might enlighten me on this.

Nice sound

Poor tuner seeking, loss of presets when power is off, week surround sound, cramped jacks,

I use this reciever primarily as an amp for my CD player. After the initial purchase, I was greatly impressed with the overall sound, which you can read about in the other reviews. Then I spent some time with the surround sound, and found that it muted & distorted so bad that I eventually quit using it. After about a year, it began that unnerving buzzing while in standby, which seems to be a common problem for this model judging by the other reviews. Assuming either EMI susceptibility or Ground Plane Ref. Noise issues, I tried some selective wire routing, case grounding, internal cleaning, & eventually the problem went away. The speaker jacks are very cramped & don't take well to monster cable. I suspect that a few loose wirestrands from cable where costing me some performance issues. Also, the seek function on the tuner is worthless, which wouldn't be very significant given the fact that you can program 29 presets, except for the fact that the memory clears whenever the power goes !!! So you find yourself reprogramming the presets more than you'd like, which brings me to another aspect of the design philosophy that peeves me a bit... you're dependant on the remote for programming your presets... and if that's the only thing you use your remote for (like me) than you also tend to misplace the darn thing... I'd rate it lower, but the overall sound is nice & counts for a lot... If I were to redesign it, I'd rip out the surround sound and put the money into static memory, EMI imunity, and spreading out the jacks.

Good Pro-Logic

Back Panel design too cluttered

This is one of the best receivers for the money. Very natural sound,tight bass,non intruding highs. I'm running Yamaha 6390's in front,the sound is exceptional. Also, this is a sturdy machine. The right channel went out for awhile,so I used a PerfectDuster to blow away all the dust that accumulated inside,and presto!! the channel is back!!! So a word to the wise: some problems can be fixed just by doing a cleaning of the interior. You don't even have to open the chassis,just spray the air through the vents.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo Marantz

Clean sound, banana plug compatible speaker posts, high current, simple front panel, plenty of power for small room

No speaker set B outputs, no spade compatible speaker posts

Bought this receiver "as is" from ubid.com for $39 plus S/H. I'm currently using it as my bedroom system. I was first introduced to HK in college when my room-mate brought back an HK stereo receiver after X-mas break. The sound was incredible. Elements of music that I couldn't hear through receivers by Kenwood or Sony were vividly and effortlessly reproduced by the HK. The high-current of the HK amp's makes all the difference in the world. Solid craftsmanship from a reliable company. I'm now a proud owner of several HK receivers and CD players, along with other products from Harman International (JBL, Infiniti). My bedroom setup: HK AVR10 A/V receiver HK FL8550 CD player Infiniti IL10 speakers Monster Cable interconnects 10 gauge speaker wire (NOTE: HK recommends minimum speaker wire gauge of 12--this is to ensure proper transfer of current from amp to speakers) Monster Cable Quick Lock terminators I'm giving this unit 5 stars overall, since I paid less than $80 for the unit + S/H over 2 years ago, and it still works flawlessly.

Similar Products Used:

HK AVR-65, AVR-300, AVR-320; Kenwood, Yamaha, Nakamichi

Great for music.

Bad for home theater.

It is a very good unit for music. I would not use it for home theater.

Similar Products Used:

Sony

Great sound, good looks and plenty of features.

Don't expect it to blow away a 40 x 40 room. One of the owners of HK is commi-liberal politician Jane Harman. ;)

Let me say that I was very skeptical of what I would get for a paltry $130. Wow! What a suprise! The AVR-10 does just a good of a job as filling my guestroom with clean, warm and accurate sound as my $1000+ Adcom system. However, my Adcom kicks ars in a bigger room. The AVR-10 is solid, elegant and packed with enough features to handle the job of providing outstanding sound and quality home-theatre-experience to a mid-size room. The AVR-10 looks great too. For the money, I have to give it a 5.

Similar Products Used:

Denon, NAD, Adcom, Arcam, Sony, Kenwood, Bose.

nice sound, very clear

surround sound is to weak

I really like how it sounds. its really clear and easy to use buttons but the surround sound is not that great but for a $140 harmon kardon receiver its worth the price

Decent stereo sound, good phantom pro-logic

surround is weak

Center channel blew out after a few month's use. Wasn't that happy with surround perfomance anyway.

Stereo Sound

Surround Sound, buzzing in standby

I bought the receiver because of the good price 160$. After 1 week I carried it back to the dealer because the buzzing and grumbling in standby mode was very nerving. The dealer gave me a new one but the buzzing was the same. Normaly I must bring it back again, but I thought it must be normal for a receiver with such a low price. Now I have the receiver for 1 year and yesterday I bought a new on - the marantz SR4000 and it is no compare of the surround sound. Of course the price of the SR4000 ist about 400$.

My dealer told me, that Harman Kardon devices are built by
Sherwood and I can get a matchable receiver from Sherwood for 100$ less. He told me it's easy for him to show me his opinion of Harman/Kardon - he don'T sell it anymore even though it was his private brand a few years ago.

Summary: When you can get the receiver for a fair price, first listen if the receiver is buzzing, if not- you can buy with no doubt.