Great sound, Good remote

Doesnt have DTS, not many DSP modes (DSP modes suck anyway)

Doesnt have DTS. Other companies have recievers for the same price with DTS (JVC, Pioneer, etc.) but the sound quality is not nearly as good. You get more DSP settings on the JVC's but they suck real bad. At least the few DSP modes on the H/K work! Likely the only modes that are going to be used are Dolby Digital, and Pro Logic any way. The sound is great in this system. This thing is more powerful then JVC's with 500 watts! This thing is worth the money.

As far as I am concernet the sound quality is much more important then little extras. I would rather listen to great H/K Dolby Digital then crappy Pioneer DTS!

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Pioneer + JVC recievers around same price range

Deadly sharp sound quality, a gorgeous work of art

No DTS!

The AVR-100's beautiful design makes you sit there and admire it all day and makes it look more expensive than it actually was. It's a good price for what you're getting. A must buy if you're looking for quality over quantity (of features). But that doesn't mean it lacks features at all. I hardly miss the S-video jack at all and how many DVDs do you have with DTS anyway? I would say the biggest flaw is the lack of DTS, but otherwise I don't regret buying it. The high current is what puts it above competing Sony and Pioneer models, the AVR-100 gives my Polk RM-6600s and Velodyne CT-150 a run for their money.

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Denon AVR-3000

Clean Sound for only 50 Watts, Great Looks, Lots os inputs

Remote, No S-Video, Only one optical Digital Input, No Optical Digital Output

This was a great unit unit for me. It is over a year old and I have had abdsolutley no problems with it at all. It is very reliable and LOUD. I am a college student and my unit has been used as the musical aspect for many parties. This unit may be a little older, but it is still a great unit.

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HK AVR 7000, HK AVR 510

Fidelity associated with HK

No S-video

I realize that this is not proper protocol, but was compelled to submit a postscript to my previous review of this product. After discovering that the channels' output may be extended in Pro-Logic (as much as 10 dB per channel!) by accessing "channel" and "set", and having run it through the "test" mode (very helpful) and upon actual usage, I am retracting my previous comments that the unit in Pro-Logic is impaired by its output strength. It makes a significant difference to experiment with this feature. It may also have had an influence on other reviews posted, so check it out! Please disregard my previous comments on the Pro-Logic mode, if I am permitted to do this.

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Harman Kardon 730

great sound,very clean signal, awesome looking, all the connections i need.

cant adjust bass, treble and balance controls on remote

this is my first proper home audio componet, i have this amp running my 2 wharfedale emerald 95's and they sound great. i sell technics, pioneer and sony amps at my work, most of them are rated at 100 x 5 watts rms, and they dont even sound it. this amp is rated at 45 x 5 or 55 x 2 wrms in stereo mode, and its louder than any of the amps ive heard at 100 per channel, plus it is a very clean sounding amp, im very happy with this product. When i saw the power ratings i wasnt impressed, but this amp draws 30 amps compared to a pioneer amp rated at 100 x 5 wrms drawing bout 7 amps of current. the unit weighs bout 12 kg's, very nice indeed. Im in love with it :P. great amp.

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none

great sound,very clean signal, awesome looking, all the connections i need.

cant adjust bass, treble and balance controls on remote

this is my first proper home audio componet, i have this amp running my 2 wharfedale emerald 95's and they sound great. i sell technics, pioneer and sony amps at my work, most of them are rated at 100 x 5 watts rms, and they dont even sound it. this amp is rated at 45 x 5 or 55 x 2 wrms in stereo mode, and its louder than any of the amps ive heard at 100 per channel, plus it is a very clean sounding amp, im very happy with this product. When i saw the power ratings i wasnt impressed, but this amp draws 30 amps compared to a pioneer amp rated at 100 x 5 wrms drawing bout 7 amps of current. the unit weighs bout 12 kg's, very nice indeed. Im in love with it :P. great amp.

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none

Sounds awesome and looks incredible.

NO PROTECTION WHAT SO EVER!!!!! HK's service on their website is useless too.

For the week that I got to use this reciever it was great. If you get distortion from these recievers it's from something else. For several hundred dollars you'd think Harman/Kardon could build some kind of safety feature into their products. With my JVC you could cross a speaker wire by accident and the reciever would shut off instantly. With HK you accidently cross a wire and you fry something!! I had been running a sub, center, and 2 front speakers for the first couple days. I then wanted the surround sound and bought some rear speakers. I hooked those up and it was incredible for the 5-10 minutes that it worked. I wasn't playing loud music but I heard a couple clicks and pops and the reciever shut off and I could smell very distinct fried circuit smell. I immediately unplugged it and unhooked everything from the back. Tried turning it on later with nothing connected and it shut right off never to be turned on again. It was fried completely. Basic protection for something like that might cost a couple dollars to integrate but over a hundred dollars to fix when something screws up. For a company as renowned as HK you'd think they'd spend the couple bucks to integrate a simple fuse to prevent common mistakes. DON'T BUY HARMAN/KARDON!!!! YES THE SOUND IS GREAT BUT IT'S TOO BIG OF A RISK BECAUSE ANY MISTAKE WILL COMPLETELY FRY THE RECIEVER!!!

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I've used JVC and pioneer before and for paid less for those 2 recievers combined than this one and they both still work. I've also tried the AVR 25 mk II too(see my review for that reciever too).

Nice appearance, very good features and sound

Much underpowered in Pro-Logic mode

I bought this unit at a very good price from Ubid.com, and was banking on the HK name to equal the superb performance of my (still operating) vintage 70's Twin-Powered HK unit.
As long as one does not use the Pro-Logic configuration, this unit is satisfactory. It was disappointing, however, to observe its underpowered capabilities for "home theater". I'm convinced, and must stress that one needs those extra watts in a "home theater" unit. I don't recommend this one for that purpose. It's a nice product otherwise, especially if you're utilizing only two channels; perfectly suitable in this mode. A very good value at $130.

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Older (vintage 70's) HK receiver

Good Name Brand

Lack of power all around

This is my first harman Kardon reciever.
This is a nice reciever, except for the lack of power.
i always read these forums before buying a product, and I had heard that the AVR100 was under-rated for power. Thats not true, power is rated just as stated. When I first got it I had to turn it up to see what it could do. I connected it to a cheesy pair of speakers before going to my electrostatics that I built, I have a website on them at:
***** electrostaticloudspeakers.com ******.
I noticed that the sound would disort when i turned it up while playing bass. At first i thought "sweet, im gonna blow these cheesy speakers" but then i realized that it was the amp that was clipping. I hooked up my Oscilloscope and saw the amp peak out and push the 40Hz sine wave into a square wave. (Sarah Mclaughlin-- Unchained Melody)
That sucks. I've had cheap TEAC amplifiers that push more power than this. But now I can say I have a Harman Kardon right?!!

Great Sound. Everything you need without any frills or gimicks.

No DTS decoding

I've had this unit for a year and I've been very happy with it. The sound is great, and it goes plenty loud without any distortion. It sounds incredible using it with a dvd player in Dolby Digital mode.

People who are complaining about not enough volume must have something wrong with their setup. I find that with the volume at -20 it is as loud as the loudest movie theater, and mine is set up in a huge room. I've only had the volume in the + territory once to test it out and it was scary loud. You would be deaf after 5 minutes.

The only problem I had with it was that after a few months the remote control and most of the buttons on the unit stopped working. I brought it in to the store where I bought it (Sound Advice), and somehow they had it shipped off to a Harmon Kardon repair shop where it was fixed and returned to me in only 2 days! I was very impressed with the customer service at Sound Advice, and also how HK honored the warranty. There were no questions asked, and it didn't cost me anything. (It turned out that they had to replace the front panel of the receiver).

It would be cool to have DTS decoding, but I haven't seen a dvd that didn't include Dolby Digital and that's just fine with me.