Power,price,looks and quality

James Kirk

BEWARE, I wish this James Kirk would come up to my fathers biker club and give my fathers reciever a moronic review.Couldn't see that happening though and the little weasle can live with his fan squelling denon.Anyways use the site how it is supposed to be used and if you have any knowledge about audio gear you will relize that it isn't unusual to experience problems and maybe you have set the product wrong.I like the reciever and the only drawback ist the remote but if you are that layzy set the reciever to a high volume and then have your popcorn jump into your mouth.Last time I checked Onkyo,denons had major fan problems and missing important features.

Similar Products Used:

None because other manufacturers don't even know how to measure watts correctly so how can they produce a good product.

I am just updating, since I got the new replacement remote that HK sent to me to replace the designed flawed remoter. I must say that this remote is a huge improvement over that crap that came in the box. I was able to program all my components, learn all the codes that I needed to learn. I even noticed a differnce in the ez set mode. where as the flawed remote turn all the speakers to -10 setting. The new remote reflect the the different distance between the speakers. I havent check to see how accurate the level matching is( I am hoping that one of the AV magazines do that for us in a hopefully upcoming review of one of HK's products) but I am reletively satisfied so far

Easy to set up and use, loud, clean power, great for H/T, super price for the features and quality.

Reliability -- it broke on me just like it has on many other people.

I purchased my 310 on the Internet for only $520 which was only a few dollars over the reserve - lucky me. I used to have a massive 150WPC H'K and loved the dynamic range and clean sound. This reciever is no different, for only 50 WPC it has tons of punch and very clean sound. I am using it with a Paradigm H/T system, Atoms, CC-150, PDW-12, CC's and it sounds loud,transparent and perfect (although the Paradigm system requires about +3db of treble boost). For value and clarity I don't think this reciever can be beat. Setup is a lot easier than the manual makes it out to be, it didn't take long to set up and it's a lot easier to use than it is to read about it. However I must agree with the general comments about the remote, it's not intuitive and I haven't wasted any time trying to learn how to use it. The EZ setup feature works great although it kept trying to set one speaker -2dB down from the others which sounded wrong to me. Although, I must say I have read a lot of negative comments regarding reliability and this bug finally bit me too -- it broke. When I went to turn on the power, the reciever turned on just long enough (5 secs) to stabilize, the speakers emitted a burst of program material and it immediately shut itself off. It would repeat this act for as long as you wanted to stand there. I will let you know how the service experience goes. I would give this unit 5 stars overall if it weren't for the fact it broke.

Similar Products Used:

H/K integrated amps

Dolby Digital/DTS 5 channel stereo digital inputs and outputs pre-amp outputs

The remote is apsolutely horrible

I purchased during super bowl weekened. I paid 600 dollars including a 3 year warranty from ABC stating if it breaks they will immediately replace unless they dont have one in stock then will try to replace.

I had a hard time choosing between The HK 310, Denon 2801, and the Kenwood 4080. Some of the Main features that I wanted was pre-amp outputs and 5 channel stereo,If the Onkyo 575x had pre-outs then I would have probably picked that

I would have probably would have pick the Denon, but the dealer would not go below 585 and I say that people on the internet paid a lot less,and I even got a bid at liquid price.com for 508.00 but I was not patient enough to wait for it to be shipped. I also at the time was told that it did not have a digital output which I really wanted.

I came close to choosing the 4080 Kenwood, it's pretty decent reciever. I loved nearly everything about it. It sounded good, had great features, a useful number of inputs and outputs even a great remote. But it did not have the 5 channel stereo that I wanted.

At the last minute I chose the HK AVR 310, and I have not disapointed. I there some minor trade offs but overall I am happy with the unit. I am really impressed with logic 7C. I don't even use pro logic at all anymore. DD and DTS sound great but we all know that, and I happy with my 5 channel stereo even I seem to lose some bass reponse when in use but that may be because that I use a lfe subwoofer and another subwoofer connected to my rear channels.

The worst thing about this unit is the remote. It is absolutely horrible. I tried recalling codes for my digital cable box, Pioneer Mega cd changer and RCA VCR with NO luck at all. So next I tried to learn the codes, the worst expierience that I ever had with a universal remote. First with my digital cable box, I program the power button that went ok. Then I tried to program the menu keys from my cable remote. I programed the up arrow key and it worked, but after I programed the down arrow key, the up arrow key did not work anymore. I tried over and over to program these two keys but I could not. The same happened with the left arrow key and the right arrow key, programming one would cancel out the other. With the cd player programing the numeral keys went ok except with the number 4 key. the did not program the first time and when I programmed it the second time it cleared all the other numbers that I programmed.
I sent an email to HK and told them that their remote was horrible. I week later I recieved an email back stating that they have work on the problems of the remote and that when they receive the new ones they will replace the one that I have now. I have not gotten it yet but I cant imagine it being worse than this one unless it did not work at all.

Recently I got out the old pioneer elite pro-logic receiver and connected it to the surround pre-outs of the HK receiver to make a quasi surround ex set up. Its not the same but its not bad either.

system setup:
HK AVR 310 reciever
Pioneer Elite VSX-52 Receiver connected via surround pre-outs
Pioneer 300 CD changer
Sony DVP-CX860 300 DVD changer
Sony PS2
2 RCA VCRs
RCA 54inch Projection TV.
Klipsch Ksf 8.5 Fronts speakers
Klipsch KM-C Center speaker
2 Mirage AVS-200 suround speakers
2 Mirage AVs-200 suround Back speakers
2 Paradigm PDR-8 subwoofers

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer elite 09tx, Onkyo 828,Sony 50 ES, Denon 3300

James Kirk u r a jerk. Have fun with your Denon. I'm going to rate this unit highly just to counteract your "review". Go troll somewhere else.

Clean, Crisp sound, plenty of power

A little trouble with the remote setup

Look Mom, I graduated.

The setup is tough for a layperson, I probably still don't have it just right. But never the less, this unit sounds awesome. I purchased some Polk Audio satillites and sub at the same time, I made it to the party.

I have my DVD and DTV connected by fiber optic and the Digital dolby is amazing, the DTS is even better.

The DSP modes Hall1, Hall2, and Theater haven't been much use thus far, but unlike sony and some others this unit only has a few. The logic7 cinema works very well on non digital dolby movies.

Definately worth every penny.

Similar Products Used:

pioneer, sherwood (a long time ago), sony

Too many to list! Great efficiency, great sound with crappy speakers, so many flexible inputs and outputs I can't ever imagine using them all, video output through the monitor port - the unit will display on-screen menus and current settings like voume, etc.

Complex remote that is limited in the codes that are pre-programmed in.

This unit is fabulous. It's my first AV unit, and I'm quite impressed with the build quality and overall sound quality. I've used this unit with two sets of speakers - a KLH pair with a passive sub, and RCA Pro-LX55 with Lineaum tweets.

I was a bit concerned when I first got it that I had to turn the volume up a little too high, but after I switched to the RCA Pro-LX55's the efficiency got a little better, but I attribute that to the speaker.

No matter how high I turned the volume on either set of speakers, I was really impressed at how crisp the sound was.

I typically listen to movies/TV, but occasionally I listen to CDs (Rap/HipHop, Top 40). If you've got the $$ it's a great unit; I highly reccommend it.

Similar Products Used:

None. This is my first AV/Reciever. I previously had a component Sony stereo.

discreet circuitry, looks, sound.

remote

This is an awesome sounding receiver. Yes I had problems with the remote but I just emailed HK from their website and told them about it. They apologized and shipped me a new remote that was a helluva lot better. I was able to program all my components w/ it. Very convenient now.
One thing I did notice is that when you go to a direct tv channel that broadcasts in Dolby Digital (hbo, starz), it will pick up the signal but when you go to a non DD channel after that, the system sets the surround to NO Surround (the default) You have to manually keep setting it back to logic 7, pro logic, hall, etc... If you go back to a dolby digital broadcast channel, the other nonDD channels default back to No Surround...Has anyone else noticed this or had this problem? It is really just a nuisance.
Overall this speaker rocks my house.

Similar Products Used:

avr300, sony

Sound Quality, ins/outs. "night mode"

EZsetup, remote

The sound quality is very good. Tight, well defined bass, nice transparency in the highs. The digital processing is awesome. Although it is rated at only 60 watts per channel, it has plenty of power for my apartment. I'm very happy with the unit except for the remote. At first it didn't even work when I tried to negotiate through the on-screen display. I had to push REAL hard. Eventually it seemed to have broken in and works now after 2 months! The EZ setup for speaker levels really sucks. It made my tiny surround speakers way louder than everything else. I set them up manually and now it sounds great.

Similar Products Used:

Denon, Sony

Movies, EZset feature, and Logic7 is great for TV

2-channel audio is totally inferior to NAD equipment; remote

Well, my long-standing loyalty to HK has come to a crashing hault. While I was waiting for my unreliable (and apparently unrepairable) AVR300 to be replaced by HK with the 310, I got a little impatient and bought myself a used NAD 314 integrated amp so I'd at least have some tunes. Instantly, I noticed that this amp was the best I've had in my house. For days I listened to my CD collection with a slack jaw at how wonderful it sounded. I even pulled-out some music from my wife's stash that I thought I didn't like until I heard what it could sound like through this glorious little NAD.

Well, the 310 arrived the other day, and I was very disappointed that the quality of 2-channel music wasn't even in the ballpark with a 35-watt used NAD. My wife took a few seconds to listen and said "whatever you want to do to fix this is ok with me because it sounds like crap compared to the NAD." Another friend called it "attrocious" or something.

So, we all agreed that it didn't do the job for music. How about home theater? To our amazement, that EZset feature worked pretty well, and the amp created the most seemless surround field I've heard to date. Also, the built-in DAC must've done wonders for the soundtracks because I could hear things in everything from U-571 to Blast from the Past that I had not heard before.

Switching to the Logic7 mode for TV was great too. Madden and Summerall never sounded better and REM on VH1 was as nice as it gets through cable, I guess.

So, the dilemma was...should I keep this killer home theater amp that kills my music or should I try for an NAD surround receiver so that I hopefully have one that can do it all?

If I had a house with lots of rooms and tons of money for speakers, I might just setup a dedicated music room centered around that little integrated and keep the HK strictly for movie purposes, but my favorite Barcalounger can only be in one place at a time, and that will stay in front of my Wega TV & Pinnacle towers. So, the 310 is going bye bye only a week after arriving.

To be more specific about my complaints with the sound: It seemed like the midrange was great...revealing and 3d, but this came at the expense of other frequencies which, while present were muddy and lacked the "tube-like" sound of the NAD.

I'll let you know in the NAD review section when I grab one of those babies if it measures-up to the surround capabilities of this 310.

So, if you don't see yourself doing music as much as movies or if you simply aren't as concerned about how the background percussion sounds as much as someone's voice, you might be very happy with the 310. Although I'm willing to wager that you'll be as aggrevated as the rest of us at the cheesy remote buttons--ugh.

Note that the price is what I paid for the model 300 brand new a couple years ago. Given the text that goes with 2-star ratings, I have to go that way, but if I were to separate it on the movie/music basis, I'd go like this:

Music Value: 1
Music Overall Rating: 2

Movies Value: 3
Movies Overall Rating: 4 (at least until I've heard the NAD surround capabilities to compare it with)

Similar Products Used:

HK AVR300, AVR-15, AVR-30