well first off i was in pricerange of either this Rieceiver or the AVR 35there was about a $160 difference bettween the two when i was looking. i put the two too the test at the store and the clarity bettween the two receivers is very noticable. the AVR 35 didn't push the Infinities as well. the AVR 45 was just clearer. the amp is rated around 55 watts RMS. I did a little testing in my dorm room with my roomates speakers. they are a pair of 15" four way KLM's rated at 300 watts RMS. his amp kept tripin when played loud on songs like 2 live crew or Aaliyah. the bass draw from the speakers was just too much for his 100 watt RMS rated Teaco. i hooked my apm up and gave it a try. there was no comparison. it pushed the 15's with no problem. i would have to say this amp performes more like (as far as wattage) a 120 watt RMS rated Sony, the quality is no comparison though. when playing dolby digital movies the separation of sound comeing from the mains and the center are unbelevable. the speakers that i actuall run on them are MTX 15" four ways. these are hefty 4 ohm speakers rated at 125 watt RMS. the high current output of the HK just sucks it up and keeps playing. i haven't had it click off due to heat or due to a surge.
so far i love this amp.

Easy to set up out of the box and reasonably easy to set all preferences. Was running low end Yamaha DD receiever and was blown away by difference in highs and lows. Mid range left a little to be desired when playing music only. When in DD i noticed some popping and hissing when while movie was being loaded and when queuing up movie. Is this normal? I,m not sure but will find out. Matched with B&W's all around and a Definitive sub, the sound from my most demanding movies was fantastic picking up the most sensitive of details giving me a full rich sound in all aspects. To this point I am extremely pleased and would like to hear from other Harmon enthusiasts to discuss some further details.

I purchased this unit after returning an Onkyo TX-DS575, due to problems with backround hiss, especially in surround modes. The sound and build of the Onkyo was high, but I couldn't stand the hissing.Let me preface my comments by saying my previous receiver was a Harman Kardon AVR 20 II, a Pro-Logic surround sound unit. Since then I have used that as my reference for sound quality; for what I wanted in a Dolby Digital receiver. That baby sounded beautiful!
The AVR 45 is a gigantic overpriced piece of S**T, in comparison. It only has 2 digital ins (one optical, and one coax), so if you have more digital components than that, or you want to expand your system, you're screwed. For $700 you don't even get s-video and DTS decoding. My old HK could drive my speakers HARD. This reciver is a sissy assed, made in China- yes that's right-$700 for a receiver made in China, uderpowered waste of money! I had to crank the volume knob up to over 60% of the max to even get a decent sound level for both music and movies.
To make matters worse, there in no way to run a subwoofer if you set the front speakers to large. What the hell was HK thinking? I have great full range speakers, but even the best speakers will benefit from a powered sub. The buttons and knobs had a very cheap feel to them. The interior components were very low quality compared to the innards of my previous HK.
Harman Kardon's quality has gone WAY down. I should have stayed away from this brand, especially after reading reviews on this site about all the problems this unit and the AVR 65 have.
I have never been so disappointed with an audio component in my life. Go buy an Onkyo, Denon, Pioneer Elite, anything but HK. Still can't give a component a ZERO speaker rating, so it's gets one.

I have recently purchased the H/K AVR-45 Dolby Digital Receiver after previously owning a Pioneer VSX-511S Dolby Pro-logic receiver which I owned for 7 Years. I work with electronics everyday and am constantly surrounded by home theatre components. I have been able to test many different receivers available on the market. Denon, Nakamichi, Kenwood, Marantz, Yamaha, Technics, Pioneer. You name it I've tested it, and not with one set of speakers either. I found the H/k AVR-45 to be the best sounding and easy to use Home Theatre Receiver available in its price range for a high current receiver. I have matched the HK to my old Cerwin-Vega SE 10 speakers and Paradigm PSW-100 Sub, and I must say they have never sounded better. I have a Pioneer Laser disk hooked up and the pro-logic sound is amazing. The separation in the Digital mode is amazing, with not an ounce of distortion. The 65W a channel in stereo mode is more than enough to drive my Cerwins. And the best thing of all is that I can use a 12G wire and Banana plugs for all speakers, which couldn't be done on earlier generations of this receiver. All in all a great purchase, not to many bells and whistles, but enough to give me at least another 7 years of listening pleasure. Highly recommended, by a Home Theatre Salesman.

Just bought the AVR-45, it has to be the best receiver available for the money, blows away my friends Denon AVR-2700. Doesn't have all the bells and whistles, such as s-video switching, which I think is stupid anyways. The bass response is enormous, I had to turn my sub down to only a quarter volume, and reduce the setting to -3db. As for sound clarity, it makes any music sound like its right there playing in front of you. It truly has an ultra wide bandwidth.Haven't yet tried a dvd on it but my laser discs sound ten times better than my old prologic receiver. definitely worth the money.

The powerful sound, nice design

no digital output

Very powerful, deep bass and no problems so far makes this receiver one of the best ever made, i bought it for about 4995 swedish kroner, about 580 dollars and I am very pleased with it.I use it with my audiopro stage 6 speakers and a sony cdp-xe330 Cd-player, it works great and I have upset a lot of people playing it loud at night. The Bass is
soooo deep, (maybe its my speakers ?) If you have the money buy it ! It is a nice receiver...

Similar Products Used:

harman kardon avr 20 and 21, sony, pioneer

Clean sound, lighted remote, price:performance

no A/B speaker capability

Bot on uBid for $327, was not sure about this unit after some reviews here, was looking also at Yamaha 595. Have not and did not A-B test so take this w/ grain salt but I think it sounds pretty darn good in video mode (Pro Logic only - have no digital sources yet). Ample bass and good, clean, crisp sound even through average speakers. I must say I am disappointed in stereo though - sound not near as good and not enuf bass for my taste. But I gather that this is true of most/all A/V receivers. Had no problem setting up speakers once understood logic. Lighted remote is very convenient and operates all my recent stuff. Good buy for the price but at over $400 I'd have gone w/ the Yamaha.

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Sony, Technics

Good sound, low noise,

Required repair

This has been a durable performer for me ***once I had warrantee repair to resolder some weak connections***
Other reviews support the idea they have some QC problems and maybe I was just lucky, but this thing is on 4 - 12 hours / day for three years straight and all is well. I feel like I got what I paid for ( about $300 )

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Yamaha

Very good overall, backlight remote is great

no s-video conections

A very nice reciever, clean sound and video. The setup and operation may be complicated for some people. The AVR-300 is a little nicer, but lacks a backlight remote.

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avr-300