Great, smooth, but detailed stereo playback for a receiver, Customer service, switchable front panel connections, incredibly flexible

Some remote facilites, quality of some parts- i.e. volume control and buttons, Questionable long-term reliability. Incredibly flexible

I demoed the HK 510 after initally purchasing an Onkyo TX-DS777 with my Cambridge Soundworks Newton 300 system.
After a couple of weeks with the Onkyo, I felt that HT playback was superb; dynamic, clear and tight. Unfortunately, stereo playback wasn't as enjoyable as I hoped. So in an effort to keep my options opened I went and auditioned Denon Yamaha and Sony, as well as NAD. In the brief time these other units connected to my system I found them either sonically equal/inferior to the Onkyo (Sony, Yamaha were inferior, while Denon was equal), or lacking flexibility (NAD was almost too spartan for a HT receiver).
So I then went down to the CSW location where I purchased the Newtons and asked them if I could take a HK 510 home for comparison. CSW had always been extremely helpful and gladly lent me the floor sample 510 for an overnight evaluation. Not too much time, but hopefully enough time to judge sound quality. So I brought home the HK to duel it out with the well-built Onkyo.
In an attempt to keep things as fair as possible, and as I had done with the other receivers, I used a SPL meter, intially calibrated at 1kHz to get a baseline, then as a point of reference while listening to keep volume in check. I felt it was completely possible that lack of detail was a perception issue based on volume level, rather than the nature of the Onkyo's amplifier, so I wanted to make sure that both amplifiers were given the same fair shake. I was a huge fan of Onkyo products and did not wish to trade the superb build quality, intuitive useability, and THX Select of the Onkyo for the indifferent history of HK product quality, if the sound quality was marginally different.

Here were my impressions...as subjective as I could make them :-)
The Onkyo presented a neutral voice to the music. Bright maybe the wrong word here because the 777 was not bright, nor grating, nor harsh- it was smooth, but not what I would describe as "warm". Bass response was lean, and not what I would term as "full"-especially in the 70-125 Hz area, (full does not mean boomy, but rich, exhibiting body) while certain musical details in the upper midrange appeared to be missing. On one particular Duncan Shiek album (Humming; That Says It All) faint percussion in the opening minute of the record was all but gone, while ambient detail such as room acoustics and the faint counting of a bassists were absent on a Mapleshade recording (if you like Jazz, Mapleshade has some of the best recordings out there). I knew that these qualities were there since my previous Thiel, Classe' set-up drew them out. In the case of HT though, the Onkyo was brilliant and provided remarkable detail and control of demanding soundtracks from movies like the Matirx, X-Men and DTS encoded X-Files. The Hunt for Red October was also quite impressive with enveloping surround information, unbridled dynamics and well-controlled LFE rumble. The Onkyo was also a joy to configure and set-up; in particular both it's front panel and it's use of distance as opposed to milliseconds to set surround delay was extremely user-friendly. Had I only been interested in surround sound, the Onkyo would still be sitting in my cabinet.

If it wasn't for the blatant difference in sound quality I would've dismissed the 510 for its complicated, unintutive user interface. I think in the 510's case, one could argue that too much flexibilty can be a shortcoming. However, thanks to what I thought was a decent manual, I was able to get through intial set-up. The EZ set on the remote was also quite nice considering that one had to set speaker levels for EVERY Surround mode- why, oh why though, is it so hard for companies to incorporate a test tone for the sub? In my search for a good receiver I found that Onkyo was one of the only receivers that actually played a sub test tone and since the same level that was intial set for all speakers was the same level thorugh all surround and stereo modes, I never questioned the balance of my stereo image. The HK, by comparison made me question teh stereo balance simply because I was unable to EZ set stereo- even though it was available in surr off mode, EZ set did not engage the tones necessary to perform calibration. Even though one could argue that this maybe a nitpick, I found it annoying and inconsistent in the 510's useability.

All the above shortcomings started to fade once I started listening to 510's stereo playback. The HK's presentation was was in a word "rich", while still being dynamic, and to my ear more detailed in the midrange. On both the Mapleshade cut and the opening from Duncan Shiek, I heard detail in the ambience, the bassist counting softly to himself, and the subtle percussion that escaped the Onkyo. Bass on the HK was also fuller and appeared to have more control. For lack of better adjectives the HK was sonically similar to tubed amplification in tonality, while it's bass and transient control was more akin to solid state. The HK got me involved with all the music I played through it , and HT, even though it seemed to be less dramatic than the Onkyo, did have great separation of channel information and was able to scare me with it's transient impact. Scenes from X-Men, including Wolverine's intial snowy run-in with Beast, were presented in shimmering detail and ambeince. Where the Onkyo impressed with dynamics and bravado, the HK was detail rich, and immersed you in the surround sound mix.

The only other difference between the Onkyo and the HK was in remote useability. The Onkyo's remote design was much more user friendly and fit the hand better. By comparison the HK's tapered design had too many little buttons. Like many of you I received a buggy remote with my HK 510 and after several unsuccessful attempts trying to program my Panasonic DVD player and Hitachi TV, I called HK customer service to find out what I could do. I barely finished my explanation of the problem when the HK Tech support rep assured me that the problem was HK's fault and that they would send me a replacement remote. Last night I received the remote and was able to successfully program all the functions available on my DVD and TV. I was very impressed by HK's quick resolution of the matter and their willingness to accept culpability.

Hopefully, I won't need to continue to test their customer service. Considering their past quality control problems, I hope they spent as much time choosing dependable parts, and manufacturing facilities as they did engineering great sound in their 510. 4 stars for value and overall, since their are some annoying aspects of the design, and it's reliability is a question.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo TX-DS777. NAD T761, Denon 3300, Yamaha, Sony X333ES

AWESOME reciever. Lots of power, Logic 7, DTS, all the bells and whistles that you want from a quality reciever. Has a great look, easy to set up. Plus, H/K quality

already out of date..No DTS-ES, 6.1.

I enjoy the product alot. I am running the JBL studio series speakers with the unit, and the S412s fronts give off amazing sound. I am plaing on pairing the reciever with the H/K DVD-50.

Plenty of clean power, lots of input/output combination, face graphics -- especially activated speaker indicators, Logic 7

Manual -- hard to read -- need more figures and graphical explanation. "Made in China"

I have owned a plain-vanilla Harman/Kardon receiver (VXi550) with venerable Celestion main speakers for 13 years without any incident. After I decided to upgrade my stereo system to a home theater system, I have researched and tried many different systems. My primary concern was to find the center channel and rear surround speakers that will voice-match with my front Celestion speakers. Anyway, I finally ended up with Polk Audio CS245i (center channel), f/x 300i (surround speakers) and Klipsch KSW-12 powered subwoofer.

I narrawed down for my A/V receiver to Denon 2801, 3801 and H/K AVR510. I almost got Denon 3801 but it had a way too many features that I will rarely use unless I buy two more speakers. And somehow, I did not like the Denon's front panel -- it is a typical Japanese design like Sony, Yamaha, Onkyo, Marantz. Denon also lacks the front A/V input connector that I will sometimes use to copy from my camcorder (8 mm) to a VCR (VHS).

I purchased AVR510 from Sound Professionals (in San Diego) -- their service and price was fantastic! After I hooked up everything, I played Dinsney's Dinosaur for the first time for my kids. They were so afraid in the beginning since the whole house was rumbling. Now they really love to enjoy big rumbling and surround sounds! (My dog always runs into his home whenever I play the movies.)

My wife loves to listen to music especially in Logic 7 mode. My old stereo system sounded somewhat muted and frail. Now with this AVR510, music from my home sound system is very muscular and alive. I now finally appreciate the sound quality coming out from Celestion speakers. Unfortunately, my seven-year old Sony CD player does not have a direct digital outpu -- I can only play in analog mode. With the Sony DVD player, I can play audio CDs through a digital coaxial connection to AVR510. What a difference! I will spend more time in listeniong to music and watching movies.

So far I am very satisfied with AVR510, although I can not say much about long-term reliability of the unit!

Similar Products Used:

Denon 2801, Denon 3801, Onkyo 787

Sound quality, connections, expandability

Lack of volume

When I first purchased this piece, I was over joyed with the characteristics and the expandability of this unit. After a few weeks, I returned it to Soundcity and went looking for a replacement. I looked at a couple of local stores, and finally found a receiver worthy of my set-up.
I ordered a Yamaha RX-V1000. As soon as you turn the knob, the power is there. The marriage that this receiver and DVD movies make are unbelieveable. Also, it has an 4-8ohm switch for the extra power. Plus all of the extra inputs you could want, more than the H/K. You should take a look at this before buying anything. Joe

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo-DS787, Yamaha-RX-V1000.

Remote New remote on its way from HK

First and foremost HK is the bomb. I first purchased the avr210 great unit but lack power for my liking, upgraded to a Denon 3300. My friend's kept telling me that this was a better receiver than Hk for numerous reasons, so anyhow I opted for the 3300 exchanged within 30days from the store. From the initial hook-up the avr3300 was no match for the HK210, I first tested stereo mode on the 3300 I could not believe the terrible sound compared to the 210, everything was flat coming through my Energy EXL28, I adjusted Bass and Treble but to no avail the avr3300 did not preform anything close to HK. I listen about 80% music more to wathcing movies. I understand Denon is design more for Home Theater use but again I did not hear any difference when I wathched Gladitor on the HK. After about two weeks trying to convince myself that Denon sounded better than Harman Kardon I Exchange the 3300 for a Hk510. Iam very happy with my purchase the Hk sounds great at the low end with-out a SUB, it all boils down to prefrence in my opinion, also the HK has an expensive design and the 3300 had a cheap look to it small read out in the display. I recommend listening to different units before making a purchase of any kind. If I have to buy a Denon product it will be the 5800 for sure that is in a class on its own.

Similar Products Used:

AVR210,AVR3300

Design,Soundstage very transparent

Remote

What else can you expect from a Receiver at this price range
Overall performance is excellent for HT and Music. If you should expect more from this receiver, look into buying separates like "Krell or Mark Levison". Harman Kardon has being designing equipment for over 40 years. I have faith in my purchase. Cheers!

Similar Products Used:

Denon 3300,Sony

great sound plenty of power good remote great looks

no 6.1 no thx

this is the best receiver I have ever owned. the sound is incredibly detailed. logic 7 is a very good surround mode for stereo sources it made my satellite music channels come alive. componet switching was a bounus although I don't need it now. I'm sure I will in the future. my wife likes the good looks too. the service I received from onecall was great all in all this the bomb

Similar Products Used:

sony pioneer

great sound plenty of power good remote great looks

no 6.1 no thx

this is the best receiver I have ever owned. the sound is incredibly detailed. logic 7 is a very good surround mode for stereo sources it made my satellite music channels come alive. componet switching was a bounus although I don't need it now. I'm sure I will in the future. my wife likes the good looks too. the service I received from onecall was great all in all this the bomb

Similar Products Used:

sony pioneer

great sound plenty of power good remote great looks

no 6.1 no thx

this is the best receiver I have ever owned. the sound is incredibly detailed. logic 7 is a very good surround mode for stereo sources it made my satellite music channels come alive. componet switching was a bounus although I don't need it now I'm sure I will in the future. my wife likes the good looks too. the service I received from onecall was great all in all this the bomb

Similar Products Used:

sony pioneer

Decodes MP3 and HDCD, great looking, very versatile. Front panel jacks can be inputs OR outputs. Tons of rear inputs, composite video inputs (2) Remote has macros!!!

None yet

Go this for a song from Ebay. Brand new $630. I must preface my review by saying that I have all of the pre-amp outs going to Adcom power amps so I can't comment on the power of this unit. Others say it is great.

This is an imposing piece, it is very large. It dwarfs my GFA-555 Power Amp which is a monster in itself. Aesthetically the unit is very good looking. Not your regular non-descript black box.

The unit is very versatile. Each input can be associated with a profile which includes surround setup, delay etc. For example, the DVD selection can be associated with Dolby Digital with the Sub in while CD can be associated with simple 2 channel without the sub. Therefore selecting DVD will put the unit into DD and fire up the sub output. pretty cool.

The remote has one of the neatest features. Never quite sure if your 5 speakers are correctly adjusted for volume with respect to each other? Sit in your fave chair, hold the remote in front of you and press the button. White noise flies around the room and a microphone in the remote picks it up and sets the volume on all the speakers. Awesome.

Stuck 'Patriot' in and watched a few of the war scenes. Digital separation was excellent and precise. I was impressed although keep in mind this is my first digital unit. Nice bass without a sub.

Another thing that kicks...I had not plugged in my CD player - not enough outlets, so I stuck 'Fly' by the Dixie Chicks in the DVD player (which is feeding the 510 via coax digital). I though it sounded 'different' than through my regular Nakamichi transport with Adcom processor. Looking at the 510 I could see that the HDCD light was lit up. Strange, I don't have any HDCDs and I wasn't aware that my Toshiba DVD can read it. It turns out 'Fly' is an HDCD (tiny logo on back of CD case) and my DVD player can read it. The 510 automatically detected the HDCD bitstream and decodes it. If you haven't heard HDCD......

This unit also decodes MP3. Some soundcards can output a digital MP3 bitstream and the 510 will decode it. Also, if you have a player that can play CDRs with MP3 files on it, the 510 will decode it

The unit has a multiroom capability and actually comes with 2 remotes. You will need another amp and a remote extender but that's a nice feature.

Unit has a 'Night' mode which restricts dynamic range so that you can watch The Matrix without waking the kids.

More about the remote. It is a learning remote and has 4 'Macro' buttons. Yes you heard it right. You can program one button to (for example) turn on your TV, VCR and cablebox in sequence. Theres more, you can associate the TV volume control on the remote(for example) with the master volume on the 510 since it is unlikely you will be listening through the TV but will be changing channels. This alleviates the need to keep changing 'source'. This remote can do a million other things. Don't lose it :) It also lights up for thiose times when the lights are out.

Regular stereo seems a little 'bland' or 'flat' compared to my previous pre-amp but one of the surround modes called Logic7 actually makes it sound excellent (although not for purists). Logic7 is poached from Lexicon which is owned by Harman. If you know about Lexicon, nuff said.

Overall, great unit, glad I bought it. Highly recommended as a basis for a home theatre. Need more power, buy some old Adcom power amps like I did - Ebay rules!!

System:
HK AVR 510 Receiver feeding
(2) Adcom GFA 555 200W Power Amps
(1) Adcom GFA-5300 80W Power Amp
Nakamichi CD2 CD Player - being used as a transport with
Adcom GDA-600 D to A Converter.
Toshiba 2109 DVD
Vandersteen 2CE (Front Speakers)
PSB Alphas (Rear)
Ce$*%n-V*ga (Center) Yuk.
No sub.

All hooked up with decent cables

Similar Products Used:

Adcom GTP-600