Excellent sound reproduction, lots of input/outputs, night mode, great look, mike in the remote for speaker calibration, Logic 7 and Vmax features, punch-through and learning feature on remome

Manual is terrible, no S-video/Composite switching, Ezet, heavy, remote can not control my sattelite reciever

I'm owing HK510 for a month now. I hesitated to purchase HK as there are some reports about quality issues, but from your reviews I've learned that HK claims great sound reproduction and I have to admit that agree 100% with that. I listened on my HK everything from Classic Music to Spanish Guitar and Jazz to Pop and Rock. Sound is just amazing: deep, clear and very detailed. Optical connection definetely makes a difference.

Well, but I have to sweat before I could enjoy my music and movies. System setup is rather straight forward and you do not really need to read a manual for that, although I did (mainly because of curiosity). That is most purely written document that I have seen for a while. Most of it looks like that: 'press 22 to activate 45 and 69'. As usual, great technology companies are bad marketers.

I've got really stuck only with video switching. I assumed that reciever can switch between s-video and composite and almost returened the unit when I can not get video from my VCR. Now I'm having S-video cable going to TV for DVD and Dish and RCA cable for VCR. It is not big deal for cabling job, but I have to change between VIDEO1 and VIDEO3 on my TV, that's a bit annoing. Also, I wasn't able to make Ezet to calibrate my speakers, finally I just did it manually using sound meeter build in my remote.

Speaking about movies, I'm really enjoyng Logic7 and Vmax modes for conventional stereo. Night mode is helping too if you have kids. DTS and DD modes are performing well.

From my perspective reciever has enough power to make you deaf, so I do not relly understand why some guys compalaining about 70W per channel.

My setup:
HK AVR510
JVC DVD
TOSHIBA VCR
Energy XL speakers
Energy Encore8 sub

Sound, features (HDCD, 5 channel stereo,etc) build quality, looks, ergonomics

none except I get very little bass from DTS soundtracks (read below), I prefer the remote from the AVR65 to this one, but still a nice remote

I had a few problems with my AVR65 so I took advantage of a no lemon policy at CC. This is quite an improvement over the previous HK line. The low watts don't mean anything, look at the amps! Dolby Digital movies sound great. I also really enjoy the HDCD on board. Since my CD player does not have this, the receiver still allows me to take full advantage of this emerging technology. Can't get enough of the title track from Clapton's new album in HDCD....wonderful!

One complaint though, for some reason I get virtually no bass in DTS soundtracks. My previous HK had thunderous bass on movies such as Saving Private Ryan(DTS) but I can't figure out why I'm not getting the same response with the new receiver. Any owners of this receiver that have any suggestions please email me.

I recommend this reciever over any others in its class. The combination of power plus all the features in an elegant chasis make this one to own.

My system is:

Onkyo 6-disc CD
Sony DVD
Sony MD
Sony 27" TV
Polk RT600 fronts
Polk CT400 center
Bose 141 rears (working on replacing these!)
Velodyne CT120
Monster Cable on everything
Lovan Classic II rack

Similar Products Used:

H/K AVR65
Kenwood VR2080

Sounds nice in non surround mode.

No dimmer that I can find. To freaking complicated to setup! User interface rediculously hard to use. Rear channels work intermittently.

I bought this POS from Ubid for $409. It was supposedly refurbished. However, I doubt it was. The reciever was made in 10/2000. The remote that came with it sux. It works and then it doesn't. It almost always refuses to learn functions from other remotes and the codes in the avr510's manual for other brand remotes don't work either. Why would HK go through such expense to make this remote a learning remote knowing that it is such a POS and that most owners will throw it in a draw? They shouldn't include a remote, let you buy a nice pronto or something similar and lower the price of the reciever. I wonder how many of these remotes are even in use? ABSOLUTE JUNK!

Can you tell I'm MAD!?

I have had this POS less than 1 week. It took me about 3 days (off and on) with help from HK's tech line and a fellow AVR510 owner to set it up. I'm no retard either! I rent the matrix because I want to hear this dobly digital that everyones raving about. 10 minutes into the movie and I realize there's no sound coming from the rear speakers. The AVR510 rear channels decide to quit working. I call HK who show me how to reset it. They work again! YAY! I sit down to watch the movie again later that day and they aren't working! I reset it a couple times and the rears still won't produce any sound! POS AVR510! I call HK tech line again. After waiting another 30 minutes on hold the guy tells me all they can do is warrantee it at a local repair shop. I've had this thing less than a week! IU haven't even watched an entire movie through it yet! You want me to what ...? Take it to a repair shop!!! That's bogus. They should have offered to replace it on the spot and pay shipping in my opinion. He asks me if I tried the test tones. I said yes but tried them while he was on the phone. Guess what? The freaking things decide to work again!

To those of you who haven't had problems with yours congratulations! I'm sorry to have to bring your beloved AVR510's rating down ever so slightly with my rating of 1's. Be thankful they didn't offer a ZERO also!

To those of you thinking about buying this refurbished reciever from Ubid because it's priced so low ...DON'T DO IT! Unless you want more headaches in your life.

I'm not sure what to do next? Send it back to Ubid for a replacement? They charged me $46 to ship it to me! I'll have to eat another $46 shipping charge back to them!? POS AVR510!

Take it to the repair shop over and over like others on here have had to do?

Smash it with a sledge hammer?

My system :

Klipsch cornwalls (mains)
Klipsch Heresys (rears)
Klipsch KLF-C7 (center)
Klipsch KSW15 (sub)
Kenwood DV402 (dvd)
POS HK AVR510 (POS reciever)

Similar Products Used:

Older sony DPL reciever.

Clean power

Lacks dozens of critical features offered by almost all of it's competitors at this price range. Not very versatile or future-proof.

This receiver is waaay overpriced. Harman Kardon receivers in general are waaaaay overpriced. They offer very little in the area of formats, features, and functionality and charge the same price as their competitors who blow them away. The only decent piece of the Harman Kardon receiver is the power transformer and transistor board, which are of above average quality. The digital processor boards are below par and it took H/K a good 3 years to get the DTS processor right. Not even the H/K AVR-520 is a good value. It is priced at $999, alledgedly going up against the Denon AVR-3802, however it offers the same features and puts up the same numbers as the Denon AVR-2802 at $799. The Denon 3802 is as good as the H/K flagship 8000. Don't even think of comparing it to the Denon 4802/5800. And as to the power amps comparison, I'd have to argue that Denons offer a better amplifer. You'll argue H/Ks point of HCC and it's gimmicky peak ampere ratings, which are totally meaningless, but that's H/Ks trick. For the record, I have owned an H/K AVR-500 and have demoed the 510. I'm not at all impressed by either. The power amp was beefy, but like I said, overpriced and very lacking. Do some shopping before you buy an H/K. Just a word of caution.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR-3802, Yamaha RX-V1100, Sony STR-DA3ES, Kenwood VR-5080

Warm, clean, crisp sound.....wait though.....

Until you pump the volume up.....
Come on Harman. 70 watts x 5. High voltage or not its a joke for the money, Denon and Onkyo do heaps better for less, my speakers need more.....

I was so impressed when I first hooked up my new unit. It looks a million dollars, and the sound quality is great at low volume levels, Warm, crips, and very detailed. Until I tried to give it a bit, especially in home theatre mode. It just doesn't have the power to do justice to my 150 watts 6 ohm speakers. High voltage or not, it just needs more power to be complete. I would go to the AVR 7000, but why pay more and lose features?
Come on Harman, whens the updates due?
Has anyone heard anything about possible power upgrades?

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha, and Pioneer.

Power, looks, flexibility, clear neutral sound,

none so far

This review is for the AVR 5000, European model which is identical (to my knowledge) to the US model AVR 510.
The vendor (Deltavox) did a great job in explaining the differences in the model available and proposed to take some models home for testing. Although he has several excellent listening rooms, private room acoustics and speaker types are so important that listening in a studio environment does not give you the full picture of the equipment sound quality. So, here I went, with my booth full of this expensive stuff for a weeks trial. After the first day it came clear to me that the HK had excellent power capability to drive my Kapa 8's(4 ohm). Most other AV receivers went in overload when volume was turned up over 0db. Check Sound&Vision magazine, issue June 2001, and find out that this receiver actually boost in stereo, 2x158 Wats RMS in 4 ohms at 1Khz, with no clipping. The HK 510 went all the way to +8db without any distorsion. For a test a turned it up to +10db with some heavy metal music (my 2 sons do have a lot of this stuff available!!) and it trip off in overload after some 15 minutes of full power. The heating of the receiver was excessive at this stage! But anyhow, this is what testing is for, isn't it?? By the way, watch out for those receivers/amplifier with 4/8 ohm settings. The only thing the switch does is setting the amps for the overload trigger. So, with the switch in 4 ohm, it often (or most of the time) reduces output power because it limits the amps on the receiver's power supply!

In stereo mode (this is why I bought it for with occasional surround DVD watching),this is by far the best sounding receiver I tested. Cristal clear, noise free sound with excellent soundstage! I never had any distortion, even at high volumes (over 0db volume setting). Firm bass, clear midrange and sparkling high tone on all type on music. I was amazed to found out that some of my CD's were not really good recordings. Never noticed it before on my older equipment (AKAI,.... yes it was old!!).

On surround, it sounds excellent on DTS and Dolby5.1. Logic7 Music is not bad for occasional party/dance music, but nothing I can't miss. Vmax seems useless to me and sounds like those sheap stereo-sets with "space/surround" sound swithes. But I don't need it anyhow, so I don't worry.
You need however perfectly matched speakers for front, center and rear if you really want to enjoy the full surround sound of movies. If you have them, the AVR 5000/510 sounds like you're really "inside" the movie. I turned the volume up and enjoyed Gladiator, End of Days, Ninth gate, Matrix, The perfect storm, etc. God, I like it.

As for the remote, I was thinking of buying the Pronto but really, this HK remote is not so bad after all. I managed to program it for ALL my other equipment (see below). The coded supplied in the manual did not work however on my SOny TV and Panasonic VCR. Funny enough, when I used the search/learning mode on the remote, it found the codes after a minute or so and everything works perfectly. Off course, it's a bit difficult to remember the buttons you do not often use: like the PIP on the TV or teletext buttons. But you get used to it. The punch through capabilities are great (like volume and program shifting). Also the Ez feature, to calibrate the volume of each speaker works perfectly (again, you need matched speakers to have correct settings).

The capability to set surround modes,volume level, speaker type for each input is great. The programming/assigning of different inputs to the digital connections is a great help if you have several CD players, tape recorder, VCR, etc.

Adding a subwoofer? I did add several (infinity, Velodyne, JBL)for testing, but it did not improve sound quality. Maybe on this very rear occasions when you have an LFE effect on a movie. Or with the opening sound of "Space Oddysee 2001" where you can here the 16hz pipe tone of "Also sprach Zarathustra". Most people only hear the harmonic of 32Hz!!

As for the looks: you love it ......or you hate it. There's no way in between. For months I have not looked at HK because it did not seem attractive to me. Or maybe I was used to the Denon, Onkyo, Technics. Now, all this seems old fashion to me, compared to the HK.

My conclusion: for the price, this AVR 5000 / 510 is an extraordinary piece of equipment that has a wonderfull sound, great "not so common" looks and works without trouble. Made in China you say?? So what, my new Mercedes has failed on me several times during the past year. Maybe it is time to sent those German engineers to China to do a bit of training!!!!

My equipment:

receiver Harman Kardon AVR 5000/510
DVD player Harman Kardon DVD 10
CD player Harman Kardon CDR 30 (is also recorder)
Television Sony, 82 cm
VCR Panasonic high-end, HIFI
speakers front Kappa 8
speaker center Kappa center B
speakers rear Kappa R
tape Revox
cables monster

By the way, I also tested the AVR 7000: not much power improvement and less features (yes, have a look at the specs: 96kz versus 196khz, no Ez, etc.) for 300$ more. If you want the same specs as the AVR 5000/510 and more power,then wait for the AVR 8000 that will soon be available (THX certified, so add a 500$ more!).

Similar Products Used:

TESTED: DENON 3801, Pioneer , Onkyo (different models), Technics

LOOKS,power and sound

None really

First for the buying experience: This is NOT and ad for J and R but I do believe in giving credit where credit is due.I called them because you have to call for the price on the AVR 510-the price is not listed on their site.The salesman told me $699 which is a good price especially since it's new and not refurbished,and then asked,"Is that too much?".Well...I advised there are 3 other web sites that are selling it for around $600 and I gave him the names,he told me to hold on and came back and said,"Are you ready to buy?" and I said yes and he said O.K.!That's an excellent price.Not only that but I had it delivered overnight by FedEx for only $38!!!!Folks,this receiver is HEAVY and they do NOT gouge you on shipping-Crazy Eddies wanted like $160 for overnight-how rediculous!I ordered it 3:00pm on a tuesday and it was on my back porch the very next morning at 9:00am-shipped from NY to FL-that's 18 hours!!!Talk about service.It was double boxed too.

The receiver: Great all around.The first thing I did was look at the sticker on the back to see it was manufactured January of 2001-I was very happy because even H/K will concede that models made after November of 2000 have had MUCH less quality control problems.

This receiver sounds crystal clear and very pristine.Absolutely NO hiss and quiet as can be until it needs to be loud.The seperation for DD & DTS is excellent and has lots of impact-very dynamic sounding.The looks are outstanding and very easy to read the large display from accross the room.This receiver has a lot of fantastic features including memorizing all parameters for ALL settings for each sound mode:it will remember speaker size,crossover setting,sub on or off,channel level,delay and etc.for each sound mode(DD,DTS,Stereo,Pro-Logic,Logic-7) seperately!

The receiver is a beast though-it's huge and it does get warm BUT-I am driving 5 Ascend Acoustics speakers which are all rated at 4ohms and it runs them all day long WITHOUT limiting the dynamic range or output at all-that's the beauty of being rated at +-45 amps(high current).This receiver can also get PLENTY loud-it throws out some serious SPL's so don't worry about the 70 watt rating.

I have not had any of the problems that have been posted here at all except for one-the remote could not be programmed to run other components.I emailed H/K and in less than 12 hours they asked me for my name & address and I had a new one in a week which works perfectly.They didn't ask when or where I bought the receiver-they just sent me a new remote-no questions asked.Great customer service.

I highly recommend this receiver to anyone without any reservations! Thanks.

Similar Products Used:

JVC,Sony & Yamaha

Can you say "high current"! Who ever said this unit does not have enough power is nuts!

Logic 7 cinema mode problems

Strong AVR. What really pleased me was the ability to easily push my Aria 5R speakers from Zalytron rated at 4 ohms. Don't need no stinkin impedence switch. Don't let the 70 watts per channel fool ya. Unlike the Sony's and such that claim ratings of 100 watts etc. per channel. Yeah right! The 510 has the headroom that will eat the competition for breakfast,lunch or dinner. This unit can expand to my hearts content and I needed that. Has a clean front face compared to many of the competitions cluttered look.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo, Yamaha

Sound quality, excellent DAC, front digital/analog/video inputs/outputs(switchable),build quality.

I don't see any

This is one of the best things I ever bought for my HT.
After connecting this unit to my DVD player via optical cable I was amazed at what a clean sound this receiver produced. Both music and movies are incredibly clear. Lows are much better. It has more than enough connectors to run all my HT equipment thru it.
Overall this receiver gets 5 stars(for the receiver in this price range).

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, Technics

Design, Clean Sound, lots of power, Logic7, all DSP modes etc.

Remote

My system so far
Sony dvd 570
Sony 32" WEGA
HK 510
Energy exl 26 fronts
Energy exl C2 centre
Energy Take 2.2 rear
Energy Microstar 12.1 Subwoofer


Complements to HK on such an awesome receiver. First off I owned the denon rec.as mentioned above for about 3 weeks and was not impressed with what I was hearing, I spent lots of hours testing different music and dvd movies, but everthing sounded flat and hollow and the AMP was always running hot even though it had a built in fan. I tried to convince myself from all the good reviews from Denon that I had a excellant product but still was not happy. So I opted to exchange my receiver with-in the 30 days allowed for the HARMANKARDON AVR 510. What a difference between these two amps, the Hk produced sounds that was not present with the other rec. Base was more punchy almost earth shaking and yes without the sub on. Cleaner on-axis frequency response with music and movies, and a wider dispersion from the High current design makes everything equally balanced and present and detailed. I am still testing so far so good!

Similar Products Used:

Denon (AVR3300 too small of a display on front panel)
HK AVR210