I got this receiver from Ubid.com for $300. I hooked it up and I couldn't be happier. I upgraded from a Sony Pro-Logic receiver that was a couple years old, and obviously, there is no comparison.
As far as the remote is concerned, I thought it was layed out nicely and the learning functionality worked great. Frankly, I don't know why others don't seem to like it.

In my opinion, for $300, there just is no better deal around.

High current design,built quality,look

No low frequency adjustments for the speakers.

I am happy with it for more than year.
DD is great,stereo juicy and sarround perfect.
Remote could be better but at least it can learn others.
55 watts enough for killing the dog ( with high current ).
If you can get it and enjoy.
I had no problems whatsoever.

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The high current amp owns the speakers, there is no cone reverb or ambient noise, it is concise and controlled.

Only one optical input!

I found that it requires a very good center speaker to reproduce the mid levels or vocals when playing a DVD. This also helps with the reproduction of music DVDs.
I started out with a Polk audio five speaker system 5.1 with two powered subs and ended up with three polk speakers for the center channel and two tower Altec Lansings for the front right and left. This has reproduced a sound that rivals most theaters. For the money I have not found a better ht reciever and I would highly recommend the HK AVR 55 to any one.

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Well, I did not believe it would happen to me. I wanted an HK and avoided the AVR 65 due to the very bad reliability reports. My HK died two weeks ago; I sent it in to a service center; got a postcard from service center that they did not even have a service manual for the product! I am still waiting. This was a great receiver when it worked but if it does not work who cares. I have purchased a lot of electronics and never had any problems until I purchased an HK. Forget this company; they have all the signs of going downhill: bad reliability, no customer focus, no way to easily contact them, etc. Goodbye HK

Good Looks and Value

Limited # of digital inputs

This is a great receiver especially for the price. I replaced my Kenwood 1090VR with this receiver and it was like night and day. The HK has half the rated power but the high output amp of the HK makes all the difference. The remote may not be the prettiest of the bunch but it works well and the programmability is a nice touch. The only weakness is its limited number of digital inputs but that goes for most of the receivers over a year old. I would highly recommend this product.

Can ajust the out put of each speaker.

i think this receiver is great. currently it priced under $300.

clean sound

amount of volume to get clean sound

I think the H/K is great. I had a denon I bought in '86 and this is light years ahead. This thing almost makes my 901s sound good. I paid way to much, after reading some of the reviews, but it was an impulse deal. I was looking to replace my 901s and listening to a pair of Klipsch and walked out with the HK. The only concern I have someone else addressed. Turning the Volume up to 40 plus to get reasonable sound, is this normal?

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I bought this receiver in Dec. 98 as the first piece in upgrading my system. I wasn't able to check out the surround sound until just last week because I didn't have 5.1 speakers. Well I finally bought a set of Take 5's (love'em) but I found out that DD did not function properly. The rest of the receiver operates flawlessly. However, DD quits working after about 1/2 hour of viewing. Initially, the audio starts to break up and then about 30 seconds later, there's silence. I isolated it to the receiver by hooking up a dvd that I knew worked, and the same thing happened. It's still under warranty and is being fixed right now but this is quite annoying when you lay out serious coin for what you expect to be a quality product. Since I haven't used DD until now, I suspect there was a defect right out of the box.

I purchased this receiver about six months ago as my first foray into the digital/multichannel domain after about ten years of excellent service from my old Denon DRA-325R stereo receiver. After lusting after this unit for a few weeks, I purchsed the last one (floor model) at the local Circuit City for $499 (they threw in the extended warranty). Am I glad I did? Yes. Could I have done better? Yes as well.
High point: The sonic performance has lived up to or surpassed all of my expectations. This, I believe, is in large part due to the great performance I'm getting from my Paradigm Monitor 7s. (Remember, the receiver is only as good as what it is driving.) The power is more than adequate to suit my listening-level taste.

Low Points:
* Remote - All the buttons (except volume) are the same size/shape, and while it is a learning remote (on some of the buttons), this is not much consolation while fumbling around in the dark on the un-backlit surface.
* Video throughputs - Composite only - if you are into anything with S-Video or Component capability, forget about using this as your switching unit.
* DSP modes - Hall, Theatre, Stadium, and Church. Church is tolerable, but forget the rest of them. Stadium is especially awful. Stereo, DPL, and DD do work very well.

One interesting dilema I have run into is that I have to run my TV audio through the Video 2 inputs, because (hk tech support tells me) the TV inputs look for the video signal to trigger the Auto On/Off feature. I'm not using the receiver as my video switch, and without this TV input, the receiver turns itself off after a few minutes of TV viewing. Lots of fun.....

I've aired a lot of my gripes here, but the bottom line is this: If you see this unit and can get your hands on it for about $350 (where I've seen it advertized in some circulars), do it. If you plan to use it as the cornerstone of your A/V setup for years to come, move along. If you primarily want to enjoy great sound quality and the video features are a far-distant second, this unit is well worth the money. Myself, I'll be going back to Denon in a couple of years and move this unit to the bedroom.

Audio Performance: 5 - Video Features/Performance: 2
Overall rating: 3.5 rounded to 4 because the sound is great.

I got this to replace My HK AVR 40, I needed the coaxial digital in, and DD. I am very impressed with HK. First and least important, it is the best looking reciever in my opinion. Nice clean, not confusing, and simple classic style. It's simple to set up and I never had to look at the manual. The learning remote it just pure cool, I like not having to use multiple remotes, so this is a plus. The remote it also very easy to use and I figured it out without the manual. Just don't program any buttons that the HK uses, like off and on, to reset these buttons, I needed to refer to the manual. (removing the batteries doesn't work! ) Anyways, I love to listen to music in PL mode and DVD's in DD mode. It's very acurate, and clean natural sounding. DD is worth it vs PL in movies!!! This reciever also Auto-detects the signal coming in the Coax. It will not let you select DD mode, it it is a Stereo signal. It also has a night mode, which when viewing movies at night (and you don't want to disturb fellow housedwellers with your Woofing) it will stop all the loud subwoofer affects and replace then with a smaller one. I never use it, but I'm sure I'll ahve to. Also you can of course selecct any channel and + and - the decbile range. You can also turn off the Subwoofer with a button, witch is nice sometimes. Also you can have it set that whenever you turn on your video scorce, (TV S-VHS DISH) it will turn on the receiver to TV mode. Pretty sweet soemtimes. a one minor downfall would be that we here in SLC hae one station that claims to brodcast in DD, but the HK will not let you select DD while in AM/FM. (http://www.x96.com/main/about.html) I guess I will always stick with HK, next step, the signiture series! *****