Awesome sound, especially with Logic 7.

Video processing is hopelessly flawed on many units.

I researched the 7000 (and other units) for several weeks. For the money, I felt the HK 7000 could not be beaten. I found the unit at ecost.com for $999.

After a couple of weeks of use, I noticed anomalies in the video. (I am sure they were there from the beginning, but they appeared only in certain circumstances and were often quite subtle.) I am using s-video to input my satellite, DVD and LD to the HK 7000. I use one s-video to output to my Pioneer receiver. Whenever the picture background is very light and a dark object is contrasted against it, there is a noticeable distortion in the picture. A white streak blurs off to the right side. (Actually, upon further investigation, the disortion actually adds a large light gray smear, and then a white streak appears in the smear.) The same problem appears whether DVD, LD, etc.

If I bypass the HK 7000, the picture is perfect. Or, if I use patch cords (instead of s-video), the picture is fine. (You don't want to use patch cords because they don't deliver the sharpness you want on a large screen.) If I run the s-video through my old Yamaha Pro-Logic receiver, I get no distortion.

I called HK. It is very difficult to reach them. They could not explain the problem. I talked to two authorized service centers in Houston. They could not imagine what could cause such a problem. HK recommended that I ship it to Houston for service. No way! Not with a three week old receiver.

I called ecost. They said they would exchange the unit for another (and they paid shipping both ways). The second unit arrived in only three days--but it had the same distortion, only worse. I called HK and ecost, and ran through the same routine again. A thrid unit was sent. The third HK 7000 was no better. Strike three and you are out!

The sound quality on this unit is truly awesome. I doubt there are many receivers that can compare with the 7000. But the video problem makes it a poor choice. Until HK solves the video issue, this unit has to have a low rating. Were it not for the video problem, it should have five stars, but the video issue makes having the unit intolerable.

Ecost is sending me a Denon 4800 (for an additional $480). That is more than I wanted to invest in a receiver, but I did not want to step down in sound quality.

Ecost is a great retail site. They have done everything they could to satisfy me. I have paid no shipping costs whatever. They have been easy to reach by phone and have been most helpful.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, JVC

great sound on music,exellent surround sound

Low sub level,heavy,size

WOW this is a great machine.I haven´t listen to many receivers but i must say this is the best A/V receiver i´ve heard so far.

Keep going Harman

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood KRV-888D,Yamaha DSP-A2,Pioneer VSA-E06,Pioneer VSX-808RDS,Sony STR-DB930

Not to many

Video imaging(switching), all the dsp modes sound quite artificial, overpriced.

Had to return this particular receiver 3 times to my retailer as it had shadowing problems while playing DVDs. It also ran to hot powering my 4ohm (all around) Odeon speakers. Even though HK brags about their 75 amps of current-it is only instantaneous anyway and will not sustain it for more than 900ms. Sure the features are nice and gimicky, but all in all this unit is over priced and has too many problems out of the box-I believe the last time I checked things like this should run at least 10 years without any signs of deteoration; I might be wrong.

However, my problems ended when I purchased the Marantz SR 8000. Sure it did not have all the fancy-shmancy dsp modes like the dead HK(3weeks old) but when I ran them with the same setup the difference was incredible. (I had both receivers at home at the time and the Marantz was not broken in yet.) To say the least my 8000 costs about the same as the HK but this time my receiver did not go into suspend mode do to overheating and or current starvation, but flawlessly crancked out every nuance of info that was ment to be. Needless to say the HK is long gone. The Marantz SR 7000 is almost the same as the 8000 except for HDAMs and has 5W/ch less.

To wrap up. If you want a headache in a box. Go ahead and buy this over priced HK product but, be warned there are a hell of a lot of other products in its price range that sound and perform much better even though they don't brag about their specs.

MARANTZ rocks HK.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz SR7000 and 8000.

Audio Clarity, Automatic Surround Sound Mode Detection, Logic 7 implementation for 2 channel sources

Manual stinks, Component video switching is apparently not wideband (i.e. no HDTV capability), depth of unit (know your cabinetry dimensions before you buy this piece)

I've been using this unit for just about 3 months now. During that time, I have experienced no problems whatsoever. The unit appears to be well built and sounds great with a variety of sources (2 channel CD, DVD, MD, DTS CD, VHS, satellite).

Overall sound quality is excellent and the unit was very easy to integrate into my Philips Pronto remote. The unit doesn't really have some discrete remote codes that I would have liked to see, but I was able to work around these with a few tricks in my Pronto macros fairly easily.

I purchased the receiver as part of a package deal with the Atlantic Technology System 350 THX Ultra speaker system. It was a great buy and well worth my money. I would make the same purchase again in a heartbeat.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz, Pioneer Elite, Yamaha

Amp design, build quality, asthetics, remote, user friendlyness, features, unmatched surround proccessing, and incredible AKM DACS.

None so far

This unit absolutely rocks! I auditioned and researched many units and this unit just took out everything in its way. The sound quality is something that I would expect to hear in an amp/preamp combo. Remote is also excellent, one of the best OEM that I've seen. I haven't had any problems with the unit thus far, it has been performing excellent. The AKM dacs blow away the burr brown that I was using in my CD player previously. I love the memory for each surround/input that is used, it is very convenient. Surround sound is so effortless, intense action scenes exhibit no downgrade in performance, it just keeps on pumping. My albums have been livened by the incredibly rich, detailed, full and LIVE sound. I never liked HK before so I decided to give them a try..all I can say is I love this darn thing.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha

Wonderfull sound. tone, blend, and transparency are outstanding

Size

This is an awesome receiver. I havent had it very long but I have been impressed thus far. I am a musician, and although I don't have the anal-retentive attention to detail of most audiophiles I know what makes good audio. The 7000 delivers stunning clarity and output across the frequency domain, but by far the most impressive aspect of the HK amp is the transparincy of the reproduced sound. Transparency means that you can hear all the separate parts of a peice and none of the background parts get "drowned out". one of the major drawbacks to repoduced audio is that amps tend to make the sound more opaque and even though the music doesn't sound distorted it is. Not so with this reciever. I am very impressed with this
device.

after looking at previous reviews I fear that the few low
reviews might dissuade somone from getting this reciever. DONT LET THEM! I would like to address one complant in particualr. There is a previous review wich states that the current specs. show this to be an inefficient reciver. this is COMPLETELY untrue this man has been misinformed. power is the product of voltage and current, so for constan power (say 100W) the higher the voltage the lower the current and the higher the current the lower the voltage. Also, it is true that you loose more power with a lot of current going through a wire than with a hi voltage across a wire (thus "High Voltage power lines"). The reviewer in question took these to facts and concluded wrongly that HK choose to use high current instead of hi voltage and thus had an inefficient design. The fact of the matter is that the voltage/current ratio is not controled by the reciever. The only factor in determining that ratio is speaker impedence. This means that most of the time the HK is outputing the same voltage/current ratio as any other receiver on the market. Where the high current capability comes in is when the speakers demand low voltage and high current. when a speaker demands high current most recievers, unable to meet the demand, just chop off the current (and the voltage as well v=IR) creating distroted signal. In the case of the 7000 when a speaker makes such a demand the the extra current can be suplied and the signal remains intact. So while it's true that transmition is less inefficient durring thoes periods of high current demand than it is durring peridos of lo current consumption, it's better than the distortion you would get with any other reciever. This is by far the best design for an amp.

Power, Logic 7, VMAX, number of digital inputs, night listening, and much more. It is a complete receiver

You need a y-connector to bi-amp using an outboard amp and the onboard amps, SIZE. This thing is huge!

If you are looking for a receiver that currently "does it all", this is it.

Only thing lacking is DD and DTS EX 6.1.

This thing has "power to spare" and the transparancy of the surround audio-ambience is second to none. It is truly "room filling".

It also allows you to select crossover frequency for each mode if applicable.

All in all, it is a great piece and I have seen it priced as low as $999. This is a STEAL for hardware of this power, build and quality.

JAC

Similar Products Used:

AVR-80, AVR-65, AVR-500

Torodial Power Transformer
Decent DAC'S
Decent Digital I/O's

It is AN HK product
No Digital Auto Detect

Pursuant to my crack smoking habit, I own a whim, purchased a 7000. I must attest, it sounds great. I am running PSB Stratus speakers and they sound great. The 4800 I previously owned seemed to be lacking soul. I mean, I truly wanted to love it, but it truly seemed to be lacking. I do miss the ability to superimpose whatever soundfield over the Dolby Digital bitstream and the aformentioned digital auto detect which is huge with my digital cable which switches b/w digital and analog. What scares me however is the QC poblems which seem to curse many a HK product. However, the only reciever which holds a candle ,in stereo, is the NAK which is an absurdly good sounding reciever lacking 6 channel inputs (SACD compatibility). Well if you are here I suppose you are aware of the pitfalls of ownership. Personally, if I did not have 4-ohm speakers, I would go with the Onkyo TX-DS797 which offers all the new formats and 24/192 DAC's, 6x100. However the power supply is not near as stout and the output power is lower even though specified the same.

Similar Products Used:

Denon's AVR-2800,3300,4800. Nakamichi AV-10 HK AVR 75 (have owned or currently own)

Power, versatility

Too high of MSLP for the problems I've had

After having four of these things sent to me, I experienced the same problem with three of them and a different problem with number two of four. My other components are:

Sony DVP-S550 DVD player
JVC HR-S9600U S-VHS VCR
HK FL8550 CD player w/ HDCD
Sony 32" Trinitron TV
Soon to be upgraded Infinitys: RS5 mains, RS3 rears, CC3 center, BU-120 Sub

Everything is plugged into a Monster Cable HTS1000 power conditioner.

When pausing a DVD or CD, or muting the receiver in any mode EXCEPT stereo mode, the receiver produces a "popping" noise through my speakers. Three, yes, THREE receivers have had this problem--one that I am very reluctant to live with. The other receiver had a problem with the subwoofer output cutting out at volume levels -43dB and -35dB--one click either way on the volume knob and the subwoofer comes back on. From what I've read on this website, this is not the only HK model w/ Dolby Digital/DTS to have this specific "popping" problem.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to what has caused this or any solutions for future buyers? Am I doing something wrong? The last one I got was hooked up line-by-line according to HKs manual only to be disappointed--AGAIN. My opinion now is "Buyer Beware!!!" I sent the last one back to HK's product engineer to be "tested". No one seems willing to give a straight answer, only new receivers with the same problems. If you are hell-bent on purchasing this receiver, there are great deals on the internet for around $950. My suggestion would be to find someone who sells it, and more importantly has one in the store, hooked up and ready to test out.

See you HK (including the FL8550)--My Sony STR-DA777ES and CDP-CA80ES are on the way...

Similar Products Used:

Sony STR-DA777ES, Denon AVR3300

Great Reciever, power, features, suround modes (not the stupid ones), pre-in/pre-out loops

Low sub volumes on logic 7 C/M, even when set to small. Sometimes the thing does not power up right after falling asleep?

The 7000 in my mind is a great unit. Almost every reciever out their has some kind of problems. My fathers Denon AVR 3300 Remote was dead out of the Box. Onkyo's have both volume problems and center channel noise. I'm not at all disapointed with the 7000. I have it hooked up to a Signature 2.1 5 channel amp for the center and Bi-amped the fronts. The 7000 is powering the rears. I love the pre-in/pre-out loops. I can use the multi-room with the 7000 amps for running to a diffrent room. Logic 7 is great with music, I think better than 5 channel stereo, but lacking good sub volume. Something strange, when I had the AVR 500 Eagle's DVD had great bass in dts. Now with the 7000, the bass is gone. All other dts movies work fine??? I've had no volume problems or clicking in this unit. The AVR 500 did, but I heard that problem is fixed now. By the way, the HK's are warmer than most of the other recievers I tested. What I mean by warmer is greater detail, and less hiss at low volumes. Go by how the reciever sounds, not the power rating! Also, not to forget, HDCD it sounds great.

Equipment I have follows:

Hitachi sbx53 inch tv
Pansonic DVDA120 DVD Player
Onkyo DVC170 CD Player
RCA Directv Sat
HK AVR 7000 Reciever
HK Signature 2.1 (100 x 5 very High Current, 900 watts out of the wall)
Sony MDSJE 330 Mini Disc (Great format)
Polk RT55 in the front (Bi-amped, great sound for bookshelves)
Polk CS 400 Center (Huge)
Polk FX 300I (Bipole/Dipole) for the rears
Polk PSW650 For the sub (Very Clean Sub)
Monster Cable all around

Best Reciever I could get for $900
Got the amp for $600

Similar Products Used:

HK AVR 65 (Never a problem >10,000 serial number), HK AVR 500 (two went bad, volume problems, dsp died) Onkyo 676 (Bad center channel noise at low volumes) JVC 8000 (Sucked!)