I had this receiver for almost one year. At first I was very excited, then I grew tired of it after a while. I don't agree on the mentioning of its ability to be musical. I had a hard time enjoying music after the first couple of months. Although I do believe that I read somewhere that the 85 was bright and should not be matched with bright speakers. Which I had, I am using Paradigms all the way around. Anyways, after about a year I sold the unit and I am enjoying music all over again. But, this is not to bash the HK. IMHO the HK is a great receiver. It served me well. I never had one single problem with it. As mentioned before. It should have had 6 channel input, without it, I can not give it 5 stars. Had it had this feature I would have given 5.

I work for a company that sells the Harman Kardon line. www.sounddistributors.com. I ended up getting the AVR-85 for my personal home theater system. For a receiver (not a seperate tuner and amplifier) This unit sounds perfect. It has plenty of power to drive the Overture 3 speakers in my home theater system. the only draw back is if DTS becomes popular - I will have to purchase a seperate decoder becuse it is only Dolby Digital - no DTS. Otherwise I love it and would recommend it to anyone.

look elegant. easy to use. sound great

cheap remote, no 5.1 direct input

The AVR85 is an awesome receiver. plenty of power to drive the most demanding speaker. its much better looking and have more power than the new AVR500. music reproduction is excelent. DVD movie on DD sound great. i don't understand why someone could returned it for an Onkyo ???

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Counterpoint

looks, power, clarity, remote, warranty in my case

women with long hair!, none on the unit that I have found.

If you can find one of these at Circuit City then you can get a pretty good deal on them at this point in time. I left the store with a final price of 456.00 and that includes the 5-year warranty. Because of that price I gave it a 5 in value. As for performance, I went home and setup my system. I wasn’t happy with the power output that I was receiving and the bass seemed weak... I called CC and asked why the unit was performing in this way and they claimed that it should be ready to play normally straight out of the box... WRONG I read through the manual and discovered that the front speakers were set to SMALL... So after the push of a button this receiver did a complete turnaround. So even though people are bashing the remote don’t be lulled into the thought that the remote is worthless because you can only access the menus through the remote. Yeah the clarity and bass are top notch and the looks are a plus also. I would say that if you can get your hands on a BRAND NEW unit WITH a remote for under 500.00 then you have accomplished something worth telling your friends about. Also I haven’t had to turn up the receiver past -10 dbs so the power is definitely there.

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Pioneer, Kenwood, Teac, JVC

the all out clarity of this very fine unit

none at the price i paid for it!

i was one of the lucky people to buy mine at ubid.com. i purchased mine brand new with a full warranty for $409.00. i replaced an old Yamaha receiver and when i hit the switch i was amazed at the bass and the clarity. if you are still looking to buy one i would suggest eyeing ubid until they come back with more.

Clean power and AC-3 RF demoulator for laserdisc.

Remote, no on-screen menu under S-Video, no 6-channel inputs.

Why are these people complaining about the DTS. DTS? That’s right! This unit does not have that feature. Let go back in time... How many receiver(s) do you know in the late 1997 or early 1998 that actually have DTS feature? Hummmmm... I am having very difficult time trying to find even one. AVR 85 was introduced in late 1997. I purchased mine in 1998. DTS were exclusively used by movie theaters and some ultra high-end audiophiles. O.K. Here's the point... AVR 85 is an old unit therefore it didn’t have the features you would except from today’s system! Enough said about the DTS and AVR 85... This unit has good clean sound; however, it has a lously remote for this high end unit.

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McIntosh, Carver, and Sony.

High power and great, very great dynamic capability.

Not so user friendly as others models are. Cheap remote.

OK!!! It's no so user friendly. You have to manual switch
the input selection if you have a digital connection. The remote it's not so nice and easy to use. But, what about
the sound and the ability to create a great and powerfull scene all around you.
You don't have to look at but to listen to.