I am a serious audiophile and former radio engineer and have been using an AVR 125 for a dozen years. I have superb speakers and a good listening environment. When I bought this receiver I compared it to just about every other unit I could and sonically, the AVR was vastly superior to all of the others. Strong suits are extremely quiet operation (the spec is -95dbm),
a fine "grain" to the sound, obviously low TIM and extremely smooth and detailed response.
Items that are important to me are the ability to bypass the tone controls (I built a variable response crossover for my speakers that eliminates the need for these and the resultant
phase shift they introduce), a configuration that bypasses all of the signal processing, variable gain controls for all speakers for each input and lots of AVR inputs that can be used optically or
at line level. The optical inputs work very well. Using a Sony CX355 CD player for instance, the AVR decodes the optical signal much better than the CD player; the sound quality is much better. The tape outputs do not work with optical decoding however. I was also pleased with the quality of the components and conservative ratings. Mine has thousands of hours of hard use with no issues. I would recommend this receiver with almost no reservations. If I had found a better sounding receiver in the past decade I would have bought it. You'll be happy with this fine unit.
One note to those who have experienced level differences from one channel to another. There is selectable attenuation for each speaker for every input. This is accessed through the front panel "channel" button and must be preset properly for each input.

Looks great and sounds awesome.

I don't have any to lists.

I have had this receiver for almost 3 years and this unit is still making me smile. Harman K. has made me a believer of their technology. Very conservatively rated power for receiver(Harman is know for that) because it has plenty of muscle and delivers a beautiful warm sound to my horns. It has plenty of soundfield and connection options for me. I have had no issues at all with this unit even though it's a refurb. I feel bad for the guy who reported difference in volume issues. I recently puchased some Bose 301 series V and man is unit making those baby's sound good!!!!!!

Customer Service

Haven't needed it.

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Sony, Onkyo, Pioneer and like this by far more than any of those I've had.

clarity, can get loud, plenty of svideo inputs/digital audio inputs. hefty size, feels like good quality. remote ergonomics Looks terrific (tho the 130 looks better now)

no component switching, but at this price non have that. Cant rename inputs on display like sonys. Wish 4 rear sets of inputs instead of 3 + 1 front. Remote programability (have Logitech 658 Universal now anyways, so its a non issue to me)

I love this receiver. I bought it for 190 and think its a steal at that price. The quality of the sound is terrific.. i have not had the FR low level issue the other reviewer had. Movies sound good, but acoustic music w/ Logic7M or PLII-Music sounds terrific. Im not using top end speakers either, just HTS20 Infinity HTiB speakers. This DOES run hot in an enclosed space, but now I have it on an external rack and have no issues. despite the 45x5 rating, this receiver can get more than loud enough, I RARELY turn it up past -15, usually have it at -25-20. it could get much louder... then again i dont have power hungry speakers either.

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Onkyo, Sony, Logitech HTiB

3/3 optical AND Coax inputs, power power power, highly configurable, DTS

I'm told it runs hot

This baby sounds great. What really turned me on to it was the 6(!) digital inputs. 3 coaxial and 3 optical TOSlink. Most other receivers in this class only have 3 total. I was told by the salesman to not put any HK in any cabinet, as they run hot and need to 'breath'. This was no problem for me, especially at the price. The unit offers a lot of control over sound. The remote isn't that great, but they rarely are. Very satisfied.

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Technics

various functions

awful reliability

Just bought it from hk ebay store, the price is awsome, but unfortunately the volume of front right speaker is much smaller than all the others. You need to incease the volume upto 7 db louder to get the balance sound. Very disappointed. Although this is a refurbished one, but I guess they didn't even test it at all after the recondition work. I really think they had a serious reliability problem. Why? You can find a bunch of refurbished hk receviers on the market. My previous avr65 also die after 1.5year. Will never buy any hk product from now on.

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avr-65

easy set up, price

volume only goes to plus 10, could go louder but very clear at top volume so really no complaints

this reciever is great for the money,fairly easy to set up, using my avr125 with quest towers,rears,center, and sub, music sounds great as do dvd,s, cant complain about anything so far.

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first reciever, will have to stick with h.k

Very easy to set up.Good remote for low end.Power like most 75 or 100 watt avr's although rated 55x2,45x5

one pre out,SW,BUT,if you gotta have mega power you gotta have the rest and you ain't buyin' the 125 anyway.

Needed a cheap bedroom set up,got a great avr.The 125 is the best of the $300 and under I tried,and I tried Yamaha,Onkyo,even Denon of which I am an owner and fan.We all know HK tries to rate power honestly,a real 55 watts sounds better than a fake 100 watts.The kicker is the sound with music/sacd,dvda etc..VERY nice and a real surprise.I have 15k in my dedicated HT room,the lowly 125 still impressed me.I was gonna spend about $500 on an avr,found this one used in perfect shape at a bargain for sure.I would have been glad to pay $300 if I knew it would perform so well.I have not had it long but unless it blows up I'm well satisfied.

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Pioneer,Onkyo,Yamaha,Denon

5.1, digital ins and outs, flexibility in setup of audio components.

none so far, unless you consider the power output to be light, but then you can pony up for a bigger amp like the AVR 325....

Good Product, sounds good for the power output. Had a older Kenwood, this has better sound even though the rated power is less, using Infinity SL micro satellites, with a 150W Infinity Entra sub. Have the reciever set up so the speakers don't get the 100Hz and below signal, leave that to the sub.

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older Kenwood KR-V107R