Official Harman Kardon AVR 1600/2600/3600 owner's thread

Yay, my first time starting a new receiver thread!

Just received the AVR 2600 from jr.com. I currently have the previous gen 254. Out of the box the 2600 the first thing I noticed was the rounded corners, a first for HK. Reminds me of the new Marantz. Here are some pics of the unit and the GUI. Pardon the dust!

Just some quick observations-

Notice the Dolby Volume in a couple of areas. The overlay has the symbol and the calibration on the GUI.

Also the buttons are smaller than previous gens. Seem kinda cheap. The text description is above them and hard to read in low light compared to the dark text on the aluminum buttons on the previous models.

I do like the jack covers. Never a fan of seeing the connections on front.

Not that this means anything but out of the box without running EzSet it sounds better than the 254.

One thing I didn't include in a pic is that on the bottom is a "system info" area with the software version and "upgrade" for firmware using the USB port! Much better than going to Radio Shack for a stupid cable.

Two pics that will make many people happy! Awesome! No volume overlay though is a bummer. Can't have everything! In my experience with the 254 the first pic with the source menu "resolution from source" always said 1080p because of the processing always on. But with the processing on with the 2600 it now says 720p for both as you can see in the pic. Makes no sense.

The 2600 is displaying it correctly at 720p but the 254 said 1080p which the TV is not.

M Code, I figured that. Makes sense. At least you have the option unlike the 54 series.

As far as Dolby Volume and audio dropping out I'll test that thoroughly tonight when the wife is gone. The audio is delayed a bit after pressing play but not as bad as previous models.

One other little thing I noticed, I guess HK didn't fork over enough cash to have Dolby Volume and Dolby Headphone! It's now called "Harman Headphone". I will try that out too. M Code, you know anything about that?

I have to say the little bit it's been used, a nice upgrade from the 254 I had considering the price I paid. No quirks as of yet.

Alright, I used my PS3 tonight to watch a BR movie. Well the processor was on, (had the overlay) and when I used the bypass I didn't get any picture. It said the resolution from the source was 1080p even though my PS3 doesn't have that resolution checked. So I turn the processor back on (no HDMI bypass) and the picture comes on again. Why won't it accept my 720p from my PS3 to go through directly to the 720p TV I have? But with my Directv box the bypass works fine with those resolutions.

On another note, Dolby Volume is working great with commercials. I think it works better than the Denon I had with Dynamic Volume. I can actually tell a difference with Dolby.

Should be any day. Killer deal btw.

I tried out "Harman Headphone" last night. Sounded great. I don't miss Dolby Headphone. They did a good job with it.

I saw that too. Definitely a possibility since they have nothing on their site. CircuitCity got rid of them, maybe Best Buy will too. Though it does look like Onkyo will be Magnolia only so they might have the lower model HK's.

After playing with it more it does have the same delays and dropouts. Like when I fast forward a commercial and then come back to the show the first couple words are not there. I don't see why they never fix this problem. As far as having any handshaking issues I haven't had any.

Never had a problem with Pioneer.

Yeah the audio doesn't come back instantly so you miss words sometimes. To work around it I make sure I stop soon enough before the show starts for the audio to come back on. I mean is the Cirrus Logic posted above only used in HK's? I doubt it but HK is the worst when it comes to instant anything.