The new Harman Kardon AVR1700 - Page 9

Sup AVS'ers.. I just got my Harmon Kardon AVR-1700 delivery by noon EST. I thought I post a few quick pics of the box goods to share with the follwers. Will get it fired up as soon as I have the time.. Really look forward to HDMI everything as that was one of the main reason I made the jump, plus the fact that HK really does deliver in sound

Went to my local Best buy today to pick some stuff up, low and behold two AVR-1700s on the table out front listed as open box for $360 LOL!

I also picked up two of them at the $199.00 price. The Apple Airplay threw me over the edge.

Setup was pretty painless after finding out one of the EZSET/EQ microphones was bad. WARNING - If you have a bad mic, the AVR1700 will keep increasing the volume during setup as it attempts to detect the speakers. This has the effect of sending dangerous signal levels to your speakers which can damage them!!! Keep your hand on the remote and get ready to abort the EZSET process until you have verified all is working.

Back to the Airplay, if you have more than one receiver, they will both be identified as HK AVR1700 on the network. This seems to confuse my iPad, iPhone and iTunes as they will only list one of the two.

Help! - Does anybody know how I can access both of these receivers on the same network via Airplay??

I don't have 2 so I can't say for sure but I know that if you enter the IP address for the receivers you can change the name of the receiver. Maybe giving them different names would show both

Thanks xman,

Router issues were preventing both from showing up. Now that I have that working I can either of both AVR1700s but they have the same name (HK AVR1700). I changed the receiver name by putting in the ip address as you suggested and that seemed to work but unfortunately, it doesn't stick after a power off.

i have 2 also. set up a static ip address in your router using the mac address, that way they always connect to the same ip address.
in vtuner on radioharmankardon.com use the same email and password to set up both favorites folders, go to preferences and set it up to always use the id during login
it will give you an option to choose which receiver to log in to

Can I use the Record Out outputs as a zone 2...RCA to RCA?

If so, does anyone know if the audio coming in through HDMI will play over the speakers hooked up to the receiver and then through those outputs going into my whole home audio system to play the same audio throughout the house? I have a Nuvo Essentia.

I went to my local Best Buy to inquire about availability and price. The guy asked if I needed help and I said, "I'm looking for that Harman Kardon you're trying to get rid of". He replied, "Oh that one for 199" and I said, "Yes!". It was still on display in the store and had the retail sticker for $499. He looked it up in the system and they had 1 NIB that he was going to find. I spotted it right away up on the shelf. He had another guy ring me up and it showed $499! Sale was over Sunday. I told him that the other guy referred to it as being $199, so he called him back over. He thought I was in last week (I wasn't) when they were out of stock and I mentioned other stores were still selling them at the $199 price. He told him to price match the sale price from last week and bought it!

I feel good getting in on this deal and can't wait to hook it up. I have a Polk PSW10 that I picked up for $79.99 on sale last week. Next I'm waiting for the Jamo S426 5.0 setup to go back on sale at Amazon. It was $134 and I hesitated, because people had posted getting it lower.

Should I buy banana clips when I go to hookup the speakers? I'm ordering an RCA cable and Y adapter for the sub.

Thanks for the great feedback in this thread.

While it's not necessary, For a small added price, Bannan plugs provides a cleaner look along with a tad bit less time consuming in plug in connection. Below are 2 pics using the traditional method as I don't plan on removing the speaker wire connections no time soon.

BTW Congrats on your purchasing decision.

Nice looking lead dress, JAYSDAY!

Garrickb, you are going to love your new receiver. Keep in mind that if you use standard dual banana plugs, the receiver jacks are on a 3/4 X 1 inch spacing. This means you will have to wire both positive leads on one dual plug and the negative leads on the other. Of course if you use individual banana plugs it won't matter.

I always have problems getting those wires into the back of those little holes back there, especially if you are working in a tight space. I'd highly recommend these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006U3O566/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

They are reusable so next time you upgrade receivers you'll have them.

Congrats! I got the same deal on the Polk as well as the receiver. I am setting mine up with energy rc micros. I bought all of my equipment for wiring on monoprice including the banana clips. You may want to look there.

Heh-heh, Guess what made it back to to BB site after being removed for a couple of days
> CLick Here & See for yourself


PS: Thanks for the kind words Faulkie

apac,i have 2 avr1700 receivers and use the record out on one receiver as zone 2 into the 2nd avr1700. rca record out to rca audio in. works well for listening to the same music through out the house and in my case the porch too. as long as your nuvo is amplified, i don't see a problem

Guess it was too good of a deal for them to leave online, o far I am simply loving this AVR. I have the Polk PSW10 as the sub which works for my small place. Will need to replace my speakers as well. Have some crappy sony ones I got for free with my tv a few years ago. Any good suggestions that would be cheap enough. The 2 mentioned earlier, Jamos and Energy sound appealing to me.

Wow it went back up to $499. I noticed frys has gone back up too.

I use Revue with my AVR1700 .. When using Netflix on Revue, I get only 2 options as Surround Mode, Auto and Stereo , with Auto the Display reads Multi channel PCM. But unfortunately I don't get any Surround. Using a Yamaha receiver with Revue , I do get Surround on YouTube ... I cant understand the logic behind this.
Revue should be decoding dolby 5.1 and encoding it as Multi channel PCM .. Why could be the difference between Yamaha and AVR1700

I checked it out this evening and this is what I discovered. The REC OUT RCA outputs work great with either analog or digital sources. Most receivers, even those costing over $2000 will limit their Zone 2 analog outputs to analog sources only. The AVR1700 converts digital sources to analog so they can be played through the REC OUT jacks. Another reason why I love this receiver!!!

I confirmed it works with HDMI inputs as well as Airplay. Just be sure to go to the Source Setup via the OSD and select DSP Down mix for your digital sources.

I have the REC OUT connected to an AUDIOSOURCE amp for distribution to the remote zones. I found it a little hissy at the loudest settings but not so much at reasonable listening levels. I can't be sure if it's the AVR1700 or the AUDIOSOURCE amplifier that's the culprit.

Thanks for this! I have been swapping speakers and wires around trying to pinpoint the issue. Every time it hits that 6th attempt, the cracking in my speakers makes me really nervous. Looks like I'll be taking it in for an exchange tomorrow.

Has anyone tried a ps3 with amazon instant streaming or movie rental with the 5.1 Dolby digital? I'm probably setting up mine this weekend. Initially had my heart set on in wall wiring but I think it's just going to be too big of a job with my schedule.

From the manual:
HDMI Audio To TV: This setting determines whether HDMI audio signals are passed through the HDMI Monitor Out connector to the video display. In normal operation, leave this setting at Off, as audio will be played through the AVR. To use the TV by itself, without the home theater system, turn this setting to On. In this case, you will need to mute the TV’s speakers (or switch the setting to Off) when using the AVR for audio.
Edited by SteveClark1000 - 1/10/13 at 7:11am

I experimented with this setting. If i turn it on i get sound from the tv but no sound from the avr. I am assuming your tv needs arc for audio to go back to the avr for sound if you set it to on. My tv does not have arc.

I picked up an open box AVR 1700 at BB for $169. Ultimately I'm going to return it and keep the Onkyo TX-NR809 I got from Amazon for $445. Still, the 1700 is a stonkin' good deal, and an incredible performer. That you can get this kind of quality at such a low price is unbelievable. I was curious about the new power supply, lightweight design and if it could seriously give a higher range model such as the Onkyo a run for the money. If you're on the fence I can assure you not to worry about power delivery for both movies or music.

The 1700 came very close to upending the 809 as the new hub for my home theater (120"/projection/5.1). In the end though it was a few minor issues and not audio performance that factored in my decision to return the unit, bargain that it was:

1. The OSD is limited and the font atrocious - I can live with that, but I couldn't find an easy way to pull up status on surround mode.
2. It won't let you play a non-HDMI audio source with an HDMI input - some times I like to listen to music (with Sonos via optical input) while downloading stuff on the PS3 (to be fair most receivers can't do this, though the 809 can).
3. No easy way to switch movie/music surround modes without using either the front panel or the remote to navigate into the setup menu.

Loved:
* near silent operation
* sound quality
* aesthetics
* no legacy ports (I don't need 'em)
* discount price (it's an insanely good deal)
* relatively cool running temp

For those that decry Harman's decline, I say, whhhhhhat?! Give the 1700 a chance.

Yes. But what do you want to know? It's just DD and sounds pretty good. Not as good as blu-ray HD audio and IME the bass channel is almost always WAY hotter than from blu-rays or DVD discs. Makes me glad my sub has a remote.

I keep reading what a great deal this receiver is, but people keep returning them. IF it worked properly, then YES, it's a great deal.

I picked up one of these a couple weeks ago as well. I have also liked Harman Kardon and I have been in the market for a new AVR to replace my 9 yr old Sony. I had been leaning towards a Denon since it has AirPlay and I really liked the 2312ci but it's been discontinued and the new ones I am not crazy about as far as looks. When I saw the HK now has AirPlay I was sold. Really don't need it now anyways since I have a Apple TV and a AirPort connected. I still like the Denon 1913 since it's 7.1 and 875w but I would never use the 7.1 I would just use the other 2 channels for a outdoor zone. So for $200 and HK being my first choice anyways at first and really good quality I decided it couldn't hurt for the price. Now I have not really configured the audio settings as I am just using the default. I am currently only using it in a 3.1 mode with old Sony Theater in a box speakers as I have just moved into a new house and in the process of getting some good speakers. Anyways, to my surprise with these speakers and default settings it sounds pretty darn good. I really can't complain and can't wait to hear it with the new speakers. Not to mention the HK is just so clean looking in the entertainment center. It has good volume but IMO probably could use some more volume for my liking but maybe that is just because of the speakers it's pushing right now. I will make that determination once I have good speakers behind it to drive.

The one thing I do not like about it is the on screen menu, AirPlay and features are kind of cheesy looking compared to Denon. You would think HK with the quality they offer could have a better GUI and I wish they offered more music apps or any at all like the Denon has. Of course all this can be upgraded and resolved with a firmware update so maybe in time that will come and is not a deal breaker as it doesn't have anything to do with the performance. So for the price I got it at I can't complain at all.

Reliability is proving to be excellent. Returns will happen when people buy this unit because of the price then realise it is missing a feature they need when a simple web search would have clued them in.

Yes, the avr 1700 works as advertised and is a true value. I spent a lot more on my last h/k...I like this one better.

I spoke too soon. Swapped the AVR at Best Buy and I'm still getting this issue. I have some Energy Take Classics on the way to replace the Polk TL150s to see if that helps.

Just recently picked this up for an apartment I only use occasionally. Have it paired with the Andrew Jones Pioneer Towers, Center Channel, and Bookshelf as well as an old sub I need to upgrade. While its not the center of my primary system, I have to say I am really liking it. If you can pick it up for the $199 it seems to routinely go on sale for, it is a steal. Here's the components I have connected to it, all via HDMI:


All work flawlessly, plus Airplay. Fantastic bargain that is very well suited to an all HDMI system. Love it! And LOVE my Pioneers and Andrew Jones!

So I received my Slinglink Turbo 4 port power line kit and went to hook it up but unfortunately I have a defective unit and now have to wait for the replacement to get here. In all honesty I probably should have just purchased an additional Airport Express to run a LAN cable to my AVR 1700.