The new Harman Kardon AVR1700 - Page 16

Is there an audio setting in your cable box?

I have the same towers at front, they are fine.

No settings and the problem isn't the cable signal - bc then it would be dropping furing the actual programming. It only drops when there is a transition.

this price is good until next THU night...

Was in the Fry's in Downers Grove today, and they had at least 12 stacked up, but were signed $499....wish I had seen the Ad, would have picked up another one!

That is because the commercials are in stereo whereas the game is in Dolby Digital. So there is a momentary audio drop when the different signal has to be detected and processed by the receiver. Some receivers handle this better than others.

Amazon has this for $199, free shipping. It's OOS temporarily, but will ship when in.

Anyone know how this compares to the Yamaha v473? I almost pulled the trigger until I saw this on sale for $100 less.

The Yamaha has Standby Pass Through if that matters plus component video inputs/outputs. Also the 4K video

The HK has 6 HDMI inputs on back, Yamaha only 4.

Otherwise the features are very similar.

I was able to connect my HK AVR 1700 using a Linksys N300 (E1500) router. The main modem and router is on the first floor and the reciever is setup in the basement. So i had to modify the firmware to a dd-wrt (followed instructions from here http://davidvielmetter.com/tricks/turn-your-linksys-e1500-into-a-wireless-repeater/). Set the router up as a repeater bridge. Network settings says connected and can now listen to vTuner. Problem is the HK app on my iphone does not detect the receiver.

I read some reviews in the app store that said power cycling your receiver using the hard switch on the back for 30 seconds will fix the issue. I found if that didn't, just go into the network settings in the OSD and go from automatic --> manual --> automatic (then hit apply and save). It should show up within a few minutes after that (hopefully).

Thanks U2Edge. I've taken those steps several times to no avail, as well as changing some of the settings on my router. I just decided to punt on the iPhone App for the time being. I'll revisit in a couple of months to see if the bugs have been worked out. I did spend some time programming the AVR's remote with surprisingly good results!

Have u guys had to adjust the a/v lip sync delay much?

I finally ran the EQ thing which seems to have affected the delay...I don't remember what I manually set to before running the EQ tool, but the a/v delay was at 0 and the lip movement/sound seemed okay...

The EQ tool set the distance right correctly (13 feet to center/fronts/sub and 9 feet to rears) and level to fronts was set to -2dB, sub was set to -4dB and everything else was 0...

After running the EQ tool, and just by eyeballing it, it appears 53mS seems to match up the lip movement with the sound. This seems high because I have never really needed to adjust this before on any of my Onkyo receivers...

If it makes a difference, I have the 70" Aquos 6400U connected with some mono price 6' HDMI cables...

I am getting a wireless adapter for the receiver and how would you set it up on the network so it is recognized? I heard that you need to input the MAC address? Where do I get the MAC address to input? thanks so much!

Jen,

I know how to get the MAC address for the RECEIVER. If that is what you're looking to do, go to:

Control Panel --> Network and Sharing Center --> See Full Map (top right if your layout is like mine) --> if you mouse over the AVR 1700 logo, a little "tip box" should pop up and reveal the AVR 1700's MAC address.

Not sure if that helped or not, but...

EDIT: You'll also need your receiver's MAC address if you want to do the vTunes login (to create favorites, etc.)

My pleasure. Sorry it didn't resolve it. Initially, it was flaky for me too, as to when it would/wouldn't recognize the receiver. It's been pretty steady lately. I'm GUESSING assigning a permanent IP to the receiver will help as if you have a power outage in your house and your router resets, it MIGHT assign a different IP to your receiver otherwise and then the receiver might not be recognized by the app for a little while.

Just an FYI re: monoprice cables -- I had some el cheapos from monporice connecting my receiver to my TV (got "sparkles" in my SD programming that I didn't otherwise get with my previous receiver) and/or the PS3 flickers somewhat frequently when pushing Deep Color video. I found just getting a slightly more expensive cable fixed (SD issue) or minimized (PS3 deep color issue) the problems. The reviews on Blue Rigger cables at Amazon are spectacular. I got my first one awhile ago -- and just four more again Thursday -- and they are built very well and aren't too pricey.

Many thanks- I am awaiting the delivery of my Wireless adapter and wanted to be pro-active in getting the right information to make set-up a breeze- thank you so very much for the feedback!

My pleasure. I hope it helped as opposed to steering you in the wrong direction!

What kind of wireless adapter are you ordering? These unit (I'm pretty sure) won't accept a USB wireless adapter being plugged in directly.

I believe you'll need to use a wireless bridge like this. It receives the wireless signal and then converts it back to use a physical network cable (CAT5) which you would plug directly into the network port on the AVR 1700. You would need to supply the CAT5 cable.

If you are talking about using a wireless adapter that plugs directly in the unit, then let me know if it works - I'm guessing it won't. If it doesn't, you'll need to take the wireless bridge route.

the mac address is also in the osd network set up

I had to set my delay at 25ms, that seemed high to me as well. As long as it works, I'm happy.

Had the same problem and went into my router setting and disabled the IGMP. I have fios and it seems like that has fix the problem for others as well.

I've had the AVR 1700 set up on my main level for awhile now. Got it tweaked to what I believe to be the "sweet spot" for sound. In the meantime, I was able to find two Pioneer Elite VSX-50 open box receivers (no remote) for sub-$200 at Best Buy. The extra inputs are a bit overkill for me (I only need three HDMI inputs ATM, no component/composite/etc.). The VSX-50 seems to have more features, but since Airplay is the one I'd be most interested in, it is somewhat of a wash as the 1700 has it as well.

Anybody have an opinion as to what I should expect in terms of audio quality between the AVR 1700 and the Elite VSX-50? I know HK has a great legacy, but I hear a lot of people say that this 1700 is mediocre compared to HKs of yesteryear.

With audio quality (and video quality) being my most important factors (versus inputs and features), which one would you opt for? Cost isn't a big factor since they were both right at ~$200. I know the Elite has some video processing...will I notice a big difference if I'm not watching stuff like Netflix video streaming?

Thanks in advance. Either gonna go with two HKs or the pair of Elites.
Edited by U2Edge - 1/27/13 at 3:00pm

I think you should go read reviews on the elites then read reviews on the HK.... I own a HK and I'll never buy another one, I'm thinking about going with an elite next.

There's only a combined 19 reviews on the 50 between Amazon and Best Buy (the first few results to come up in a google search). CNET doesn't have any, Vanns doesn't have any and this forum doesn't have any. I couldn't even find a dedicated thread re: the receiver.

If I go to Amazon/BB for reviews on the 1700, the vast majority of them are five-star reviews and they praise the sound quality.
Edited by U2Edge - 1/27/13 at 2:59pm

Wow! When did this change? I haven't read the fine print in too long, I guess. I'm sure their Friday ad prices used to be good through the next Tues, then a 2-day sale ad would come on Wednesday. Then repeat the cycle.

Thanks for pointing it out.

I finally got most of my system setup (3.1 for now). The family watched Dark Knight Rises and I was very impressed. My wife actually said it got too loud, so now I need to tweak the settings. My daughter was on the floor, about 5ft from everything and she jumped during the first action sequence.

Here is what I ended up with:

AVR: HK 1700 (Best Buy: $199)
Sub: Polk PSW10 (Amazon: $79.99)
Front L/R: JBL ES80's (Fry's: 274/pair)
Center: JBL EC35 (very happy that I picked up this barely used for $70)

I want to set it up so the dialogue from the center channel is loud enough to hear, even when people are talking quietly. But, I don't want to have to turn it down when the dialogue transitions to lots of loud action.

I didn't run the EzSet, because I didn't have time to connect the surrounds yet. I set the crossover for the Front L/R to 60hz (actual freq. = 45hz+), the center to 80hz (actual freq. = 75hz+) and the Sub is set to 10 inches. The increments are Large, 40, 60, 80, etc.... Distance is about 11ft for the front 3 and 10 for the sub.

Thanks for the help!

There is a night/midnight mode (don't recall what they called it on the AVR-1700) that raises the dialogue level. It's intended for use when you want to be able to turn it up loud enough to hear dialogue yet not shake the house and/or if you live in an apartment and don't want to disturb your neighbors.

How's the audio quality in this mode? Audyssey's Dynamic Volume is supposed to be the best at this, but for budget reasons I went with the AVR 1700. I live in an apartment, so night mode is going to be on almost always.

Also, is there any chance someone with equipment for doing an input lag test could find out if a 1080p HDMI signal with 5.1 Dolby has any additional delay going through the receiver as opposed to connected directly to the television? I'm a gamer and input lag is a big thing for me, but I don't have the equipment to test. I'd be extremely grateful.

Anyone having problems when using ipod via USB?

When I start playing a song it will go flawless for half of the song and then the sound stutters and goes quiet. The receiver happily thinks it is playing on, but there is no sound until I manually select another song to play...

Update after 2 weeks with the HK AVR1700

I finally have the full 5.1 up and running (just received my surround speakers and sub at the end of last week)

HK AVR1700
Infinity Reference Five fronts
Polk RM 8 center (probably need to upgrade this)
Polk RC60i ceiling surrounds
Klipsch RW 12d

Yup, a bit of this and a bit of that, but stereo sounds very smooth and movies are fantastic. I used EZset/EQ and it certainly set the speakers better than I had done manually, but this is my first attempt at doing so with any system. I suspect I can tweak it a bit manually now to make it a bit better, but I'm really happy so far. I have also hooked the AVR to my network. I downloaded the HK s/w, found my music directory and then found my receiver on the network. Since I could see it I went to the receiver and started listening to my music from my PC right away. The whole process took about 10 minutes.

I have also installed the Android app and it worked right off the bat. My BR and DVD movies work great and my DirecTV does also. I've found I like the Logic 7 for most TV and movies while depending on the music, Logic 7 or traditional stereo seem best. I decided before I purchased the AVR that I'd use a splitter if I ever thought I needed to watch TV without the AVR, but so far I can't imagine watching without the AVR.

I've not experienced any of the issues others have reported - I don't have a PS3 and I don't use Apple products. Those two seem to be the cause of most "problem" posts I've seen. I'm certainly not an expert (obviously, look at my speakers!) but I have to say I'm very impressed with the quality of the audio (the Infinity's have never sounded so good) of the AVR and the options. You certainly need to download and read the manual to get the most of this AVR, but for the $200 I paid at BB I don't think I could have done better.