The new Harman Kardon AVR1700 - Page 20

THank you- OSD is now working. I want to use ARC because that is the only way I can have sound from my tv and by running JUST HDMI cable for this purpose, I no longer need to use RCA"S, composites, ect. I used to use the headphone jack out from LG Smart TV with a splitter to RCA's to the back of my old-school Sony 2 channel amp. Perhaps I am not understanding yet- however, if i want all audio signals decoded through HDMI my Audio Receiver Channel must be on.

Press the "dim" button on the remote. It's on the bottom above the fast forward button.

Tried that and the DISC light at top of remote came on and turned red.

Thanks a lot for your help, I really appreciate it. I ordered the speakers from HK's online site since they were cheaper than Amazon and the AVR 1700 from Amazon. Hopefully it will get here before Friday and I can have the weekend to hook everything up and test it out. When I get some time I'm going to delve more into home theater/sound system setups on the forums here and online so I can be more versed in it, but I really appreciate you taking the time answer my newbie question.

You're quite welcome.

Did you just now order? I assumed that the setup was HDMI or optical. It is s video and component video. That is some old school stuff and I am not sure now that it will work without some adaptations. Sorry.

CANCEL THAT SPEAKER ORDER!
Edited by Bond 007 - 2/5/13 at 9:28pm

Press the AVR button first then press the dim button.

Nah, I actually ordered them before I made my first post here and asked my question on my lunch hour. But, I didn't want to say I had already purchased them though in case they wouldn't work together so I said I was "looking at purchasing them"

I did one day shipping on the AVR 1700 via Amazon Prime but didn't get the green guaranteed delivery date, but it says estimated by Friday.

I looked at doing second day air on the speakers from HK but the shipping on it was crazy from them like $76 dollars just for shipping so I stayed with free ground shipping.

Perfect- thank you! Hitting the AVR button first is what activated DIM:)

The speakers may not work. Its some old school specialty hk system. No wonder they are selling it so cheap. Im not saying it wont work because I am not that familiar with the 1700 but I guess we will have to just wait and see.

The speakers will work just fine with the 1700.

Hopefully you didn't pay more than $199 for the 1700.

Thats good news. I think she can do better though with her money.

Where is it on sale for $199?

$199 is what I paid for them

Probably so, I'm new to this so definitely open for suggestions on a decent 2.1 setup for under $300 that will be in a bedroom, but I may need to do that in the speaker forum since this is the AVR 1700 thread. I only mentioned it here because I was needing speakers to work with the AVR 1700 since it's what I purchased.

Also, side note I have a pair of XY chromosomes, not XX

Harman Kardon - http://www.harmankardon.com/estore/hk/us/products/HKTS-200/HKTS%20200_HK_US?skuId=HKTS%20200BQ_HK_US&searchMode=regularProductOnly

or Haman Audio - http://www.harmanaudio.com/Search_Browse/product_detail.asp?urlMaterialNumber=HKTS%20200BQ&status=

They are talking about $199 for the receiver not the speakers.

Oh, that was my bad I mis-read the post. Unfortunately, I didn't get that on sale, at least not that $199 BestBuy deal that people were getting earlier. I paid $333 on Amazon.

Perhaps they will reply with something besides hope and save you some money. Take a look at this:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10906&cs_id=1090601&p_id=9774&seq=1&format=3#specification

I agree. I'm sure there are much better systems out there for $200.

Oh wow. I think most people in this thread invested in this receiver for the price. Don't get me wrong, I like this receiver much better than my onkyo HTIB receiver but for the price you paid you may have been better off with a higher end receiver. For example, I think the Denon 1613 is close to this price range.

Nice find, well reviewed.

So I just set this up yesterday and so far things are going well. I have a couple of questions:

1) Where is HDMI 4? I flip through all the inputs, and nothing says "HDMI 4". I see 1-3, 5-6 and some optical/component inputs, but no HDMI 4.

2) When setting up my Harmony remote, it doesn't have "HDMI 1, 2, 3...". Instead, it has "Sat, TV, DISC, etc...". That was really frustrating to find which was which. (not really a question - just an annoyance).

3) I cannot get this thing to work on my network. I have it directly connected to my router. I tried using the HK android app - at first it found my receiver but could not connect. Now it can't even find my receiver. I can find my PC, but can't stream anything from it. I have everything set to "AUTO" with networking.

4) When playing some DVR'd shows, it seems the audio is really mumbled/garbled for several seconds, then becomes clear. This was repeatable. And one show it was completely garbled the entire time so we couldn't watch it (and it was Downton Abbey, so my wife went NUTS!). It was like we had great picture but hardly any audio. I hope it's not defective.

I have everything hooked up with brand new high quality HDMI cables.

Overall, I like it and the sound quality is excellent. But I'm still tweaking...thanks for any help!

Refer to page 13 in the manual for answers to your HDMI inputs. There's a table which shows which input is the preferred assignment to a corresponding component. Input 4 is labeled as Aux - Comp. Video/Audio, but is just another HDMI port. You don't have to use those assignments however, since the remote allows you to assign whatever button to whatever HDMI port.

I used to use a universal remote to create macros (you can also do this with this remote), but once you program the correct codes to your other components and assign them to the HK remote, it's not really a big hassle to turn things on or off manually.

I'm only running a center channel only right now - wonder if that's the cause of my audio problems...? There's no way to select a center channel only on the receiver, so maybe that's why the sound is mumbled? Or maybe the receiver is auto selecting a sound mode that doesn't work well with just a center channel only. Still waiting for my new speaker to get delivered.
Edited by bgstewar - 2/6/13 at 3:51pm

Edited by SC Trojan - 2/6/13 at 5:05pm

That would be a big problem. You need left and right speakers at a minimum.

Don't you love it when someone posts and leaves out small details like "oh by the way I'm only using a center channel"?

Wow, that looks like a really good deal especially when your getting a 5.1 setup for what I paid for the 2.1 I ordered. I guess just for me since I'm putting this in my bedroom and not a living room/etc. I just can't see a need for all of that personally, plus I would have a hard time hiding wires for the back surrounds in my bedroom if I put them next to my bed. I guess I could buy a rug and place it from the credenza I use as media cabinet to the bed and run the cords under the rug so you couldn't see them on the floor, but I don't know. Looks good though.

Yeah honestly when it came to looking for a receiver I was sort of just drawn to Harman Kardon based on a few other products I had owned in the past and that they seem to place a good deal of emphasis on industrial design in their products. All of their AVR units have a clean sleek look to them without tons of dials and arrays of raised buttons. As "style over substance" as that may sound that design language really appeals to me. Plus since I'm not really familiar with all of the different manufacturers and their quality, reliability, and performance metrics I kind of went with aesthetics and the specs that I could understand like number of HDMI inputs, 3D and Deep Color Support, DLNA, Airplay and those sorts of things. For me it hits all of the marks on my checklist, but when it comes to comparing EzSet/EQ vs Audyssey MultiEQ or audio specifications (impedence, distortion, signal to noise, watts, ohms, dBs) thats the stuff I don't know anything about in terms of what is better/etc.

I checked out that Denon 1613 though and people had lots of good things to say about it. The AVR 1700 should arrive from Amazon tomorrow but my speakers from HK just say preshipped so I don't have any tracking or ETA on those. If I get the AVR 1700 if I don't end up liking it and return it I'll definitely look into the 1613.

Thanks!


Hey, thanks for the advice. I'm definitely not going to be going the DIY route but your setup sounds amazing. About as DIY as I get is upgrading memory, SSDs, optical drives, and video cards in PCs and I can close the case not have to look at it afterwards. Your probably right though it might be a little easier than it sounds. Sounds like you like your AVR 1700 though too.

I appreciate all the help and words of wisdom guys. I think what I'm going to do is just wait for the AVR and speakers to arrive and see what happens. I mean I'm just wanting something nice that I can pile up and watch some good TV shows for an hour or two before hitting the sack or spending a lazy Saturday morning playing Uncharted or Mass Effect that sort of thing. As long as it sounds good to my non audiophile-ears for now I'll probably keep it and be happy about it, but I definitely appreciate all of the input and advice. Its given me tons to think about and check out.

Cheers.

I have the AVR1700 and it's a really nice AVR with some very nice features. It maybe doesn't have all the bells and whistles of other receivers, but the sound quality is really impressive. I like it much better than my old Yamaha AVR. As for deals, you can sometimes drive yourself crazy trying to chase down the deals, especially when it comes to electronics. What is important is the value in what you get for whatever price. I think it is still a great value at the price you paid

I know your mindset is two channel, but you're really missing out on sound quality without going 5.1. The imaging is like night and day. I have my Apple TV set up to link iTunes and even with the compressed audio format, it sounds amazing going through 5 channels - probably the best I've ever heard iTunes on any system. Plus, going through a 5.1 setup, it gives you many more audio format options when it comes to movies. Just a thought. Anyway, congratulations on this purchase. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Edited by elkabong16 - 2/7/13 at 8:38am

Well, I've been thinking more and more about the 5.1 setup and I went a little crazy today and ended up purchasing the HKTS 20 5.1 system from Amazon via prime so I can have them tomorrow to setup over the weekend. I got the AVR 1700 today from Amazon and it's sitting in a box under my desk.

http://www.amazon.com/Harman-Kardon-Theater-Speaker-System/dp/B0039UUPH6

I know they are a little pricey probably and it was more than I was planning on spending, but I liked the look of the system and I'm not planning on doing any other updates so I decided just to pull the trigger and do it, plus I had some Amex points built up that I redeemed to go towards it so it lessened the blow a bit.

I know there are probably better systems out there for that kind of money, but the reviews were pretty good and the OCD part of me wanted to have the same speaker manufacturer as the receiver. What I'm thinking of doing is just keeping the front satellite and center speakers on the stands and wall mounting the back surrounds behind my bed. Then I was going to get those paintable cord covers from Lowe's and use some leftover paint that I saved from when I painted my bedroom last year to match the cord covers to the wall where the cords are hidden and the cover itself blends in.

I called HK today where I ordered those 2.1 HKTS 200s and they said they couldn't cancel them because they had already shipped, but they should arrive Tuesday and that I could just refuse delivery and have them sent back for the return to be processed.

So that's where I'm at right now. I'll post an update this weekend if the speakers come in tomorrow and let you guys know how it goes.

Edit: duplicate reply posting. Sorry.

Hopefully you'll like them. I just recently picked up the AVR 1700 and a set of HKTS60s. The HKTS20 doesn't have the same number of drivers per speaker but the sound should be pretty comparable.

They have a bright sound which I've always been a fan of. The whole Harman family of Infinity, JBL, and Harman Kardon use CMMD tweeters in their home and car audio gear (which was in my wheelhouse when I was younger). The subwoofer is relatively tight, not sloppy like some subs I have dealt with - although nothing will ever beat the Infinity Perfect subs for sound quality (car audio gear).

The best advice I can give you is to test them with music/movies you know well and are good quality. Don't test it out using a 700MB Xvid rip of the Matrix or anything. Those speakers supposedly have a really long break-in period (200+ hours) and I'm already quite pleased with them as they are. Let us know how it goes.

Hkts60 is probably a better speaker in terms of music than hkts20. The driver may br bigger yhan the one in hkts20. Also, when you run the receivrr in 2.1 mode it delivers way more power than in 5.1 mode. I have hkts18 in my family room paired with avr1700. Its a very nice speaker set and you will be satisfied with your purchase. Hkts18 is an earlier itteration of hkts20 and I remember paying close to $420 back in 2009.