The new Harman Kardon AVR1700 - Page 4

This is back on sale for $199 at Best Buy. I am debating upgrading my old Denon AVR 590 and this seems like a good value!

I'm considering this one also, but I'm unsure about the HK reliability. What do you guys think about the HK reliability?

From what I've researched, reliability is about average (no different than denon, marantz, etc, but probably not as good as top dog Yamaha), but new releases have been known to be buggy at times, particular when the x54 series came out. The x600 series had a bad batch at initial production but was quickly fixed and the x650 for the most part lacked any issues. x700 series is new, but there is nothing radically new where it should run into too much trouble as far as software bugs. H/K seems to be good at taking care of those that have problems.

I had some gift cards so I picked it up. If it sucks, I'll just return it.

Hello all. Anyone notice the snr on this unit? Their website says 38db. To me that a major red flag. Am I missing something? I plan on checking it out today if the local best buy has one in stock. 38db seems way too low. The 700 has snr of 100db. Heck, my 20yr old pioneer has 88db.

I picked up one today from Best Buy for $199. I'm moving from the AVR 354. I asked the guy to let me hear it and was surprised at the sound, not sure how accurate this will be in my HT. I just have a couple questions for those that have the unit already. Is the menu as simple as it is displayed in the online manual or does it have the menu like the 354 had?

I see the following on their website: ( https://www.harmanaudio.com/search_browse/productspecs.asp?product=AVR%201700 )

Receiver Section
Power (FTC)

Stereo - 100W per channel, two channels driven @ 6/8 ohms, 1kHz, <1.0% THD

Multichannel - 95W per channel, two channels driven @ 8 ohms, 20Hz - 20kHz <0.07% THD

Input Sensitivity/Impedance 250mV/27k ohms
Signal-to-Noise Ratio (IHF-A) 100dB
Surround System Adjacent Channel Separation Dolby Pro Logix/PLII: 40dB
Dolby Digital: 55dB
DTS: 55dB
Frequency Response 10Hz - 100kHz
High Instantaneous Current Capability (HCC) 34 amps
Transient Intermodulation Distortion (TIM) Unmeasurable

Mine is also stuck. How did yours turn out?

I just ordered one of these to replace my ancient AVR 210, hopefully it is worth the upgrade!

Thanks aggybong, apparently the 38db is for the am tuner. Makes more sense. This is the website I was looking at http://www.harmankardon.com/estore/hk/us/support/spdp.jsp?pid=AVR+1700 I was surfing on my smartphone at the time. I've been shopping for a new receiver but it looks like I might have to settle for something along this line as my needs are more than my wants right now. Most anything newer will probably sound better than this old pioneer I have now. Only thing is the pass through problem.. from what I've read online I would have to have the receiver on to watch tv.

I worked around it by using an hdmi splitter from my cable box. One hdmi cake goes to the receiver and the other to my tv just in case my wife just wants to simply use the tv with out the receiver.

Please reply. Mine is also stuck as well. What do I do?

first post in the avs forum. this appears to be the ''official'' hk avr 1700 thread. i pre-ordered a pioneer vsx 1020k receiver when they first came out in may 2010. i bought it to use 5.1 surround and zone 2 for porch speakers. it has broken down for the 3rd time, so i'm in the market again.

my current system is: lg 46'' tv, pioneer vsx 1020k, roku, panasonic bluray, technics 110 cd jukebox, polk audio 5.1 speakers w/ powered sub, 5mbps cable internet and no cable tv. my component shelf is on one side of my fireplace, the tv on the other side with a 25 ft hdmi cable and optical cable in between the two.

best buy has the harman kardon avr 1700 for $199, list price is $499. i find no pro reviews on line, my search led me here. i listen to a lot of internet radio and use the roku box with netflix, hbo go and other channels as my only tv viewing. i plan to buy the hk avs 1700 to use as my 5.1 surround receiver, internet radio and use the dlna feature to stream my collection of 10,000 mp3's. i can either fix my pioneer to regain zone 2 capibilities or buy a 2nd avr 1700 for zone 2.

questions:
is the avr 1700 a decent receiver?
if i choose a 2nd avr 1700 for zone 2 could i use a hdmi cable to daisy chain the two avr 1700 together?
i was thinking that if i set the 2nd 1700 up for internet radio and dlna streaming from my pc and hook it to my porch speakers i would still need a tv hook up to set up the 1700. will the zone 2 receiver feed my porch speakers and also hdmi out to my 5.1 speakers on the 1st 1700?

yes i could buy a Onkyo TX-NR616, Yamaha RX-V573 or a Denon AVR-1913 for the same price as 2 of the 1700s but cnet says they have reliability issues. i figure i'd buy the $39 4 year geek squad warranty for both and have a back up receiver for when one is down being repaired. my 15 yr old technics receiver still works but has no hdmi and from what i've read no one makes a reliable receiver anymore with hdmi board failures and such. my pioneer had hdmi issues, then amp overload issues and now the remote receiver eye quit working. it's a 50 mile round trip, $170 repair bill and weeks with a receiver every time it breaks down. best buy is 5 miles down the road and i drive by it every day.

I just used the power switch in the back to turn it off, let it sit for 20 seconds, then turned it back on. I'm not sure the internet update is working properly right now.

I've been looking at the Denon AVR-1613 to upgrade my ancient AVR-1604, but its seems to be firm at $350 right now, which is a little over my budget. The AVR 1700 seems like it's more or less comparable to the AVR-1613, minus the Audyssey. I saw that the AVR 1700 has it's own microphone and auto-calibration. The living room in my apartment is small. I'm running two Polk Audio Monitor 50's in the front, Polk CS2 center, and two Monitor 30's in the rear. I just use the receiver for Blu-rays and video games. No music.

Will the AVR 1700 suffice, or should I hold out and see if the AVR-1613 drops in price at some point? It seems like the Audyssey is the only distinct difference between the two. From what I see, Audyssey gets a lot of praise on these forums. I don't have any experience with it, so I'm not sure if my setup in a small room would even benefit from the better calibration.

[quote. Only thing is the pass through problem.. from what I've read online I would have to have the receiver on to watch tv.[/quote]


I thought this receiver has HDMI pass through? Or is it just not working?

I've never dealt with a receiver with HDMI, so please bear with me. What exactly does HDMI passthrough mean? If I use HDMI to connect my Blu-ray player to the receiver, the video goes to the TV and the audio to my speakers without needing an additional cable, right? With my current receiver I have to run HDMI to the TV and a digital optical cable to the receiver (there's no HDMI on the receiver). I want to get away from a two cable set-up.

Also, if the video goes through the receiver first, will it look identical to connecting the HDMI cable straight to the TV or will it degrade the 1080p signal?

HDMI passthrough is for people who want to turn their receiver off and use the TV speakers at certain times. Its comes in handy if you watch TV when everyone else is asleep and don't want to use your home theater speakers.

If that isn't an issue for you and you only plan to watch TV with the receiver on then this is not a feature you need. I have 3 receivers with HDMI passthrough but I never use this feature. I enjoy watching TV with my HT speakers at all times, even to watch the news.

I just bought the avr-1700 and got it all set up. I have to learn the settings and everything but I have it working. I looks 'ok', nothing to get excited about. I have everything running through receiver and the one HDMI cable running to the TV. It took some time for the tv to show a picture, I don't know why but it did. Sound was working but not the picture wasn't. Now everything is working fine. Because the cable box is running through the receiver when I power off the avr-1700 the tv picture goes away. No cable signal with the receiver off. I guess the HDMI splitter might work if I have more than one HDMI input on this old tv but it doesn't. I could however split the coaxial cable and watch tv through a different input but I like listening to tv through the receiver but the wife might not, yet tbd. My understanding is a pass through would allow the cable signal to 'pass through' even if the receiver isn't powered on. The picture is not affected by the receiver, neither good nor bad. I just hooked up my new blu-ray player when I brought home the HK.

I bought it from best buy for $199. They had an open box for $179 but for the $20 I'd rather have an unmolested model. Its super light, my old pioneer must weigh 2-3 times as much as this unit. They would not hook it up, said they couldn't but I had 30 days to return it. Harman Kardon website states that they would buy back the receiver if anyone is not satisfied, no questions asked. Full refund on your receipt(hold on to the receipt), you pay shipping. Pretty good guarantee imo.

I find the light around the volume knob a bit cheesy and distracting. The sound seems ok as long as you have the center channel hooked up in tv mode. I will have to toy with it and decide if I will keep it.

Picked up the AVR 1700 today as well at Best Buy for the 199 Price tag, apparently its a hot ticket as I got the last one in stock, they had to search high and low for it for me They had a stack of 15-20 of them a few days back.

This is replacing a Pioneer VSX-521K, not sure if I like it, it has some quirks I don't care about, or that I just haven't been able to figure out. Im going to give it some time and serious listeing to see if I prefer it to my Pioneer.

Cons:

1.EZEQ Seems pretty worthless:
-Compared to my Pioneer MCACC and my own mesaurements, the 1700 was a good foot off on my front, 2 feet off or so on my rears and about 4 feet off on the sub, the pioneer aside from a quarter of an inch or so was spot on.
- Speaker levels seemed way out of wack, granted I understand it was being taken from a single center listening position, but it just sounded funky, doesnt matter anyways as I leveled off all the speakers to 85DB

2. No Direct/Pure sound option, Auto surround automatically detects, but if you wanted it to play Stereo as stereo etc you have to manually select stereo, seems to be no way to get a Direct/Pure Direct sound function like the pioneer in which is plays stereo as stereo, Dolby as Dolby, DTS as DTS etc
-It does correctly set DTS/Dolby etc, just upset that if a Stereo track is being played from say youtube or a standard def channel, it uses its emualted surround sound unelss I manually choose stereo

3. Owners manual is FRIGGEN USELESS!! aside from telling you how to hook it up, it does nothing to tell you the feautres/how to use the damn AVR, might be one online, havent looked, this erks me as I always try and learn as much as I can before i start fiddling around and have a good baseline for what im doing

4. VOLUME KNOB IS AS BRIGHT AS THE DAMN SUN!! I really like the look of the reciever, some have said it looks cheap, I like it.. I think it looks very slick, you can either turn off the volume knob, or let it scar your cornias with how bright it is, wish there was an option to just dim the volume knob light and not just turn it off.

5. Worthless remote, not that it doesnt have mostly everything, I just think it is the most ridiculous looking remote I have ever seen, its uncomfortable, its front heavy, and the button layout is stupid.. by far worst remote i have ever owned. Oh and the fact that it uses three AAA's seems stupd to me

6. It's light, it feels cheap, hard to belive this thing will EVER seel for its suggest and listed retail that everyone displays at $400+

Pros:

1. HDMI OSD, my pioneer was not able to use the OSD through HDMI

2. Seperate crossovers for center/fronts/rears

3. Warm rich sound, I honestly think this reciever sounds much warmer than my pioneer, maybe its just a mind **** to me, but it seems like sound is better, more detial in sounds than I noticed before, Dialogue in movies seems much clearer to me.

4. Turns on and off almost instantly and is quiet, no loud clicks or pops, turns on and off nice and easy

5. Better sound at higher volumes, seems like sound is much clearer when this thing is cranked up, could be the higher listed power output compared to the pioneer?

6. Network connectivity and phone app, my wife already loves the airplay A happy wife is a happy life

7. Logic 7 (H/K version of Dolby Emulated surround) is actually pretty good, Logic 7 seems to do a much better job at emulating surround sound from a stereo source than the dolby counter part on my pioneer did, it sounds natural and full where as dolby always seemed to be not utilizing the surrounds/center enough and losing sound data because of it.


There might be more, but thats my first impressions, I feel that while it does have some features lower end recievers don't such as the multiple crossovers etc.. I feel that its a bit limited, unless I am unable to find these settings, no option for a simple direct sound etc seems ridiculous to me.

Ahhh... my understanding of hdmi pass through was incorrect. The 1700 will only pa ss it through with the receiver on. Hdmi splitter is an easy work around though

All the DIM does is turn off the volume knob and dim the LCD display, or turn it off until an action is performed, there is no actual dimming feature that dims the volume knob as well, which sucks because I think it looks awesome turned on, just way to damn bright.

Ah, cool, off is good.

1. if i choose a 2nd avr 1700 for zone 2 could i use a hdmi cable to daisy chain the two avr 1700 together?
No, you can't. I assume you're using the HDMI output to connect to your TV so you don't have another HDMI out available.

There is no way to do Zone 2 with the AVR 1700 because it doesn't have Zone2 outputs.

I miss the sound of my AVR 210 which I sold a year back. Had it for almost 9 years and was loving it for music. Got an Onkyo TX-NR809 in its place. Ugh. Great for movies, horrible for music.

Is the AVR 1700 sound comparable to the one of the AVR 210? I am really itching it pull the trigger on this one...but I am only getting it for music play back.

Thoughts about sound compared to AVR 210 and sound quality for music?

Also can I share my tower speakers between the Onkyo and the Harman Kardon in case I decide to get it? Thanks!

Otherwise I'll have to start looking for another pair of towers just for music.

While I have no idea what the 210 sounded like, I can say I like the sound of my concert blu-rays in this 1700 compared to my Pioneer.. not sure if that helps you or not

As some others have mentioned, Best Buy currently has the AVR 1700 on sale again for $199.99 which is an awesome price. For those of you who feel cheated by paying the Black Friday price of $249.99 find your receipt and call the 800 number. Best Buy will refund you the difference over the phone with their extended refund policy for the holidays. Okay, I want my 10% commission now.

I got my price reduction this morning... However, If I had to I would have been happy even paying full retail for this.

I've decided to return mine after directly comparing it with my old Denon AVR 590 which has Audyssey MultiEQ correction. Without any correction, I'd give the nod to the HK 1700 over the AVR590, but once you throw in their respective auto-correction features, the AVR 590 wins hands down. The HK 1700 just sounds flat and lifeless in comparison, both in movies and music. It always has a slight edge in stereo imaging and the unit itself is attractive looking, but those were the only positives I could come up with. Besides the sound itself, the auto-correction setup process for the AVR 1700 is *extremely* loud and will piss off your neighbors if you happen to live in an apartment like I do. Finally, the remote is really, really bad. It's an odd shape, doesn't light up in the dark, top heavy, and the buttons don't give a confident feel when being pushed.

Instead, I'll be looking for the Denon AVR1613 or 1713 to replace my 590. Audyssey is apparently everything it's hyped up to be, at least in my apartment environment.
Edited by aggybong - 1/1/13 at 1:42pm