Harman Kardon Announces Two Home Theater Receivers For 2013 - Page 2

To address the issue of some peoples affection toward HK has to do with Harmon Kardon's balls to market a 20 watt per channel receiver that sat next to 10 other receivers with a 100 watt per channel sticker on them. By the time home theater went mainstream, Harman Kardon was being sold at appliance stores and Circuit City along with Sony, Pioneer, Onkyo, Yamaha, etc. Yet, their lower spec'd AV receivers measured well and were perceived to sound better. Their new products shouldn't impress anyone, but I totally understand why their announcements of new products perk the ears or eyes of enthusiasts. A man can still dream.

dolby headphone really is nice for hi definition music. I rip all my cd's onto my xbox and run digital out via optical to my dolby headphone "Mix amp" by astro gaming. Not a very good dac but it is a lot of fun and makes music a bit more AWESOME! I still get some of the same effect when i run analog from my DAC to my mixamp via rca cables with dolby headphone mode enabled but it really recesses the mids and loses quite a bit of detail and natural tonality. I've always looked for a good device that uses a good DAC with dolby headphone processing. That would simply make my day.

Off topic: is there any headphone pre-amp with HDMI input with Dolby Headphone output? I know Sony and Pioneer sell the all-in-one solutions in Japan ( ie processor and wireless headphones ) but I prefer to use either my PSB M4U or my Focal headphones rather than their solutions (which also cost an astronomical $1000 price tag ).

You can't imagine the time I've wasted looking for just that solution... you must be a fellow late-night movie watcher

Like you said, there are no solutions that allow use of your own headphones. And, for genuine Dolby Headphone, you will need to go with a top-of-the-line w/ Marantz AVR (pricey) - no one else I can find puts DH into AVRs anymore and only an AVR will support HDMI audio in and decoding of HD.

And... to make it worse, I believe that even the top-shelf DH solution from Marantz will use dts-core, instead of the full version. Again, if you want full audio decoding w/ headphones and reasonable virtual surround experience, it looks like Silent Cinema is what's left.

I've narrowed down to the A720 for my next movie Head-Fi rig. If you find an alternative, please let me/us know!

You can use the Astro mixamp. It accepts optical in and decodes in true dolby headphone. There is also the turtle beach dolby decoder called the DDS. I would go with the new mixamp pro as it has different presets to mess around with. Other than that i can not think of a receiver other than the marantz higher end models and i believe someone told me anthem. Someone would make some good money if they just created a dolby headphone DAC. Like a higher quality one. If they did it right they could sell them for $500 all day to people on head-fi.org. Guaranteed. DH is fun for music too but you lose a lot of detail.

Same exact thing could be said about those HK products level matched and blind against whatever electronics you yourself are using (excluding room correction). Level matched and blind I'd wager you have no chance of telling the difference. Let the Koolaid flow if desired. :-)

Really, "proven new technology that increases sound quality", "proven" how? Level matched, blind tests??? Which test results and for which products, and where are the published results of all these supposed tests that "PROVE new technology that increases sound quality of an electronic component"?????? Can you name even 5 such blind, level matched tests, perhaps only 4, maybe 3, how about only 2, maybe even just 1??? What product or products did these supposed tests relate to which "proved" increased sound quality "detectable by human listeners"????? LOL

I just bought the 1700 It went on sale and I haven't unboxed it. For $250 I thought I was getting a deal at BB. I did some basic spec research and noticed it had a 3d spec mentioned. But now at home I'm researching it more and I am unsure if it actually has 3d pass through. Can anyone tell me if it has 3d pass through?

If it doesn't I will be returning it tomorrow and buying a denon instead.

Is this 3d pass through or something else?

Well all I can say is that I have owned h/k products for over 20 yes...they sound in my opinion way more high-end than any other reciiever I have ever tryed
There amps are very clean and dynamic..still using the avr254 as a preamp hooked up to a parasound amp
And paradigm studio 60 speakers...the GUI is awesome its hi-def also---h/k makes very good products for the money...but I think there new models use class d amps because there very very light..they sure do look good...I would pick a h/k over yammys, denon,pioneer etc..any day!....and I have been a critical listener for over 20 yrs
Just my 2 cents!

I have owned Denon, HK, and Yamaha over the years (in that order too). I have to say I was impressed with my HK AVR-347, only thing that killed it was that damn HDMI problem. My Yamaha RX-V773 is far from perfect (music streaming problems) also. With that being said, I will likely go back to Denon in due time.

How did you get it for $110? At the HK site it is currently $299!

Not sure why or how long it will last, but the AVR1700 is $269 on the HK website.

It's cheaper at Best Buy.com at the moment.

I have the AVR 354, but would like the networking capabilities. Not sure if this would be a downgrade or not? Being only 5.1 is a negative in my opinion. Weird that a 2700 and 3700 isnt being released as well. Hopefully these are not the only 2 models released this time around. I like the darker facade, but not digging that volume knob!!! I actually prefer the knobs like on the 354. The 354 is my second HK, I previously had a AVR 330 and I love the look and sound of the HK units.

I was a bit disappointed to see this was only 5.1. I have been keeping an eye out for updating my older HK525. I am really happy with the sound quality of this unit and I am using it a a preamp. The power amp I am feeding it into is the HK 2.1 power amp for LCR and LR surround. I also have a Kenwood 6 channel amp for surround back channels and two sub channels. I have two left over channels for height or wide channels and hope that at some time HK will offer this as a feature.

At least they are black now.
Overrated if you ask me...

I had a couple of HK AVRs in the past and I think they do have good sound quality, and that is largely a result of the Logic 7 processing. When it comes to weight, the fact is digital amps do not have to weigh a lot to be powerful. Don't expect to judge 'quality' with the old lift test, those days are long gone. There's no way to tell what lurks inside a plastic box these days - mediocrity or excellence - without checking the specs and giving it a listen. However, for the price HK units are not that competitive. I'd recommend the 1700 (with it's Logic 7 processor) for a music-centric surround system, not so much for a home theater. Best Buy has the 1700 on sale for $299, which is a much more competitive price for what you get - only 5 channels of amplification. That's the main issue - amplification is a commodity at this point, it is not something the HK can use to differentiate itself. Sony is selling a fantastic sounding Dolby 7.2 bluetooth & wifi capable receiver -in a metal box no less - for only $100 extra, and there's plenty of feature-packed units to choose from in Onkyo, Denon & Yamaha land. Still... the sale price and Logic 7 should be enough to make the new HKs appealing to some folks.
Edited by imagic - 12/22/12 at 2:43am

Is this a newer model to the 3650? What about the replacement to the 7550HD flagship model?
Also this one only weight (AVR 3700/AVR 370): 17.6 lb (8kg).

http://www.harmankardon.com/resources/Brands/harmankardon/Products/ProductRelatedDocuments/en-US/OwnersManual/AVR2700_3700_OM_EN.pdf

Obviously late reply. I have a friend that works for Harman music out here in utah.

And? Can he get us all a nice discount?

once HK started going the new digital route, they haven't sounded as good as before IMO, although I'm willing to try again at those prices. one can never have too many needless receivers laying around

I wish they would incorporate Toole/Olive findings into their mass market room correction schemes. Still waiting for that.

All this stuff about HK AVRs sounding 'warm' or 'digital' or whatnot is nonsense. AVRs operating within their non-clipping output range should not sound different until you engage DSP or analog tone controls.

Nonsense or not, my HK and Denon with no DSP or analog tone controls sounded different. One sounded warm, the other sounded bright.

The digital technology HK started to implement to get their receivers smaller made them sound different than they used to.

There's a reason there are receiver manufacturers and speaker manufacturers. Everything paired with another causes a distinct change in audio.

It should be so, but often that's not the case. I find the way the letter "S" is rendered in vocals might just be the biggest difference between AVR amps but there is more nuance to it.

Having just gone from a $500 (msrp) AVR to a $1600 (msrp) AVR in the past couple of days, this is much perfectly clear: People who's job it is to review these things are not 'making things up' when they hear differences, and the designers of high-end AVRs are not wasting their time when they 'tweak' the amplifiers. Furthermore, using a dedicated amp for the L/R mains takes it up yet another notch - this is my first 9.2 channel AVR and I finally get to use my XTi-1000 as a dedicated amp for my mains. It's the land of the law of diminishing returns, but there are tangible improvements to be made in terms of finesse when it comes to two different amps and how those tweaks are made determine the 'character' of the product.

Alas, the HK sound is just not that appealing to me. I liked Logic 7 a lot, but now I'm chillin' with "Neo: X MS + THX" on a Pioneer Elite SC-55 and there's no looking back.

Edited by imagic - 12/29/12 at 8:51am

Willing to bet they're buggy as hell.

Can you be more specific?

N, it shouldn't be at all, what he's saying is plain idiotic silly, just say it out loud and for many reasons - it's not necessarily all digital (how about speakers, huh?), the way you route things through even usual steps can make a difference, not to mention the plenty of different ASIC, setup, chipset, full set variations, etc.

Exactly.

Height channels are interesting but unless someone invests into 9-ch like you did he cannot switch between classic 7.1/Logic 7 etc vs front heights/sides - another diminishing return territory, I guess.

I bought the new Harman Kardon AVR 700 model. Can anyone tell me how to make it power off/on using my cable poviders (COX) remote?

I entered the correct code for HC but when I try to use the cable providers remote to power off if goes into standby mode... not off. When I power on it does not work at all. The tech support folks at COX say "If it powers down to standby mode the correct code is being used, however, if it does not power on then call HC. They cannot help beyond providing the code."

If anyone is considering purchasing a Harman Kardon product you should know 1st that is extermely difficult to get their technical support people on the phone.

Any suggestions?

Lol, i feel you. Having 2 receiver in protect mode. And the only thing I can get from them is. Sorry since you don't have the receipt. Can't do anything for you. But the receipt thing is my fault. Still no need to give me attitude.