HK 3490 or Yamaha R-S500?

IMO the Harman-Kardon 3490 is a much better-sounding receiver and would certainly be my choice.

I personally do not like the sound of the Yamaha amplifiers.

The HK is much better-sounding IMO, and the reason is because it has a much larger power supply to give plenty of power and weight to its output.

I especially question whether the Yamaha amplifiers will drive 4 ohm speakers well.

The Yamaha receivers mentioned are in fact 4-ohm rated. The 300 is rated at 50W per channel and the 500 is rated at 75W per channel into 8 ohms. The choice comes down to what features you desire. The HK 3490 is a bit more powerful (150W at 4 ohms) and has an onboard DAC as well as other extras such as Dolby Virtual Speaker

R-S500 also has an on-board DAC. It is the A-S500 that doesn't have one.

I suggest spend a little more for A-S700 or A-S1000(which I own), both of these are going to sound better than R-S500 or the H-K.

Yes, and th A-S300 shows more than average evidence of being a little modern, in that it has bass managment,

You are probably choosing to get far less good sound for the money than you would get from a 5.1 AVR.

The idea that every amplifier sounds different, and that AVRs necessarily sound inferior to separates and integrated amplifiers is an audiophile myth that benefits dealers by putting you on a treadmill.

More of the things that give you a potential for great sound generally cost less in the AVR.

However, if you are bound and determined to obtain the A-S300 then check around and see if you can obtain the more-powerfully A-S500 for a similar price. Technically, they are almost the identical same device except for power output.

If you did a little research,

http://download.yamaha.com/api/asset/file/?language=en&site=usa.yamaha.com&asset_id=45663

you'd find that the power ratings of the Yamaha are: 180 WPC @ 4 ohms and 220 WPC @ 2 ohms.

None of the Yamaha equipment you mentioned offers a built in DAC including the R-S500. If they do please point me to the info.

None of the Yamaha equipment you mentioned offers a built in DAC including the R-S500. If they do please point me to the info.

I have been considering the Onkyo A-9050, Yamaha a-s500, BOTH with great power supplies. I will have to read up on the other suggested in this thread.

You said the A-9050 was out of your price range. Then maybe you could consider the OnkyoA-5VL, it's a bit less. not much though.

good luck

Considering that you can get a new Yamaha A500 for about $375 I'd just spend the extra money on that and ignore the 300.

here is a great review of the HK 3490 http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ramps&1240627797

Is that not within your budget?

In general, I have to agree with this statement. The only thing at this price range you should be looking at is power output to insure you can drive your speakers at sufficient levels - especially if you have speakers with low sensitivity. Of course you can't look at the manufacturers specs, and my favorite story is about a Sherwood A/V 7.1 reciever that the company rated at 100 watts channel, but when it was put on the test bench,it put out (and I'm not making this up) 5.2 watts per channel - that's a decimal between the 5 and the 2. SOURCE

I've linked a picture below from Sherwoods website. IMO, you should be looking for a reliable product that can drive your speakers that has the features you want - for example the A/V Yamaha receivers don't have phono inputs, where the integrated amps do. Of course the integrated amps aren't going to be able to play back a blu-ray in 7 channels.