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You should definetly go with H/K, they are extremely reliable and the best sounding units available for the price (espacially with music). I own 1 AVR430, 2 PA2000, 2 Citation 24 and 1 Citation 21 and use them for several hours every day with no poblem whatsoever.

No need to apologize, it looks I was also wrong :b . I have just contacted H/K support and they confirmed that this feature has been removed when they made AVR435 and AVR635 becaue 'It was found to be rarely used.' So the H/K receivers which can offer this feature are AVR430, AVR630 (but both...

Hello, I'm talking about DPLIIx (not DPLII) which is available only when you're running a 6.1/7.1 config. Here is an excerpt from my AVR 430's owner's manual (this has been added to the manual only for the 'Software Version II' release and it only applies to the AVR430 with firmware...

I have separate amps on all channels so this would not be a problem. Still, I am quite surprised that H/K can make receivers with this feature for much less than $1000, while other mid-range products vendors don't offer this. So it's either H/K or something like Anthem which is much more...

Well I currently have my Stereo SACD/CD player connected to my AVR via an analogue connection and I always use DPLII while listening to CDs and stereo SACDs. Even if a double A/D D/A conversion is involved, the result is great. So, since this works so well with stereo SACDs I don't see why it...

Well, I suppose the answer is 'no'...

Hello, I know that higher-end H/K receivers like 435, 635 and 7300 can apply Dolby ProLogic IIx to the 6 Channel Direct Input, making it possible to listen to 5.1 discs in 7.1. According to some specialized reviews this function gives very interesting results with SACD and DVD-A. Does anyone...

Hello, I am no 'high end CD gear' person, but I can throw in my 2 euro cents: I have recently replaced my Marantz CD5400 OSE CD player (priced at around 300 euro in Europe) by a Marantz SA8400 player (which is around 1000 euro) and I can confirm that the SA8400 sounds way better than the...

I have a H/K AVR430 receiver and when I bought it I first installed it in the shelf underneath my TV (about 10 cm away). Each time I turned my receiver on (while the TV was running), the EM pulse created by the receiver's power supply created a big red stain of colour on my TV's screen...

Well, it's actually the Marantz monoblock which is the exception... I don't particularly like Marantz amplifiers because they sound a bit 'soft' and warm with movies. I like the H/K amplifiers a lot because they are punchier and have a neutral sound. In this case I took a Marantz monoblock for...

Hello, I am no expert, but I can share my own experiences. I have a H/K AVR430 receiver (connected to Mordaunt-Short Avant 908 fronts and 906 surrounds) which I use for both music and movies. Even if I watch lots of movies, music sound quality has always been my priority, especially...

Hello, I had no particular x-over in mind. I am currently using the amps in 2x100W bridged mode, bi-wired to the speakers. I was wondering if switching the amps no non-bridged 4x45W mode and using passive bi-amping would make a difference. In both cases the x-over would be the same: the one...

Hello, I am currently considering bi-amping my fronts but I am not sure if two medium-powered amps in a biamp setup would give better results than a single higher-powered amp. To be very specific, when using amps of the same brand and same construction, would it be better to use two amps of...

For less than $1000 the Marantz SA8400 is an extraordinary machine. CD sound is sweet and warm. And it does stereo SACDs also. Don't limit yourself to a budget CD player like the Cambridge 640C or the Marantz CD5400, these machines will play CDs only well enough for their price. I did the same...

You can configure your AVR 63x or 43x (I own a 430) in such way that all signal below the crossover point goes to both the subwoofer and the fronts - basically this is what you did. In this case the sub will play even in Stereo DSP Off mode. But you can also configure the .1 channel to go to...

Adding power amps is a great idea. I have a H/K AVR430 and since I've added 2 H/K PA2000 power amps on both front and surround channels (I am a big surround SACD/DVD-A fanatic) it absolutely rocks!

I have the same option on my H/K AVR430. It only works when DPLII or DPLIIx processing is used. I have tested this option on PCM 48K signals and the sound seems to be richer (wider soundstage) when upsampling is on. It is true that the improvement is quite subtile, but I always keep the...

Great, so now MP3s are better than DD and DTS soundtracks. We are most definetly on the right track with this thread! I hope that people working for Dolby and DTS see this forum and can make both Dolby Laboratories and DTS see the light and give up their weak formats in favor of MP3 encoding...

Scott, It is actually 448kbits/sec not KBytes, but as I've mentioned before this is not very relevant. It is normal for a compressed format to have a lower bitrate than an uncompressed format.

And something more related to the downmix option: You shoud see this like a 'backwards compatiblity' option, a function performed by the DVD players in order to allow you to listen to the 5.1 soundtracks without loosing the surround info in case you don't have a surround receiver. This is not...

Kevin, You cannot compare the birates of two completely different formats (especially when one is compressed and the other not). Please do not forget that DTS is also a format that uses lossy compression (a little bit less aggressive than DD) and yet a DTS 48K/24bit soundtrack is virtually...

Dolby Digital encoded sound tracks (either Stereo 2.0 or Multichannel 5.1) are always encoded in 48KHz/24bits (for each channel). CDs are encoded in PCM 44.1KHz/16bits so this means the Dolby-encoded DVD soundtracks bear much more information than plain CDs. Please note that multichannel Dolby...

I am not that sure that this will really work that well because only professional equalizers can cover all (or most) frequencies in the 20Hz-20KHz range AT THE SAME TIME. We're talking about graphic EQ's with AT LEAST 31 bands of equalization (1/3 octave) or professional parametric equalizers...

For Music I would choose any Harman/Kardon over any Denon (in the same price range of course) without hesitation. If you're only going to do Movies, the Denon machines are excellent performers.

I have been using a HarmAn Kardon AVR430 receiver for over 1 year without any problem. About 10 days ago I've purchasesd two H/K PA2000 power amps. So far, so good ...

After about 60 hours of normal use, my two PA2000 units have started to break-in and reaching their expected normal performance. These things sound even better now than one week ago. The difference is rather subtle but the sound has become smoother and even more open. These power amps are the...

Yellow is not really my colour, but hey, whatever turns you on ! ...

Exactly! Remember those remarks present in many speakers/amps owner manuals: 'If it sounds right for you, then it is right!' Adding the power amps made my system sound much better to me, so IT IS much better! You might think your perception of sound is much closer to reality (whatever that...

Yeah, blind test should be done only when minor differences are present, not when the improvements are soooo obvious.

Well, then I suppose that everyone who came in to listen to my system after the upgrade was also strongly biased because everyone was impressed by the big difference the power amps have made. Moreover, my wife (who usually treats all my upgrades with the classic 'it sounds exactly the same as...