#1 reason to stay with Harman Kardon (1 Viewer)

[Rick Westfall]

CUSTOMER SERVICE! If you read my other thread (http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=163299), you know that I had my AVR65 die recently. It's not even repairable. Just for kicks, I emailed H/K's customer support who responded by saying (paraphrased)

...customer support normally doesn't deal with sales, but my supervisor OK'd an option that would allow us to sell you a new receiver at accomodation pricing. Just tell me what receiver out of the new line you are looking at and I'll let you know how much it will cost.

WOW WOW WOW!!!

I have no idea what "accomodation pricing" will be (I'll find out Monday), but the fact that they are even willing to discuss it given my receiver is 3 years out of warranty is impressive.

 

[MichaelDDD]

That very cool! Congratulations, Rick. Well, now you just HAVE TO let us know what kind of a deal you get...don't leave us out in the cold now!

Best of luck! Hmmmmm.....AVR-7200 for $400 sounds fair to me.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Pretty impressive, Rick. Be thankful you didn’t have a Denon – you would have got squat from them – if they bothered to reply at all.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Rick Westfall]

I will definitely keep everyone up to date on the pricing. Heck, I'm not even going for the top of the line. I think the 230 and 330 look pretty good to me

 

[Mike Boniferro]

Accomodation pricing = people who sell HK products pricing. In Canada, that equals 50% of MSRP!

good luck!

 

[Rick Westfall]

Holy Moly!!! How great would that be! Now I'm going to have trouble sleeping just thinking about it.

 

[Drew_W]

In Canada, that equals 50% of MSRP!

Sad, but true. H/Ks are waaay overpriced on this side of the border, but down south, you're still probably looking at over 30% savings on a new one. Heck, if you're getting it direct from the manufacturer, you'll probably get an even better deal since there are less middlemen to jack up the price. It would be interesting to hear what you get and how much you get it for.

 

[Wayne Ernst]

I'd be willing to bet that the U.S. flavor of this pricing is also close to 50% off. H/K will still make a few $$ on this deal, but they'll also keep a customer happy. Both parties win in this situation.

 

[Mike Boniferro]

Sad, but true. H/Ks are waaay overpriced on this side of the border

Yep, you're very right there. I'd imagine it's because HK doesn't distribute independently here... they sell to a company in Quebec that distributes for them :frowning:

 

[Howard_You]

Indeed...according to a Canadian dealer I spoke to his cost is higher than US retail (at an authorized online etailer) + shipping + duties + tax. Pretty hard to compete unless you have customers that really want a Canadian HK warranty. I believe there is a Canadian etailer though that buys through a US distributor, so no Canadian HK warranty, but they will service the unit themselves for 1 year --- I don't know if this would be better than buying from an authorized US etailer in the first place...

I was keen to get one of the new AVR430's since I'm very happy with my current pro-logic AVR30 (60wpc, 40amps HCC) but at C$1300+tax it's just way overpriced...so I'm waiting for the new NAD T743s to arrive (C$900) and give them a listen, if I'm not real impressed I'll probably mail-order an AVR430 once the price drops a bit. The AVR230 (C$875) seems to have a reasonable feature set but 27lbs for a 6-channel receiver just seems a bit on the light side to me.

 

[Christian B]

AVR 130 $214.97
AVR 230 $264.77
AVR 330 $365.20
AVR 430 $469.78
AVR 630 $575.19
AVR 7200 $913.00

Don't ask me how I know, but those "should" be the prices

 

[Rick Westfall]

YOU ARE KIDDING ME! I'm still waiting on the word but now I'm really excited!

So...how important is the weight when choosing a receiver?

 

[Howard_You]

Well, I've been led to believe that the weight is a measure of how good the power supplies are.

The simplest thing to do would be to compare the sound of either the AVR230 or AVR330 with the older model AVR325, since they all have the same approx. ratings, i.e. 35 amps HCC and 65 wpc stereo but the 325 is approx. 40lbs compared to 27/30lbs for the newer models.

 

[Drew_W]

I'm waiting for the new NAD T743s to arrive (C$900)

You can find the T742s and T752s on clearance here for 600 and 900 respectively (CAD$). Phenomenal value. If I hadn't got a great deal on my 53TX, that's the way I would have gone for sure.

 

[Rick Westfall]

Based on that stuff, could someone order me one? At that price, who cares about a warranty ;P

No kidding! I am still waiting on the official word from H/K. I'm sure I'll have to ship back my defective receiver and obviously have to pay freight to get the new one so the prices will be about $50 more just because of all the sending back and forth. Either way, I'm tempted to wait a little longer, save some money and go for the 430 or 630 given the HUGE break I'll be getting.

I'll keep everyone posted.
Rick

 

[Mike Boniferro]

That may be a good idea. The 630 is going to be my next receiver as soon as I sell my Yammy 2095

 

[Rick Westfall]

I'm getting nervous. I was told I would hear from them by Monday....hope they didn't change their mind

 

[Howard_You]

You can find the T742s and T752s on clearance here for 600 and 900 respectively (CAD$). Phenomenal value. If I hadn't got a great deal on my 53TX, that's the way I would have gone for sure.

Hmmmm...I knew they were on sale but I didn't realize the prices were quite that good. I was going to hold out for the T743 because of a few more nice features like adjustable crossover, more digital coax inputs and digital outputs to name a few. I'm not clear from the marketing blurb if it'll have DD-EX/DTS-ES decoding although it will have 7.1 direct inputs and 7.1 pre-amp outs...

Then again, for $600 I might just have to check out the T742. The T752 firmware is just a bit too buggy for my liking (being a software developer ).

 

[Rick Westfall]

Well...here it is. It's not quite what Christian guessed, but it's close.

The accomodation pricing:

AVR230 is $319 (~42% off MSRP) + shipping
AVR330 is $440 (~45% off MSRP) + shipping

No info yet for the 430 or 630

Just to put it in perspective...JandR has the 230 for $379 shipped and the 330 $549 shipped.

Rick

 

[Rick Westfall]

How about one more feather in the cap of H/K? I just received another email from the rep. Because I will need to ship back the defective receiver, he will waive the shipping of the new one.

Decisions, decisions.