Harman Kardon Receivers (1 Viewer)

[KyleRoussel]

Hi everyone,

I've got a golden opportunity to score some home theater stuff, and I was looking at some of the Harman Kardon receivers. I've heard nothing but good things about them, but I noticed that some have no more than 50W/channel and

the AVR 520 is only 85W/channel. For such a high price tag, what makes Harman Kardon so good? I know power isn't everything, but what is it that makes Harman Kardon so respected? Any info/advice is welcome.

Thanks in advance!

 

[MarkO]

Harman Kardon's strong point is the amp section. All things being equal id choose a h/k ratted at 65 wpc over a Yamaha ratted at 100 watts per channel any day. The sound of thier amps is also much more refined than alot of other mass market recievers IMHO.

 

[KyleRoussel]

Sweet! I was beginning to think no one was going to answer!

So it's not like HK is underpowered and weak right? Because of their superior amps they are enough to power a home theater?

 

[MarkO]

What speakers are you planning to run? Unless they are very inefficient 50 watts of clean power per channel crossed over at the the normal 100-80 hertz (with a powered sub) will play loud and clean enough for alot of people. There are other factors such as room size that need to be adressed as to how much power you will need. As far as the h/ks go. Again, I belive them to be one of the better intergrated amps on the market. They are very conservative on thier power rattings tho, so if you just look at the numbers you can be misslead. As with any thing in this hobby its LLL. (look,listen,learn)

 

[Brian Johnson]

Being somewhat of a HT newbie I too looked at the h/k until I heard all the horror stories that came along with them. Just look at UBID.COM at all the reburb H/K's they sell. Actually I just looked and today seems to be different, but, they must get a lot of the units back to have to be reselling them. Maybe Im wrong.......

 

[BobPeck]

Just be warned that the wattage seems so very relative in AV receivers.

I have Paradigm Reference Studio's all around (80's, 20's and the CC) and no sub. I think this is a relatively big system (no tiny satellite speakers) and my Outlaw 1050 (mid-fi definitely, no hi-fi here) and it's measly 65 watts are awesome. Plenty of power.

Remember, I have no sub. And I'm totally happy (though I am in a condo and can't play it THAT loudly.)

Note too, some amps show so many watts. But that is only at one channel driven. For example, the Outlaw is 65wpc, but only drops (according to S&V) to 60 something with all six going. By contrast, the latest S&V has the new Sony DB1070 receiver at 115watts, but plumets to only 31 watts with all five driven. Something to think about when rating those pesky wattage numbers. . . .