AVR225 - solid receiver for average user
Written: Mar 15 '03
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Pros: nice receiver at a decent price, auto set speaker levels, on-screen display
Cons: remote has some quirks
The Bottom Line: Will probably satisfy most average users. Lots of features and plenty of power in a reasonable price range.
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| Matt.'s Full Review: harman/kardon AVR 225 5.1 Channels Receiver |
In setting up a new home theater system, I decided on the AVR225 to supply the sound. Mainly, I was looking for a receiver with 5.1 surround, Dolby digital, and optical and coaxial DTS - at a reasonable price. Since I didn't need component video switching (all of my video goes straight to the TV), the 225 seemed to have all the features I needed.
Like most electronic components these days, the AVR225 has so many features that I couldn't talk about all of them here, but I will mention the ones that stood out to me.
Out of the box, the AVR225 is a pretty good size unit, check your cabinet dimensions to make sure you have enough room, especially front to back, you will need at least 17". Hook-ups on the back are typical, but the speaker connections are very close together. If you don't use banana plugs and try to wrap the speaker wire around the terminals, it's a very tight situation. Other than that, the other connections are fairly easy to make.
Once you power-up, a nice feature you will notice right away is the on-screen display. Everything you do with the remote will pop up on your TV screen and show your menu choices or what you just selected with the remote.
Setting speaker levels is easy with the EZset feature. Push one button on the remote and it automatically listens to and sets individual speaker levels based on your room. (You can also make manual adjustments too.) Works good.
Lots of programmable features allow you to customize different inputs and how they are handled. For instance, you can tell VID3 input to always use Dolby Pro Logic II 'Movie' circuitry, so every time you switch to VID3 you get that setting. You can also set things such as power-up volume level, spike volume damping, bass management, speaker configurations, etc.
One thing I don't like about the 'universal' remote is that you lose function of the receiver when you press one of the input select buttons. When you select an input, the remote changes to control all of the functions of that input device, such as your DVD player. That might seem logical, but you lose the volume control (and everything else) on the receiver. So now you have to press the receiver button to switch the remote back over to control the receiver to get the volume buttons to work. It's a lot of button pressing, especially to get back to the volume control, which is a PRIMARY function.
Overall, I am very happy with the AVR225 and the sound quality it produces. Plenty of power for my home theater set-up and more than enough options for handling analogue and digital inputs. It is a solid building block for average users.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 349
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Epinions.com ID:
Matt.
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Member: Matt
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 2 members
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