harmon kardon AVR320 fantastic unit!!!
Written: Nov 26 '02 (Updated Nov 26 '02)
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Pros: The features, out of this world sound reproduction, the sale price was a pleasant surprise.
Cons: You already own speakers? You'll buy better ones for full advantage of this receiver's capabilities.
The Bottom Line: This system brings out the best in every speaker every time in every situation.
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| sroysr's Full Review: harman/kardon AVR 320 5.1 Channels Receiver |
After doing quite a bit of research on this and several other AVRs my wife and I decided to purchase the H/K AVR320. The decision was made based on the features and capabilities of the unit and also in part on reviews such as Ben's. The reviews steered us to the equipment and the equipment pretty much sold itself. In addition, an added benefit was finding it sale priced at Circuit City for $449.00. Not bad at all! We listened to different higher and lower priced units through the same speaker arrangements in a few different stores so as to get a well rounded example of capability in various acoustical venues. We felt that this would give a better indication of the acoustical reproduction properties of a receiver rather than just listening to it in any single store's "Fortress of Solitude". Also, because our living room may not be the ideal place for quality home theater acoustics, we were satisfied as to the adaptability of the H/K to our specific venue.
When we decided on the specific AVR unit (make & model) we then simply returned to the previously visited stores and concentrated on powering different speaker configurations using only the h/k320. What we found was interesting, to say the least, and definitely informative. We were both of the mind that Bose was simply the best you could get for speakers. This was more of a feeling than any real-world experience as neither of us has owned anything other than the Wave radio in the past. The Bose set-up was a really good sounding system but due to reading comments on other boards recommending doing a side-by-side demo, which we then did, we found it to be lacking considerably, not only in the obvious acoustical qualities, but also in the intangibles we were looking for. The intangibles being pretty much indescribable but I think you know what I mean. This is in no way denigrating Bose as I have often seen elsewhere. They just didn't work for us.
The speaker set-up we finally chose (after a period spanning several days) were from Polk Audio. The configuration is as follows:
PSW404B powered subwoofer
CSi40 center
FXi30RC surround
FXi30LC surround
(2) RTi70 fronts
The richness and fullness of the sound and the incredible range of this system is mind-boggling.
This configuration blew away systems (both for store designed and individually built systems, as ours was) costing as much and, in several cases, much more. We DEFINITELY recommend doing quite a few demo comparisons under different situations. If you are serious about spending the amount of money it takes to put together what you need, then it's definitely worth the time and effort.
Believe me when I tell you that when we played the shoot-em-up scene in Predator (after Jesse got hit) you knew you were in the middle of something big! We played this scene with the speaker volumes set to the defaults (0db) and the master volume was way down. The sound just seemed to permeate everything, I mean right down into your skin! The subwoofer was set on auto and delivered precisely enough low-end torque to let you know something hot was happening. There was absolutely none of the over-heavy thumpiness associated with a lot of the units we tested. This is absolutely the best home theater system we've ever heard. Take one for a test drive and let us know if you agree. We think you will.
Steve & Chris
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 449.00
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Epinions.com ID:
sroysr
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Reviews written: 1
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