HK reciever question

cammrit

Hey everyone...I just received my speaker package for my HT, LSI15 fronts, LSIC Center and 4 LSIFX for surrounds. I am in search of a amp to power these dawgs. I am leaning towards a Harman AVR7300, or AVR635. The AVR7300 is a bit more but is it worth it? Also not really stuck on HK but I admit I have a good source and get a fairly good discount on them...price isn't always the only thing involved however it is certainly a good motivator! That being said any other suggestions or brands would be great. Room is 18 x 14, w/ Knoll HD284 projector.

Any advice would be greatly apreciated,
Cheers,
Cam

Dennis Gardner

The 7300 is a beast. I have the 7200 and love the power for HT.

BIZILL

get a modest-powered reciever with pre-outs and look into seperate amplification. my 7300 packs some punch, but there is a reason i didn't go with rti10's, 12's or the lsi line of speakers. i wasn't man enough to go with separate and expensive amplifiers.

drew spelts

I bet you would be ok with the 7300. I bought my 635 with an employe discount through circuit city but it still came out to be almost $650 after shipping and some change for the friend. I say this because the online sales some times have them priced down to $700 for the 635 model but then you would have to pay shipping which is like $40. But I have heard of some people talking them in to getting the online deal through the store and not having to ship them. The only advantage that the 635 has over the 7300 is that it equalizes the sound in the room for any distortions or weird sound waves and or room discrepincies such as one of the walls is completely open with the EZ setup. The 7300 can not do this because it is not programed to do this and never will be. All that it can do is make sure the speakers are the right level compared to the other speakers in the room. The only HK receivers that have this feature have 5 as the last diget. so 335,435,635 any thing XX5 just some info for you. Another down side to the 7300 is that it has a fan to cool off the unit which makes lots of sound if you do not have it isolated behind a glass door or something in a cabinet. So during a quiet scene when dialog might be causing you to listen in a little better you will hear that fan. That is another reason why I chose the 635 NO Fan Baby. I just give it about 6 inches of ventilation above it and an open back in my cabinet.

Lowell_M

I've been looking at www.harmanaudio.com. they have the 630 for $489 and the 635 for $698 (rebuilds). Is there any major difference accept a few bells and whistles? I could buy and spl meter and calibrate myself.

kingtut

You'll get better result calibrating via SPL meter. H/K automated calibration is not very accurate.

SKsolutions

The 630 doesn't have the EQ, doen't upsample video, gets OSD on VID1 only, and I believe it's short one DSP setting that is upgradable though the RS232 in the rear. I can send you a link to the upgrade if you get the 630. The amp is the same. Is it worth the extra money? I can't say how important the difference is to you, but for 200 more, I didn't think so. The EASY-SET feature works well, but you still have to refine it some.

Cammrit,
If you can drive all those with ANY receiver, I'll eat my own head.
(2) LSi15's, (1) C, and (4) LSiFX's
These are the top three most difficult Polk speakers to drive {15, FX, C/9}
Your receiver will run from the room before you can even hook it up.
Try looking for an Amp on the 'bay or equilivant.
Good luck.

Oh, I have a HK AVR, and I like it fine (630) $440 shipped harman-audio eBay

tsmith08

Ordered the HK AVR 635 earlier this week from 6th Ave. Should be here tomarrow. New, $649.oo + $0.06 shipping. They show to be an autherized dealer on the HK website. website is 6ave.com

cammrit

SKsolutions...yeah I agree with you now, after looking into things a bit more, I can honestly say I was wowed by the saving I could get on the HK 7300 or the 635 amp. Neither of those amps, as good as they are are adequate to drive the 4 Ohm load of the LSI series. I am going to get some separates to drive the speakers. On that note, can anyone point me into a good direction on a pre/amp and separate amps for each channel...I have checked out some of the Outlaw Audio equipment and for the price, it seems pretty darn good value. Or is there any reason to not go with a good feature rich reciever and then use the preamp outs to separates for amplification instead of getting an expensive processor?

Cheers

SKsolutions

Features often come at the price of sound. That is my opinion only. I don't like Denon, for instance. I'd rather have a less expensive Onkyo, and a better separate Amp. There are others here better informed on today's Amp market than I, so I'm sure they will help you out.
You might have been able to drive 2, or even 3 LSi's as I do, but no way (2) 15's, (1) C, and (4) FX's. Sounds like it will be quite the bad **** rig when you're done. Good luck.
Sean

2+2

cammrit, check out audiogon.com for some used gear. In addition to Outlaw, check out av123.com for some value gear.....IMO and limited experience, preamp sections can make even more of an impact than the amp sections.... as to driving the 15s, get a high current of an amp as you can (not watts...but current)....