Harmon Kardon advice

mark090852

Looking for some feedback.

J&R has a very good price listed for the HK AVR 645. I'm going to be upgrading everything in my HT setup except the SVS Ultra-13 sub on preorder and the TV.

I eventually want to get RTi 10s or 12s for the fronts. I'm planning on getting three Outlaw 2200 monoblocks to power the two fronts and the center channel. The current Sony receiver I have does not have preouts so I've been looking at refurbished ones at HarmanAudio on ebay and hoping to find an HK 347 or 645 at a good price. Just missed winning an auction over this past weekend on a 645. And now J&R has what seems to be a fantastic price for a new one with full factory warranty.

I've read on the AVS forum about some issues that people are having with Harman Kardon receivers but I realize that the ones who post just represent a small percentage of the total buyers/owners.

I wanted to check here and see if anyone had some thoughts about this receiver. I'll probably go ahead and order it later this evening unless somebody can talk me out of it.

Thanks,
Mark

AndyGwis

You are pretty much in the position I was in a year and a half ago. I wanted a quality receiver. Got a Pioneer 1015 but it didn't cut it so I returned it.

Decided on HK AVR 635 over Denon, Yamaha, etc. Wanted a refurb, but most would run me $550 - $600+ shipping on ebay + hassle of bidding, so I bought one new in box from 6ave.com for $649 shipped.

Never had one problem with it. Probably the most reliable piece I own. Used the preouts to hook up a B&K 1430 for my front soundstage. You may like to look at some three channel amps instead of the 2200's. Nothing against them; just a lot of space, plugs, etc. with all those monos.

Ron Temple

The refurbs on ebay can be a PITA from my experience, but you've got to love the warranty and the price. If you get a nice one, it's a nice sounding receiver with decent DACs. If you don't need the video features the 2xx and 3xx series are real bargains.

Even if you have similar experiences to me, you'll still probably prefer the HK sound to Onk, Denon or Pio, from my experience, and the swapout is fairly painless.

mark090852

Ron Temple wrote: »

The refurbs on ebay can be a PITA from my experience, but you've got to love the warranty and the price. If you get a nice one, it's a nice sounding receiver with decent DACs. If you don't need the video features the 2xx and 3xx series are real bargains.

Even if you have similar experiences to me, you'll still probably prefer the HK sound to Onk, Denon or Pio, from my experience, and the swapout is fairly painless.

Ok Ron, I'm going to show my ignorance here...what are DACs?

XJRGUY

mark090852 wrote: »

Ok Ron, I'm going to show my ignorance here...what are DACs?

Digital to Analog Converters

Ron Temple

The 4,6 & 7 series have upgraded Burr-Brown DACs, but the (I believe) TI DACs for the lesser series are no slouches for AVRs...this doesn't tell the whole story, there are a bunch of stages the signal passes through before output, but for an entry to midfi AVR, HK does a pretty good job.

There are pros and cons on all brands...I like HKs sound, but I've had my troubles too. If you're not familiar do a search on HK refurbs...my thread will show up.

Mike682

The AVR645 is a nice receiver. If you buy from their ebay store, you have the full warranty and 30 days to return.

I bought an HK AVR235 from the HK ebay store. However, my first 235 had a dead channel. HK sent me a new receiver and an email with prepaid shipping labels. As Ron said, the swap process is easy.

I am very happy with the 235 and would definitely buy another HK receiver.

AndyGwis

If you buy an HK receiver, whether brand new or refurb from Harman Kardon Direct, you should be taken care of.

Many don't have any problems. Those that do are handled with great service.

Willow

I own a HK335 and a HK340 and enjoy them very much

strider

I've been using an AVR520 for about 4 years now. While I'm not as critical a listener when it comes to the whole HT thing, I do like it's sound. The only issue I've had with it is with the remote, the backlight stopped working a year or so ago. I also can't remember when the EZ-Set function, for channel level adjustment, worked. Not a real big deal. How I came about getting the 520, though, irked me a bit more. I can't remember exactly what model it was, but a year earlier I had bought an HK avr. One (maybe more?) of the digital inputs stopped working. Called HK, the only option I had for repair was a local shop. After 2.5 months, and at no real fault of HK, they decided they couldn't fix it. HK sent me the next years equivelant of my model, which didn't have the pre-outs I needed. Had no luck in getting the model with pre-outs, maybe I didn't bark up the right tree, I dunno. So I sold it and bought the 520. I'm still happy with mine, HK was good to deal with, but in the end I felt like they didn't go the extra step to make my happy by getting me a model with pre-outs, even when I was willing to pay the difference.

MattN03

I bought a refurbed H/K 635 from Harman Kardon Direct's Ebay store and it has worked flawlessly for over a year. I snagged a good deal-about $525 shipped I believe.

mark090852

Thanks for the info, everybody. I went ahead and placed my order with J&R. HK Direct on Ebay hasn't had any of the 645s listed for the last two days. With the free shipping from J&R the cost wasn't too much more than the best I could have hoped for from an HK Direct auction. Their "buy it now" price has been much higher than J&R's price. So I feel good about the price I had to pay...just anxiously awaiting for it to arrive.

Thanks again for everybody's input.

Mark