I’ve been looking for a decently priced 7.1 receiver capable of multiple HDMI inputs, anyone care to share their experience with this particular brand/model?
I’ve never owned a Harman Kardon, only have experience with Sony and Onkyo and my current Onkyo is flaking out on me right now.
I can’t speak for this model, but HK is a solid brand. One of my HK receivers that’s almost 20 years old is still kicking!
HK is well respected, and this is a good deal. If I had the money I would replace my Onkyo with it.
Amazon link shows 4 stars after 30 reviews, priced at $359.55 by marketplace seller World Wide Stereo (fulfilled by Amazon), or $381.68 sold by Amazon.
I had the higher end AVR3600. The preamp section died after a little over a year. While it worked, the sound quality was great, but you can’t really compare newer HK stuff to older HK stuff for reliability.
The only thing to be concerned about this really is the low power rating (65W). You’ll probably want relatively sensitive speakers with that. However, since all AVR manufacturers use different methods to measure that power rating, it’s never all that accurate anyway.
Anyway, for more information than you could ever possibly need:
I’ve been keeping an eye on these, if you arent in a rush to build a system, I suggest holding out and snapping up a returned unit from Amazon Warehouse. They are still covered under warranty(considered open box, new). I have seen the AVR 3600 hit the ~$270 region for a “Very Good” condition
Agreed! Best sound ever out of mine from the early seventies (before I was born). Mine doesn’t have HDMI ;0 but you would think it did. It can drown out the godawful rap music for miles with the sweet sounds of country music!
I’ve owned this receiver for 8 months as a replacement for my aging HK AVR230 receiver, which was still perfectly functional after being purchased 6 years ago as a refurb. This is a very good receiver for the price, with a lot of inputs and features.
I would suggest not worrying about the 65 watt rating for two reasons. First of all, the difference between 65 watts and 100 watts, which is what many other receivers are rated at, is ~2dB. Second of all, Harman receivers tend to be rated for higher current than most others. As a result, they will more easily power low impedance speakers and may even offer more total power across all channels than your average 100 watts/channel receiver.
Does anyone know if this model upscales all the inputs to HDMI?
It’s really nice having just one HDMI cable connecting the receiver to the TV.
never had one home to experience audio quality, but HK speaker demos in stores have always been pleasant.
this receiver, though…gets major points for looking awesome. the front, at least.
Yes. According to the technical specs found at http://www.harmankardon.com/en-us/products/pages/productdetails.aspx?pid=avr%202600 this receiver offers Faroudja DCDi Cinema™ scaling/processing to 1080p.
I have the older generation one model up from this and it is superb. Had it for two years or so and it handles my Polk 70/40/CS2 5.1 setup extremely well, leaving me 2 channels for an outdoor ‘Zone 2’.
Previous statements are correct, HK’s 65 is closer to a TRUE 65w than just about everyone, overpowering many other brands that claim 100-120+ per channel. This is reportedly due to their testing while every channel is actually sucking that much juice, rather than just driving a couple of channels to put a nicer spec on the box.
Another quick thing to note, I got my last one from the ‘harmanaudio’ OFFICIAL refurb store that they operate on eBay, and it’s normally a spot to get great deals. They have this model up for $299 consistently, free shipping. Not sure that I consider $15 savings to be Woot Worthy, but I guess maybe the warranty is longer? Here, check it out for yourselves: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harman-Kardon-AVR-2600-Z-7-1-Channel-A-V-Receiver-with-HDMI-Repeater-/390476772814?pt=Receivers_Tuners&hash=item5aea3ab5ce
I have an AVR247, which is an older brother of this model. It’s coming up on 5 years old an djust went in for service for the first time. There were a number of capacitors that had blown. The receiver was still functioning for the most part, except it would keep losing HDMI output. Other than that it has performed flawlessly.
What is a “solid” brand? Also, if it is such a “solid” brand, why are these refurbished? Yours might have lasted 20 years, but the all of the ones in this techWoot! have not.
Because if they weren’t refurbs, the price would be higher?
I have the AVR 347. These are well built units- mine is rated at 55 watts. It has good dynamic clean power, but overall does not put out a huge amount of sound. At $280 this is priced well- but if you are looking to blow the doors off your room, this will not do it. I realize that their rating is still considered conservative. I miss my 1994 JVC RX815V- if I could have that back with all the latest surround sound stuff- I would take it in a second. But today’s HK is a decent deal as long as you don’t need to blow the room out.
Where are they made these days? Back in the day, they were of unbelievable quality. I have a HK 330b receiver that I bought new in 1975. It has no surrond-sound or HDMI inputs, but I use it every day. Rock solid quality.
delete- answered wrong post