Harman Kardon Receiver

Choosing a Harman Kardon Receiver

For more than 50 years, Harman Kardon products have been engineered to deliver the ultimate listening experience. The thrust and goal of the Harman Kardon brand is to give music fans the finest sound with the greatest of ease.

The company has pioneered everything from stereo sound to cassette decks to a remote control that automatically calibrates a home theater’s sound system. Whatever you want your sound system to do, Harman Kardon wants to make it easy – and to make it sound great.

When you’re in the process of choosing a Harmon Kardon Receiver you’ll inevitably have to make a few choices:

• How much money am I willing to spend?
• How much power do I need?
• Do I need any special functionality (e.g. Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding, EzSet/EQ and/or Bridge III iPod support)?

Great Quality, Great Price

If you’re looking for an affordable yet powerful receiver the Harman Kardon HK 3390 2 x 80W Stereo Receiver might be your best bet. It features 80 Watts x 2 into 8 ohms, convenient front-panel audio/video input for use with video games or portable players and dual subwoofer output, with trigger for direct connection to powered subwoofers.

If you’re interested in the Harman Kardon HK 3390 2 x 80W Stereo Receiver but feel that it lacks the power you need you’ll probably want to do check out the Harman Kardon HK 3490 2 x 120W Stereo Receiver. Instead of 2 x 80w this version sports 2 x 120w into 8 ohms.

More bang for the buck

If you want more bang for your buck, the Harman Kardon AVR 3600 7 x 85W 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver with HDMI 1.3a, Full, Audio/Video Processing and Upscaling to 1080p or the Harman Kardon AVR-254 7×50W 7.1-Channel Home Theater Receiver with HDMI 1.3a Repeater are alternatives you definitely should consider.

The AVR 3600 features 7 channels at 85W each and 7.1 Channel Audio/Video support. It also comes packed with Dolby Volume which maintains volume across all your content no matter what the source while also improving surround sound performance at low listening levels as well as EzSet/EQ that automates room-equalization and system-calibration for simple system setup and optimal audio quality in any listening room.

The AVR-254 features 7 channels at 50W each and Harman-exclusive Logic 7 Movie, Music, and game surround sound processing in 5.1 and 7.1 channels. It also features HDMI 1.3a with Deep Color and Faroudja DCDi Cinema video processing with upscaling to 1080p and Full Suite of Dolby surround decoding, including Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus.

The Cream of the Crop

If you’re a true audiophiliac and only want the best of the best, the Harman Kardon AVR7550HD 7.2 AVR with Dolby Volume, home Networking, USB File Play Back and Upgrade is your choice.

The AVR 7550HD is Harman Kardon’s new flagship home theater receiver. High performance starts with Harman Kardon’s highest-current, ultra-wide amplifier design that generates 110 Watts per channel for uncompromised realism, dynamics and subtlety from music and movies. It also features Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding that delivers high-resolution sound from today’s Blu-ray discs for the ultimate home theater experience.

The AVR 7550HD also includes the latest sound processing technology from Dolby laboratories called Dolby Volume. Set your preferred volume once and Dolby Volume maintains that level across all your content no matter what source you happen to be listening. When it comes to video, the AVR 7550HD sets the same performance standard that it does for audio. Using advanced Faroudja processing, video is upscaled to stunning 1080p resolution while display settings can be independently optimized by source for the best picture possible.