DMHenrie wrote:
Oh, and to whomever wrote, I can get away with a small amp, I doubt it as=
if
I use the Dahlquist, they will require some wattage. I also favor many
features of the upper AVR receivers as well. The Maratnz, Harman Kardons
have my eye now, but maybe that is my vintage background speaking there
also. They get good reviews, but they also place ads in the magazines th=
at
review them, so I dont know the trustworthy aspect.

Your Harmon Kardon choice is 110 Watts/channel in surround... the
Pioneer is 100. Their "high current" claim is bogus. Don't get me
wrong.. I'm sure the HK will sound great but it won't "sound" any
better than the Pioneer IMO and I did listen to Yamahas, HKs, Denons,
and Onkyos. The amp sections didn't sound any different. All that
extra processing takes power and some of them with all their features
packed into that box ran pretty hot. I see the HK does have individual
channel tone controls which might be helpful matching mismatched
speakers. I also see it needs a fan

Your also paying a bundle for the video upconverter and a couple
channels you won't use. Personally, I don't route my video through my
receiver. Just extra cables and I don't think upsampling video is
worth squat.

Maybe you ought to read these user review comments from someone who
owns one. He didn't like it at all and if you're a rookie in
surround... you'll never get it setup.

BIG TIME. Yes, AVR 7300 has great potential - the hardware is solid.
Sadly enough, though, its user interface and general usability leave
much to be desired. The EZSet feature is very inaccurate. I tried it
several times and it simply does not work correctly. I guess I will not
be retiring my RadioShack SPL meter any time soon. The receiver does
not have a "Master" channel level setup feature. To set up channel
levels, one has to go into each possible DSP mode of each input (it's
up to you to figure out how many possible combinations exist!) and set
channel levels there. And, in order to do this, one must make sure
there is an input signal present while adjusting the channels, since
there is no way to engage certain DSP modes when no signal is coming
in. For example, you cannot adjust the DTS channel levels unless there
is a DTS encoded DVD currently playing. What a nightmare! Sometimes I
wonder, do they even have an interface designer at Harman Kardon? I
mean, someone who actually "plays" with the new products and comments
on user friendliness (or complete lack of one) of their receivers? Is
there someone who would notice that there is no way to correctly
identify buttons on the front panel of the unit in a dark room? (Come
on! It's a AV Receiver. It's supposed to be used in Home Theater,
where it's usually dark, right?) Is there someone who would point to
the fact that two large round buttons on the remote (up/down/left/right
and channel/volume) are almost indistinguishable by touch? How about
someone who would be annoyed by the fan noise coming from the receiver,
even when no input signal is present (and therefore no extra heat
dissipation is required)? I bought AVR 7300 for its 7.1 capabilities.
Why does it always default to 5.1 decoding when a DD5.1 or DTS signal
is detected??? It allows me to store my preference of Dolby DPLIIx or
Logic 7 for two channel sources. Why does it insist on initially
selecting pure 5.1 decoding with 5.1 sources then??? To make matters
worse, when in DD 5.1 mode, it forces me to circle through six (6!!!)
absolutely useless Dolby modes (2-SP, 4-SP, etc) and only then allows
me to select "Movie" or "Music" post-processing (Dolby Digital PlIIx
"Movie"/"Music"). Needless to say, it not only takes time, but also
interrupts sound from the speakers every time a "Dolby" button on the
remote is pressed! And, try to find this bloody button in a dark (so
much for the "backlighting" they provided)! I went through the expense
of setting up seven speakers and a subwoofer (I am sure there are many
other consumers who either did or are planning to do the same thing). I
indicated to the receiver during the setup that I DO HAVE SEVEN
SPEAKERS connected to it. Wouldn't it mean that I am determined to
get most use out of this setup? How about implementing a simple logic:
A=2E When 5 speakers are connected, disable 7.1 modes B. When 7 speakers
are connected, remember the last 7.1 mode (or 5.1 or 2 channel stereo)
used per input PER SOURCE ENCODING TYPE (PCM or bitstream DD 2 channels
or DD 5.1 or DTS) unless the EX flag is present (perform a DD EX or DTX
EX decoding then). If this is not technologically possible then,
PLEASE, default processing of the 5.1 source to Dolby Digital Pl IIx
"Movie" when 7 speakers are connected. This way, when a DD 5.1 signal
is present and someone does not want to have 7.1 post-processing,
he/she can press the "Dolby" button on the remote once or twice and get
pure DD 5.1 as opposed to what was described by me above - the pain of
circling through multiple useless DD modes the other way around. The
receiver does not remember the Tone In/Out setting per audio input. For
example I, personally, prefer to listen to the music from a CD player
with Tone Out and watch DVD's with Tone In (-6 dB Treble to compensate
for the overly bright movie soundtracks - "Poor man THX cinema
re-equalization"). It appears that whenever I switch between inputs,
the Tone In/Out setting gets carried over. I would be hard pressed to
find an audio enthusiast who likes using the same tone settings both
for Home Theater use and for stereo listening of the music. Every audio
purist strives to exclude any tone altering circuits from the signal
path when listening to the music. It is a completely different story
with movies, since, as you probably know, the audio track there is
mixed with the intention of being reproduced in large theatre halls
where the high frequency would naturally roll off due to the fact that
the speakers there are much further away from the viewers then at home.
This is why THX standard calls for "Cinema Re-equalization," simply
speaking, reducing high frequencies to compensate for overly bright
movie soundtracks. Should H/K designers have chosen to implement
separate settings of the tone controls per input they would have
brought AVR 7300 a notch closer to the top of the crowd receivers
without a necessity to pay licensing fees for THX certification. As for
tone control, it is apparent that H/K designers are unaware that a
little consistency goes a long way. Look what is happening: In order
for someone to change the Tone In/Out settings using the remote he has
to press the Tone button, then find an Up/Down button, and toggle the
current tone mode. Meanwhile, all DSP mode changing buttons cycle
through the available modes without any need to move ones finger to
another place on the remote. It would be reasonable to expect the Tone
button to work the same way: press it once to see what current setting
is, press it second time to toggle the settings. Silly little thing?
Maybe. Can it be corrected? Sure! Does it leave a bad impression of the
overall design? It is up to you to decide! Speaking of the remote
control, for a flagship receiver to have a remote like AVR 7300 has is
simply humiliating. The buttons are absolutely indistinguishable in the
dark even with the "backlight" switched on. Most of them have the same
shape and size and the button names are written NEXT to them, not ON
them so they are not lit when "backlighting" is on. When a Phillips
Pronto can be had (refurbished) for $160 mail-order (meaning the actual
cost to make one is close to $100), why doesn't H/K license the
remote design from Phillips, slap an extra $100 on top of the
receiver's price, and package this remote with their products? I've
spent some time with Denon's RC-8000 LCD PC programmable remote
control and while it is still not a Pronto, the RC-8000 is light years
ahead of the piece of headache that comes with AVR 7300. Now, here is
another sad point of my story. I have a Scientific Atlanta Explorer
4200HD digital cable box connected to one of the component inputs of
the AVR 7300. Regardless of the cable box output settings (480i or 480p
or 1080i) the signal reaches my TV only when video processing in the
AVR 7300 is switched OFF. Otherwise, I get a blank (blue) screen. So in
order for me to take a full advantage of critically acclaimed Faroudja
video chip I have to remember to toggle video processing switch ON and
OFF every time I switch between my cable, DVD and VCR. Apparently, the
H/K "flagship" receiver is not smart enough to detect the HDTV
signal and automatically disable video processing circuits. So what
should I blame - technical limitations, or (again and more likely) an
oversight of the designers? As annoying the fact that video processing
blocks the 1080i HDTV signal is, I could have lived with it if they had
implemented a separate video processing ON/OFF settings memory per
input. But again, apparent lack of internal user interface critiquing
body handicaps this company big time. I decided to do some more tests
regarding the OSD: When I use my Toshiba SD6200 DVD player and I set
the DVD player output to "interlaced" (480i), the signal goes through
the AVR 7300 to my TV set both when video processing in AVR is switched
on and when it is switched off. With the 480i signal the OSD works
well, regardless of the video processing switch. When I use my Toshiba
SD6200 DVD player and I set the DVD player output to "progressive"
(480p), the signal goes through the AVR 7300 to my TV set both when
video processing in AVR is switched on and when it is switched off, BUT
(!) I can't get the OSD to work here regardless of the video-processing
switch. I spoke to the H/K tech support about this issue and they claim
that AVR 7300 overlays its menus over the 480i picture, then up
converts it if requested to 480p, and then sends the resulting signal
to the TV set. If 480p or higher source is used, then AVR 7300 can't
overlay the menu over the picture. Their designers did not even try to
find a workaround to accommodate thousands of the end users who have
the progressive scan DVD players and HD cable boxes! It appears that
they have chosen to deliberately impair a consumer's ability from
making any meaningful setup adjustments when the 480p source is used.
Why can't the receiver temporarily block the source when the OSD button
is pressed, then show its menus on a blank screen in 480i format and
then unblock the 480p source when the OSD is switched off? All other
high-end receivers go this route. (I called Yamaha, Pioneer, Marantz
and double-checked with them before writing this review. I saw Denon
AVR 5803 doing it the right way too). Why H/K designers put their
product in this unfavorable situation is beyond my understanding. A few
more problems. The receiver (at least my unit) does not want to
recognize DD 5.1 EX flag on any DVD's I tried. It drops audio ever so
often for a second or so while watching some DVD's with DD 5.1
soundtrack ("Star Wars Episode I" is one of those, for example) and
I can't find an explanation for it. And again, the cooling fan makes
a distracting noise. Whatever... I am really very sad. The AVR 7300
reminds me a lot of a classic American Muscle car - plenty of raw
unadulterated power coupled with mediocre handling characteristics.
Sure, that car can cover =BC mile very fast but no one would use it in a
World Rally Championship to compete on a twisty mountain road...
Ironically, the H/K website has Dr. Sidney Harman's quote on their
website: "We were determined that our products should look pleasant and
be easy to use. I argued that if you could do it with one knob, what's
wrong with that. The one knob idea is that the engineering-the
technical part should be transparent. You use the brilliance of the
engineer to make the thing very simple for the user." I wish Dr. Harman
could have personally tried to use the "flagship" receiver of his
company and give a user interface related feedback to the designer team
(in strong words)... Anyway, H/K designers must roll off their sleeves
and spend significant time re-working all issues pertaining to AVR 7300
usability if they want to keep the sales on par with the flagship
receivers of other manufacturers. Until then - I give up. I returned
the unit to the dealer after exchanging more then 30 emails with
various H/K tech support people. I guess I'll be looking for a deeply
discounted now Denon AVR 5308 in a few days.

from http://reviews.designtechnica.com/user_reviews1880.html

After reading that... I wouldn't touch it.


ScottW