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Need suggestions on recievers

D

dark_phantom36

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 11, 2003
Messages
304
I've been thinking about getting one of the following:

*used* Harman Kardon AVR330 -- $275 plus shipping
*refurb* Onkyo TX-SR602 -- $250 plus shipping
*refurb* Denon AVR1905 -- $280 plus shipping

I was originally looking at the Harman Kardon AVR 130 for 197 posted in the hot deals forums, but these looked like much better deals.

Which of these should I get? Do you know of any other similarly priced recievers I should consider?

PS: I was also wondering if anyone knows anything about BSR
 
Circuit City also stocks both HK and Onkyo. Pay a visit to your local CC and play with them to see what you like better?
 
Yeah, I already checked out those threads and a few others on AVSforum... From what I've read, it didn't seem like the Pioneer 1014 was as good as the HK and the Onkyo. I meant to look at the kenwood 7100, but forgot to do that...

Someone has a used AVR330 for sale at audiogon.com for $275.

I'll definately have to stop by Circuit City and Best Buy to have a look at their recievers...

Thanks,
Nathan
 
Get the AVR330. It's definately a class or two ahead of those others. Run, don't walk.

Look at the retail price difference between the onkyo and the HK on circuitcity.com.
 
HK is really overpriced I think and lacks wattage. I'd recommend Denon or Yamaha or Onkyo... Those would be what I'd get but with my money standing, I'm just sticking with my Panasonic SA-HE70 which gets the job done, just don't put weak handling speakers in the rear and boost the dBs up and then play crappy music... lol that's how I blew a rear speaker half a year ago. I love my panasonic if you don't mind their distortion levels or the ultra low price of $150...
 
hell, don't run, take a cab... the avr330 vs. the other 2 is no comparison...

offer the guy on agon 250 shipped... since he's asking 275/obo + shipping, you should be able to get it for that... maybe 250+ split shipping, depends...

but i'd DEFINITELY choose that over the other 2... and it's not like i can be classified as a hk defender... :p
 
HK wattage numbers are perfectly adequate. Have you ever played with them? They can drive some serious current.
 
gmc, you DID read his last sentence, right? :rolleyes:

nathan, what are you going to be using for speakers? you didn't say...
 
heh, I knew I was forgetting something.

I'll be using them for about everything. I'll probably use it for music the most, then games and movies about equally, but I value the quality of sound for movies the most, then music, then games. Really, the only reason I listen to music more than play movies or games is that I can I listen to music almost no matter what I'm doing.
 
GodsMadClown said:
HK wattage numbers are perfectly adequate. Have you ever played with them? They can drive some serious current.
Click to expand...

Okay depends on what you mean by current.

Yes HK is known for higher current, lower voltage.

But if you meant current as in sound output, anything can be loud.

If I was going HK, I'd get the highest model that suited my speakers. So right now I've got Boston Accoustic Micro 90x front speakers, Micro 80x rear speakers, and Center Sat 7 for center speaker and all the front speakers can handle up to 120 watts; I'd get the HK that was up near 100 to 115 or if there is a 120 watt one. My Micro 80xs only take 100 watts and that's why I blew one of them (I got both replaced with version 2 of them) But a HK receiver with that much power would either be fake or really expensive. That's why I wouldn't go with HK.
 
CORVETTEZ06 said:
... My Micro 80xs only take 100 watts and that's why I blew one of them ...
Click to expand...

You blew them because your cheap-ass amp clipped. That means that it can't put out the wattage that it's rated for. 50 decent watts into my speakers is enough to drive my cat upstairs, cowering under the bed.

What are the specifi speakers that you will be using? What is thier impedance?
 
As stated above there were multiple reasons why I blew my rear speaker...

-Crappy, distortave music (downloaded something like 96 kbps or something low)
-Turned the individual rear speakers as high as they go (+10 dB)
-Put on "Party" mode which tells the receiver to use the rear speakers as if they were front speakers (picture the front speakers with pushing an extra +10 dB)
-Then turned it up from -80 dB volume to -10 dB (goes up to 0 dB)

It was a very stupid thing to do but I easily got replacement rear speakers for half off on clearance and the newer version 2 as I stated... (and by the way, the blown speaker just made a few crackling noises after that, nothing visual)

Anyway, this thread isn't about me but I figured I had to state something back...

EDIT: I read your message and wanted to state:
the receiver is rated at 100 watts @ 6 ohms x 5 which translates to something like 70 watts @ 8 ohms...
all of my speakers (excluding the subwoofer) are 8 ohms.

I don't think the receiver couldn't produce the wattage, I think it took everything above and added it's own amount of distortion and bang--it scared the shit out of me when I realized that turning it up that loud could damage stuff :eek: hehe i was dumb then... now i play my music and dvds and games at normal listening levels and not trying to see how far they can go (I got a friend who doesn't know what good speakers are cuz as soon as he gets any kind of speaker, he pushes them as high as he can go and he's blown all of them: ipod headphones i sold him, altec lansing speakers from best buy, and other things)
 
ccotenj said:
offer the guy on agon 250 shipped... since he's asking 275/obo + shipping, you should be able to get it for that... maybe 250+ split shipping, depends...
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was planning on doing if I decided on that one. :p
 
DUDE.. go for the HK330. That's what I have and it pretty much rocks my Polk LSi 4 ohm speakers.

However, keep in mind that I blew it just a few weeks ago.... maybe an isolated incident, maybe not. In any case, MAKE SURE YOU GET A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL RECEIPT. You have a 2 year warranty AND I know for a fact that HK transfers warranty (good thing).
 
CORVETTEZ06 said:
HK is really overpriced I think and lacks wattage. I'd recommend Denon or Yamaha or Onkyo... Those would be what I'd get but with my money standing, I'm just sticking with my Panasonic SA-HE70 which gets the job done, just don't put weak handling speakers in the rear and boost the dBs up and then play crappy music... lol that's how I blew a rear speaker half a year ago. I love my panasonic if you don't mind their distortion levels or the ultra low price of $150...
Click to expand...

you obviously have no idea how wattage numbers work then. HK seems to have "low" wattage ratings because they give honest ratings, whereas Pioneer and most other brands lie to your face about their ratings. Pioneer is just about the worst of the bunch when it comes to receivers.

CORVETTEZ06 said:
As stated above there were multiple reasons why I blew my rear speaker...

-Crappy, distortave music (downloaded something like 96 kbps or something low)
-Turned the individual rear speakers as hireceiver to use the rear speakers as if they were front speakers (picture the front speakers with pugh as they go (+10 dB)
-Put on "Party" mode which tells the shing an extra +10 dB)
-Then turned it up from -80 dB volume to -10 dB (goes up to 0 dB)
Click to expand...

you just proved GodsMadClown. Those settings were too much for that receiver to power, and the clipped signal destroyed your speaker. A good receiver with decent speakers should be able to play to loud speakers without failure. Most of the time, speakers blow from underpowered amps, as what happened in your case. its more rare for speakers to blow from high amounts of clean power.
 
Pinipig523 said:
DUDE.. go for the HK330. That's what I have and it pretty much rocks my Polk LSi 4 ohm speakers.

However, keep in mind that I blew it just a few weeks ago.... maybe an isolated incident, maybe not. In any case, MAKE SURE YOU GET A COPY OF THE ORIGINAL RECEIPT. You have a 2 year warranty AND I know for a fact that HK transfers warranty (good thing).
Click to expand...

Harman Kardon generally advises against powering a 4 ohm load. I wrote them an email about that, and they recommended to stay between 6 and 16 ohms, which covers the majority of speakers. that might be why your amp fried. Either way, harman kardon support is pretty good in case you do have trouble
 
CORVETTEZ06 said:
As stated above there were multiple reasons why I blew my rear speaker...

-Crappy, distortave music (downloaded something like 96 kbps or something low)
-Turned the individual rear speakers as high as they go (+10 dB)
-Put on "Party" mode which tells the receiver to use the rear speakers as if they were front speakers (picture the front speakers with pushing an extra +10 dB)
-Then turned it up from -80 dB volume to -10 dB (goes up to 0 dB)

It was a very stupid thing to do but I easily got replacement rear speakers for half off on clearance and the newer version 2 as I stated... (and by the way, the blown speaker just made a few crackling noises after that, nothing visual)

Anyway, this thread isn't about me but I figured I had to state something back...

EDIT: I read your message and wanted to state:
the receiver is rated at 100 watts @ 6 ohms x 5 which translates to something like 70 watts @ 8 ohms...
all of my speakers (excluding the subwoofer) are 8 ohms.

I don't think the receiver couldn't produce the wattage, I think it took everything above and added it's own amount of distortion and bang--it scared the shit out of me when I realized that turning it up that loud could damage stuff :eek: hehe i was dumb then... now i play my music and dvds and games at normal listening levels and not trying to see how far they can go (I got a friend who doesn't know what good speakers are cuz as soon as he gets any kind of speaker, he pushes them as high as he can go and he's blown all of them: ipod headphones i sold him, altec lansing speakers from best buy, and other things)
Click to expand...

yes. exactly what gmc said. you tried to put too much (non-existent for that avr) power out, you clipped the amp, and you fried the speaker...

i'd bet the ratio of blown speakers because of clipping vs. overpowering is 50 to 1... (maybe a SLIGHT exageration, but certainly not in the case of the avr you are using)...

geez. :rolleyes:
 
thats a lot of bickering just to tell the guy to get a harman kardon reciever. not only are hk's awesome recievers, they are the best looking ones too.
 
Don't start down that slippery slope of aesthetics over quality, pretty soon you'll be buying Bose cubes and Sony Street Style headphones =]
 
BO(V)BZ said:
Don't start down that slippery slope of aesthetics over quality, pretty soon you'll be buying Bose cubes and Sony Street Style headphones =]
Click to expand...

since when did bose cubes look good? ;)


Here's how i look at it. The Harman Kardon will beat the socks of anything else in it's price class. Considering how beautiful they are to look at, it's just icing on the cake :D
 
I suppose, it's all subjective anyways =]

I'm not going to lie, I bought my speakers partly because they look so fantastic, but I did get them Bstock, so I'm not entirely a wanker :p
 
If your going H/K, take a look at the Harmon Audio ebay store. You can get the refurbs cheaper on there than then Harmon Audio website.

I just lost the 330 by 2$ @ 237$.
But i went ahead and bid/won a 230 for 235. Still good price for it i think.
 
will just chime in here with my 3 cents,

I have a HK7500 (older amp) which does 100watt into 5 channels, +/-75amp and its driving a pair of JBL TiK10Ks at the front and 2Ks at the back plus the centre (got it all cause the wife worked for Harman Kardon so we got it for a song) but I have to say, the sheer power the amp can put out, I can't go above -35DB while in the same room...

I also recommended a AVR2500 to a mate, he is still very happy, has them driving some smaller bookshelfs, no problems (+/-25amp is still shedloads of power for most situations)

So yeah, HK is good quality, go for them and as was said, they are conservative in their ratings, like, the 100watt into 5 channels is at 8ohm with 0.07THD...go and check some sony/pioneer and they use say, 10%THD (like my other mates reciever) when saying it can drive 125Watt per channel.....uh huh.
 
Kristo said:
will just chime in here with my 3 cents,

I have a HK7500 (older amp) which does 100watt into 5 channels, +/-75amp and its driving a pair of JBL TiK10Ks at the front and 2Ks at the back plus the centre (got it all cause the wife worked for Harman Kardon so we got it for a song) but I have to say, the sheer power the amp can put out, I can't go above -35DB while in the same room...

I also recommended a AVR2500 to a mate, he is still very happy, has them driving some smaller bookshelfs, no problems (+/-25amp is still shedloads of power for most situations)

So yeah, HK is good quality, go for them and as was said, they are conservative in their ratings, like, the 100watt into 5 channels is at 8ohm with 0.07THD...go and check some sony/pioneer and they use say, 10%THD (like my other mates reciever) when saying it can drive 125Watt per channel.....uh huh.
Click to expand...

Quoted for truth :)
 
Well, i wasn't able to buy the HK AVR 330 on audiogon because it was sold.

I went to Circuit City to test out the AVR 230, AVR 330, AVR 430, and the Onkyo SR602. They didn't have the SR602 or the AVR430. I tried to listen to the SR502, but it wasn't hooked up to any speakers. I tried to listen to the AVR330, but it was hooked up to absolutely terrible sounding speakers (my logitech z2200s sound better). Then, I went to best buy and they had nothing interesting.

I think I'm going to get either a Harmon Kardon AVR 330 or AVR 430 from the Harman Audio ebay store because there is nowhere nearby to try out any of the speakers and these seem like safe bets at a very good price...

Thanks for the help guys... I'll probably start another thread about replacing my dad's old speakers that he is letting me borrow(BSR model 158s), whenever I get my reciever.
 
Those look pretty nice, they cost a bit more than I want to pay for speakers...

I am about to test out the speakers my dad is letting me use on a really cheap receiver...
specs:
2 inch tweeter
6 inch woofer
12 inch woofer
This is just what I know by using a ruler, and I don't know much about speakers, so I could be wrong about what is what...

100 watts max rms
200 watts music rms ???
This is what it says on the back of the speakers... I'm not sure what music rms means. If these sound good, I might just use them permanently for fronts, sides, or rears... Either way, they will have to last me for probably 6 months, so that I can save up money to buy new speakers.

Thanks,
Nathan

edit: I tested the speakers on a really bad reciever, and they sound much better than the speakers that came with it. Now i just need to rethink my room setup and find a place to sit these monsters, so that they are at ear level... :-D
 
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