Harman Kardon AVR1600 High Performance, 50W X 7, 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver with Dolby Digital Plus/Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Decoding Black Product: Harman Kardon AVR1600 High Performance, 50W X 7, 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver with Dolby Digital Plus/Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Decoding Black-Retail $599.00! Sale Only $499.00! List Price: $599.00 Amazon Price: $499.00 Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

Compare Prices on Harman Kardon AVR1600 High Performance, 50W X 7, 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver with Dolby Digital Plus/Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio Decoding Black

For more than 50 years, Harman Kardon products have been engineered to deliver the ultimate listening experience. That tradition continues with Harman Kardon’s new AVR 1600 home theater receiver, which offers an affordable way to enjoy the best sound experience possible. High performance starts with a high-current, ultra-wide amplifier design which delivers uncomprimised realism and dynamics from your all your music and movies, including today’s latest high-definition sources like Blu-ray. Connect your Blu-ray player to the AVR 1600 and it will play back the high-resolution Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks with stunning detail.The AVR 1600 can deliver an exciting 5.1 can deliver an exciting 5.1 or 7.1 surround experience from sources that aren’t in encoded in surround sound using proprietary Logic 7 processing. Have an iPod or MP3 player? The AVR 1600 even has a compressed music enhancer that will improve the sound quality of compressed music tracks. Setting up and using the AVR 1600 couldn’t be easier. A simple on-screen menu system will guide you in setting up your home theater system while calibration and equalization is both easy and accurate with the included EzSet/EQ calibration system.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12576 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Black
• Brand: Harman Kardon
• Model: AVR1600
• Dimensions: 10.50″ h x 18.30″ w x 21.80″ l, 24.00 pounds

Features

• Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding delivers high-resolution sound
• High-current, ultra-wide-bandwidth amplifier generates 50 Watts per channel for uncompromisable realism
• EzSet/EQ automates room-equalization and system-calibration for simple system setup
• Features 3 HDMI and 2 component video inputs
• Updated firmware provides full compatibility with Xbox 360

FYI
Got this in the mail a couple of weeks ago. It is a very attractive unit, couple of things I don’t care for.

1. Can’t ever turn off the bright power on light. Apparently some people couldn’t remember to turn off the unit when they killed the display, so now I have this bright white light that won’t turn off.

2. HDMI passthrough only kinda works. The main reason I bought this thing was to pass HDMI from my various devices through the single source (and for its audio sync capabilities). Unfortunately for me, while my HTPC straight to the tv works like a champ, I only get a black screen for video (audio works fine though…) when passing through this device. From what I can tell this is a common problem with the 1600 (go check out the forum for owners).

3. HK support kinda sucks. Sent an email last week. No reply. Called them during business hours, had to leave a message. So far no help from them.

I have worked around this by just not using the HDMI, buttt…was kinda the whole reason I bought this, now its just like the one i replaced it with, bummer. In the end it looks pretty good and works pretty good, just not as good as they would want you to believe.

Does not work well with some components
I am not an audiophile but I know what I like in a sound system. Been a fan of Harman Kardon for many years.I recently decided to retire an aging HK receiver and decided on the AVR 1600. I was not all that interested in video upscaling, purchased a very nice ipod dock with a universal remote and did not require the additional power - so I had no need for the higher end models.

After hooking up the HK AVR1600 to my TV (Samsung LED), xbox 360 and cable box/dvr all via HDMI, everything worked except the xbox. I tried downscaling the xbox to 1080i and various settings but the result was always audio but no video. Called technical support and after trying a reset of the 1600 I was bumped down to second level support which instructed me to exchange the unit.

I received the second unit a few days later. And even though I knew it would not matter, I purchased a couple of high end HDMI cables. Connected the second unit and had the same result - audio but no video when connecting to my xbox 360. Technical support said they were aware of an issue. Even mentioned that there were similar problems connecting with a few satellite receivers. Did some research and found that the issue was being discussed on the avs forums. The problem does not appear to occur with the 2600 and above models.

I really wanted this receiver to work because it sounds great. So I hooked up my xbox to my TV directly (HDMI) then I took the sound from the TV back to the 1600 via optical. I did not like the sound and after checking the manual, I confirmed that my TV does not pass 5.1 via it’s optical port which is perfectly understandable because it is not the TV’s job to play with audio. So I scrapped that plan.

An audio video receiver is supposed to play nicely with my home components which includes game consoles. And the more I thought about it, who knows if I won’t run into some other issue hooking up something else a few years down the road so the AVR 1600 is going back. I picked up the Denon AVR-790 today. It was much more complicated to set up but has so far worked flawlessly with all of my components.

Note that Amazon’s customer service as usual has been exceptional.

Elegant Look & Sound
-Revision-
There has been some confusion as to the actual power rating for this receiver. The website and download-able manual both say 50W per channel. However, the paper manual that came with my AVR1600 says only 35W per channel (page 5.) I have contacted a Harman Kardon rep to get to the bottom of this all and he confirmed that it was actually rated at 35W per channel and the marketing description was an error. WHO REALLY KNOWS WHAT TO BELIEVE! With that said, it is worth mentioning that Harman Kardon rates their receivers more modestly than other companies. Rather than advertising max possible output, H/K sets their power ratings based on pre-distortion levels. The sound that the AVR1600 puts out is more than sufficient for my medium-sized living room.

The largest improvement I noticed when upgrading from an entry level Yamaha receiver was the ability to calibrate EVERYTHING. After accurately setting the crossovers & speaker distances (which was very simple with the on-screen display) I noticed a dramatic difference in dialog clarity & much fuller LFE (bass.) It was like having a whole new system. The AVR1600 is very good at adjusting to accommodate speakers of all sizes.

And finally, I am ashamed to say that more than anything else, it was the sheer good looks of this receiver that really sold me. If there was a receiver beauty pageant, this baby would take home the prize!

Buy it. Period.