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(More customer reviews)This is my second 7.1 channel surround receiver. I also own a Yamaha flagship THX 110W/ch receiver, the RX-V1400. The Yamaha has more sound processing options, but sometimes less is more. Both are high current amps and both have the self-calibrating feature (YPAO on the Yamaha and EzSet on the Harman Kardon). The Yamaha is in a 23'x20' upstairs media room and the AVR235 is in a 30'x25' open downstairs living area. Both of the amps produce extremely clean sound, both have power to spare (even though the AVR235 is rated considerably less and is in a larger space), and both have very high build quality. The Yamaha is more suited to a micro-managing audiophile and the Harman Kardon is more of a plug and play style receiver. The Yamaha has more knobs and options, but it also requires more attention. On the Yamaha unit, you have to manually enable Dolby Digital EX/DTS ES processing every time you turn the unit on even though in the setup it knows you have a full 7.1 speaker package. I guess it assumes that my rear surrounds are intended to be decorative. Basically, it is dumb and assumes that you know it is dumb and that you will tell it what you want it to do. Except for the parametric EQ, which is smart, except it doesn't necessarily sound great and is best that it is defeated in favor of the manual EQ. It took me approximately three weeks of tweaking to get the sound like I wanted. The Harman Kardon on the other hand is very user friendly. It has an on-screen display (my only gripe is that you must use this) for configuring the many inputs and outputs. It makes very logical assumptions. If you have seven speakers and a subwoofer, it assumes that you want to listen to Dolby Digital material using all of those speakers (EX); however, if you prefer 5.1 or even stereo from your Dolby Digital you can override the 7.1 selection. There are no hidden EQs or too much bloated software that may overprocess the signal and actually degrade the quality in the end. The AVR235 still has the bass and treble controls in the form of knobs on the front of the unit, could it be any simpler. It took me approximately thirty minutes to get the Harman Kardon to sound like I wanted it to sound. The Harman Kardon simply adheres to the principles of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). It has everything you may need (front optical and coaxial digital inputs, 7.1ch pre-amp input,etc.), but lacks all of the things that you probably don't need that only get in the way. It is an efficiently engineered marvel whose sound quality rivals and probably even exceeds any other brands flagship receiver lines (yes... even you Marantz, Denon, and others) in the under 2k category. It may seem expensive to some, but in its feature/function class it is less than half of the price of most and is probably almost twice as good. Don't even question the power rating vs. other receivers because the power may be rated less on the Harman, but the unit has a clean sound over the entire power range. Unlike other receivers that have high power rating, and very little signal clarity once truly pushed to the limit. Remember it is not about pure wattage into an 8 ohm load (because a speakers impedance is actually dynamic across a range of frequencies since a speaker is inductive), but rather it is about how much current the amplifier can supply that contributes to what you hear. You have to ask yourself this question: Do you really want a concert hall DSP setting that overprocesses a perfectly good signal to make it sound like a cellphone ringtone being emitted from the bottom of a deep well? If you do, then this is not the receiver for you. If you want the best sound possible at a very good price, then look no further. It may also be nice to know that you will be supporting a U.S. based tech company.
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Harman Kardon's most affordable 7.1-channel audio/video surround receiver, the AVR 235, offers high-quality baseline features from the company's acclaimed AVR series receivers. The component delivers near-universal surround-format compatibility, and it's engineered for terrific sonic performance. The AVR 235 features a discrete-output amplifier that pumps seven channels of high-current (+/-35 amps), ultrawide-bandwidth power: 7 x 50 watts into 8 ohms, 20 to 20,000 Hz with less than 0.07 percent THD. Furthermore, the receiver uses state-of-the-art 192 kHz/24-bit audio digital-to-analog converters and a high-power Cirrus 32-bit DSP processor.
The AVR 235's cutting-edge technologies also include triple-crossover bass management, automatic digital input polling, and A/V sync delay. An EzSet remote control provides automatic speaker-level calibration.
Surround sound features include Dolby Virtual Speaker, Dolby Headphone processing, and Dolby Pro Logic IIx processing (which provides an expansive, full-range 7.1-channel program from any stereo or 5.1-channel source). The receiver handles all other popular formats (including Dolby Digital EX and Dolby Digital 5.1), all standard DTS modes (including 6.1 DTS-ES Discrete, DTS-ES Matrix, DTS Neo:6, Cinema 6.1/5.1, and Music 6.1/5.1), and even the latest DTS 96/24 high-resolution audio technology. You also get Harman's proprietary Logic 7 audio for enhanced multichannel reproduction from both matrix-encoded and 2-channel recordings.
Along with its extensive video connectivity, the receiver offers two wide-bandwidth, HDTV-compatible component-video inputs and an array of digital and analog audio connections, including multiple coaxial and optical digital audio inputs and outputs. It sports both analog and digital front-panel inputs, 6-/8-channel direct audio inputs, and 7.1-channel preamp outputs to accommodate a DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, SACD, or universal player.
The receiver's triple-crossover bass-management system lets you choose from multiple crossover frequencies for the front L/R, center, surround L/R, and surround back L/R speakers. Most receivers and DVD players have far more limited crossover filtering or none at all. Moreover, you can set different speaker-size configurations for different AVR 235 input sources according to your needs.
With the AVR 235, you get a high-quality FM/AM tuner with 30 station presets and a Listener Preference System that lets you specify a surround mode according to the program source. You can also set speaker-channel levels for each program source and DSP format (for example, the subwoofer level can be set differently for multichannel movie viewing and 2-channel CD music listening).
What's in the Box Receiver, remote control, remote batteries, FM wire/AM loop antennas, warranty information, and a user's manual.
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