Home > Consumer Reviews > Harman Kardon AVR 225 Dolby Digital Receiver

This receiver is a great buy. It sounds great for movies and music. The 192/24 DAC for the left and right channel provide better clarity for music than other receivers in this price range. Most receivers only come with 96/24 DAC. And if you want to send your music to all 5 channels then the Logic 7 dsp sounds great. For movies the receiver has both Dobly digital and DTS, and they both sound great, lots of bass for the special effect scenes and voices are clear. I paired this receiver with the JBL SCS150 home theater speakers and I think they are a great match.

I know people might be turned off by the receiver only having 5 channels but if you have a small apartment or small living room than 5 channels is probably enough. Two tips for receiver shoppers. One, don't pay for features that you won't use. Two, buy by the pound. A heavier receiver usually means that it was made with better components. This recevier comes in at almost 27 pounds. Compare this with other receivers in the price range and I'm sure you won't find many that weigh more.

I've had two years of trouble free operations from the AVR 225. It dosen't have all the bells and whistles and the power is lacking for a midsized room. What it has is 2-opital inputs that can handle the X-box and a DVD player. EZ remote that can automatically adjust your speakers to an acceptable surround sound, some minor adjustments can be made later.
DTS and 5.1 channel decodeing is all that is necessary for now. Out of the 400 DVD's I own only 10% has DTS and I have only 2 that has 6.1 channel.

I've had this receiver for about 9 months now. Very handsome product, easy to install and set up. The self-surround calibration is a very useful feature and avoids a lot of complex set up know-how. I rate the audio quality as excellent not quite to audio-file standards but most people will be very happy with its capabilities.

A few negatives that are not really serious: the manual should be improved, it is very hard to read and for neophytes will be quite frustrating. The surround processsor modes can only be accessed sequentially so you cannot make A-B choices. Plus there is no phono capability.

I highly recommend this receiver as a low to mid range product with high-end capabilities.

I have this model for more than 2 years and enjoy it everyday. This is a bargain with high-end features for less. I would sugget to buy this receiver with Bose acoustimass speakers for ultimate experience.

Great receiver. Great price.
Delivers excellent, full range sound with impressive bass levels and crisp highs. It also fills in the middle nicely. Don't let the wattage fool you. This puppy cranks. I believe in the price range that it's easily the best value among it's competitors. No need to look further than here. Unless of course you are going $1,000 or higher.