Harman Kardon AVR 347 Home Theater Receiver with iPod Control and HDMI connectivity
See it at Amazon.com for $450.00Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First (4 out of 5)HK AVR 347
My shiny new Harman Kardon AVR 347 Home Theater Receiver with iPod Control and HDMI connectivity is a fine upgrade from a HK AVR 55 that has served me well for the last 8 years. The 347 has the modern video features that are necessary to support HD viewing and sounds wonderful. A couple of more HDMI inputs would have been nice. My only complaints are that it is a bit complex to set up and that it is apparently not possible to force it to select certain surround modes as it switches modes depending on the source material. However, most of the time the surround mode is appropriate. I prefer the Pro Logic II "music" mode for most of my listening and sometimes I have to manually select it. A USB port for updates rather than a RS232 placed on the front panel instead of hidden in the back would also be a bit more modern, but at least it *is* possible to update via firmware. None of these complaints are major ones for me and I'm glad I made this choice. Did I mention that it sounds great? It does. I auditioned several other receivers, some costing a good bit more, and the 347/247 has a noticeably more pleasing sound to my ear...
(5 out of 5)Great Deal
What a deal....I saved hundreds on a super Harman Kardon AVR347 Receiver. The sound is unbelievable, and lets not forget the 7.1 surround...WOW...
I went back and ordered the IPod controller to complete my system.
I may never leave the house again....
(3 out of 5)Not user friendly and HDMI issues
It takes a while to set up and the manual is not too helpful in the details. HDMI output only transmits video and not audio, and this info it not in the manual. If you use HDMI connection, you can only get sound from external speakers. Remote control is not as intuitive as it should be.
Update: HDMI repeater degrades image quality. Playing DVD movies on my blu ray player and connect through this receiver shows flashing red dots on the screen. The problem went away when I connect blu ray player directly to TV. Blu ray movies and HD TV also lose some clarity when connect through HDMI inputs/output of this receiver.
(4 out of 5)Mostly perfect
Since upgrading my display to a new HDTV, I decided it was time to upgrade the rest of my HT setup. After doing some research and listening to an AVR 347 in a local store, I decided that was the receiver that I wanted.
Now, after having this receiver a couple of months, I want to let everyone know what I think about it.
After it arrived, my initial thoughts were that the unit was well packaged by the manufacturer. After it was unpacked, setup went normally, with a few small differences described later.
Initial setup went smoothly, and I discovered a few nice features. These are the small differences I mentioned. You have 3 assignable component inputs and 4 assignable toslink and coax digital inputs. I set my first set of inputs to video 1, and set audio to toslik 1, and enabled the audio polling for this selection. I have a psyclone switcher and connected to it are my Wii, PS2, and Xbox with the Wii being analog audio and the other 2 toslink. With this connected to Video 1, I can have all 3 devices work perfectly without having to go back and change anything thanks to the auto polling! Thumbs up for this!
EZ setup went off without a problem and my surround setup sounds better than ever! In fact, I have to say that the sound is outright AMAZING! My previous receiver was a JVC 8000 rated at 110 wats per channel, and this one rated at 55 watts per channel is able to produce the same volume level with MUCH clearer sound!
My video output is via HDMI to my TV. The upscaling works wonderfully, but I am unhappy that the upscaling cannot be turned off. When watching one of my DVDs setup for 4:3 (which is 3 of my commercial DVDs and most of my Anime DVDs since they were only produced at 4:3) the output is streched - although it is not as noticeable as you might think - it is still enough that I would like to be able to watch them in their intended format.
I do have some problems with my Xbox connected via component - the screen starts off shaking and the display starts shifting itselt one scanline at a time. Until I get a Xbox 360, I have remedied this by also connecting the AVR's component output to my HDTV to bypass the upscaling feature that causes this. I'm hoping a firmware update will resolve this, but only time will tell. (That is assuming that HK will release an update!)
The learning remote is a nice feature and is, for the most part, functional. The AVR wants to turn off the surround mode when switching devices and it is annoying to have to hit the AVR button to use the button that will re-enable the surround mode. These buttons are not accessable at any other time. This would be a simple change that would help out alot. Also, several buttons are device specific and do not function unless that device is selected, and they cannot be programmed for functions on other devices. They are mostly just dead buttons because of this.
Since most of my viewing is either TiVo or DVD, I use the transport buttons at the bottom of the remote. Because of the way the remote tapers, it is uncomfortable to hold the remote to use these buttons. It is also very heavy at the top of the remote, making the weight distribution a little ungangly for using the transport buttons.
Another caveat is that since Video 4 inputs are on the front of the unit (nicely covered when not in use), even though you can set Video 4 to component and any of the toslink/coax inputs available, the remote refuses to let MANY of the programmable buttons be programmed when Video 4 is selected. In fact, there are so few programmable buttons for Video 4 that this is unusable as anything other than JUST an audio/video input for a device controlled by another remote - so keep that remote handy if you play on using Video 4.
Right now, my TiVo and my DVD player are connected to the 2 HDMI inputs. I do plan on getting a PS3 and a Xbox 360, both of which output via HDMI as well. I would like to see at least 2 more HDMI inputs on the AVR, but because there isn't, I will be getting a Psyclone HDMI switcher and connect its HDMI output to my TV's second HDMI input and use the AVR's toslink input for the audio for these gaming devices.
The only other unsatisfactory item I can think of - and this one is really just a personal disatisfaction that most people probably won't care too much about - is the fact that the speaker connections on the back of the unit aren't spaced properly for industry standard dual banana plugs to be used. They are about 1/4 in. too far apart. Single banana plugs, however, work fine.
Be aware that this unit does NOT upscale to 1080p - only to 720p. It will, however, pass any 1080i or 1080p signal directly to the display via whatever components they are input from - IE: component input at 1080p will be passed as 1080p via the component output - the HDMI will not convert these for output as they are analouge only. For me at this time isn't a big deal since my display is only 720p - and when I do go 1080p, the devices that I will have connected will have 1080p output, and those that don't are old enough that 720p would produce the same output anyway.
The unit's front display can be dimmed or turned off completely, so if your unit is in the open, the very informative display can be dimmed or turned off when watching movies so as not to be distracting. The large standby button on the left is also illuminated with electric blue - looks beautiful, but when watching movies it still stands out to the point that I feel that the standby button should have been made to be about 1/4 of the size. Really, 2-3 inches is way too long for a button to be made. The power button on the DVD38 HK produces is about the right size.
All in all I would say that I am very happy with this unit. I know that most of my remarks seemed negative, but I wanted to be very accurate in exactly what I disliked about the unit as everything else is absolutly WONDERFUL! With just a little more thought (mostly about the remote) HK would have an all-star winning AVR. As it is now, it is just mostly perfect.
(5 out of 5)Great unit! Another great HK product!
This receiver rocks! This unit has no detectable noise when a source is muted - very clean preamps. When you want to make some noise it really rocks. Super clean super accurate sound. Plenty of wattage to spare. I am running all sources through the receiver and one HDMI cable to my HD LCD. It works great. Analog sources are sent through fine, as well as my HD cable. A+. Nice job HK.