Customer Reviews

Harman Kardon AVR1600 50W 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver (Black)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

**** UPDATE ****
Short update, about one year after purchase I stopped by the Harman Kardon site to see if they were ever going to update this thing to fix my HDMI issues, and lo and behold... they did! There is a product update link on the 1600's support page:

[...]

Support Tab --> Product Updates --> Download the update.

This update is supposed to update a few bugs, and most importantly the HDMI issue of not passing video from random devices (media pc's, game consoles, etc..). I downloaded and installed (you'll need a 400Mb or larger thumb drive ((not sure why cause it was tiny, but that's what it says)) to do the update). The update was straightforward and took less than 5 minutes once you have the thumb in there (front panel usb port).

Anyway....the video now flows through, my media pc can now pass 5.1 (or 7.1) and the video actually looks nicer than when it went straight to my tv (deeper blacks or something, looks good). Harman support is still pretty poor, but the product performs so dang good for what it cost, and looks great doing it. Took this thing from 3 to 5 stars, light is still annoying but I'll let it slide.

A few months ago, I compared roughly $500 receivers from Pioneer, Onkyo, and Denon at winstonsreviews. At first glance, the Onkyo TX SR608 edged out the Pioneer VSX-1020, but longer term testing revealed that the Onkyo had a few persistent gremlins affecting video quality unless the volume/source onscreen display was disabled.



This comparison remains one of the more popular posted on the website, so I thought I would add the entry-level Harman Kardon receiver to the fray. The AVR 1600 retails for $499 and shares the same two-tone black and gray look of its bigger brothers the AVR2600 and AVR3600. In respects of connectivity, it only has three hdmi inputs, only a single zone of audio and no multichannel pre-outs. Its remote is a bit less attractive as the 2600 and 3600 and is neither back lit or learning. While it does have preset codes, I did find them to be lacking a number of manufacturers. One interesting note is the inputs are not as intuitive as most other receivers in this price mark - they are labeled as DVD, video 1, video 2, video 3, HDMI 1, HDMI 2, HDMI 3 and digital inputs seem to hard-wired. The inputs can be-renamed in the black and white text gui.

The GUI of the 1600 is very basic and similar to the Denon AVR791's basic black and white menu. The Harman Kardon lacks some of the tweaking sub menus in part because it lacks some of the corresponding features such as video upconversion, height and wide processing, internet or usb connectivity, and second zone or B speaker configurations. Candidly, the Harman Kardon AVR1600 is a pretty basic unit without a lot of the features one would expect in a $500 receiver, but also in a $300 receiver.

Harman Kardon uses a proprietary auto-calibration software with a slick-looking transparent, conical microphone. In some ways, it is similar to Pioneer's MCACC in that while it uses a single position, it measures a wide variety of very loud noises from each speaker. Like Onkyo, Harman Kardon allows for crossovers to be set according to individual speaker, unlike Pioneer or Denon that use a global crossover.

In use, the AVR1600 was very pleasant in respects of both two channel listening and multichannel film soundtracks. From a tonal perspective, I think most folks would find it very similar to the other three - it is difficult to distinguish differences amongst receivers in this price range. It seemed to have adequate power at moderate to upper volume levels, but possibly with a little less clarity than the Pioneer VSX-1020. It is important to reiterate that the AVR 1600 only offers a very vanilla 5.1 or 7.1 setup and has no height or wide presence configurations.

The AVR1600 relies on cooling via a fan whose noise was quiet but not silent. It ran coolly over time, but the fan's quiet purr was omnipresent.

Unfortunately, there is a catch - HDMI handshake issues. Without a doubt, the AVR1600 was haunted by the most HDMI gremlins I have ever encountered in a receiver going back to early HDMI V1.1 receivers using HDMI to DVI splitters. To give you an example, I had to turn on and off my television (Samsung PN-50B860) numerous times to simply get the setup menu to appear. Things only went further sideways when I was bold enough to connect three components via HDMI: the venerable Oppo BDP-83, LG BD550, and a Scientific Atlanta HD box. Of the three connections, I could receive only the following:

1.Audio from the Cable Box with consistent drop-outs by unsuccessful video handshakes. Repeated resets of both the AVR and the TV provided video about 66% of the time, but with the occasional audio dropout.
2.No video or audio from the LG BD550 in HDMI 2 and 3, but audio and video through HDMI 1, but the colors were completely inverted or wrong.
3.Perfect video and audio from the Oppo BDP-83 from all inputs.
Yes, the firmware was up to date on the display, the sources, and the receiver (even called Harman Kardon to confirm). Yes, HDMI control was turned off on all the sources and display. Yes, I tried turning HDMI audio to display to know grand effect. Yes, I even tried various HDMI cables (insten, monoprice, and the variety Oppo provides) with no repeatable impact.

Years of amateur reviews and installation for friends and family has provided me a pretty good ability to troubleshoot HDMI issues, but the AVR-1600 proved to beyond my ability. I don't believe my receiver was outright defective as I could receive both audio and video from the Oppo without issue. For me, the inexplicable irregularity of the HDMI issues are a strong enough reason to compel me to not recommend this receiver unless you're within quick and flexible access of a B&M store that will take it back in the event of similar HDMI issue. Moreover, its value is hard to argue - it lacks so many of the features that not only its similarly priced peers offer, but also less expensive models. I really don't know what to say about this unit other than try a Pioneer VSX-1020 or Onkyo TX-S608.

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.

-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.

This is a great receiver for the money.

Let me start by addressing all the issues in the other reviews:

1) The video problems through the HDMI cable are now fixed via a new firmware update version 1.1 that you can download from Harman Kardon.

2) I just checked the manual and the receiver is 35 watts per channel. But don't let that fool you. Harman Kardon is very conservative in their rating, and the 35 watts is at average and not max wattage like most other companies rate their equipment.

Get a good pair of speakers and you will be all set. This receiver works with both a 5.1 or a 7.1 speaker setup.

Enjoy!!

Over the last several years I have gone from self proclaimed hard core audiophile with expensive amps, processors, cables, and speakers to a guy who is just looking for the best I can get for the least amount of money. Amazing how much a person can spend on all the peripherals to obtain so called audiophile sound when at times there are components available that can get you most of the way there without taking out a second mortgage on the house. This receiver is one such component. Having just sold my Rotel RSX-1550 while trying to acquire some extra funds for school, I was in the search for a much cheaper receiver that I could "live" with to get me through.

Enter the Harman Kardon AVR1600. Found it on sale for nearly half of what is offered here for a brand new "A" stock unit and jumped at the chance to pick it up. I must say I had some worries from the very beginning about how it would sound and if I would be disappointed after trading in a nearly 2000 dollar receiver for one well under 500 dollars. Picking up the receiver did nothing to boost my confidence, it feels quite light and the transformer inside is not very big. No detachable power cord (yes I'm one of those guys who has a few power cables as thick as your arm that I like to use), and at first glance the power ratings seem abyssmal. Absolutely beautiful unit though, Harman has done a good job making components that just look wonderful.

Got the receiver home, set it up in my rack, connected the included microphone and ran EZ Set/ EQ automatic setup. It made a series of loud noises and set up my system for me. I admit that one of my big drawbacks of the old Rotel receiver was no auto setup. I felt I was just never quite able to dial it in and could never get my lower frequencies to mesh well between speakers and sub. With the Harman Kardon that was not an issue. I noticed a very nice increase of resolution in the lower frequencies as it helped my components blend better. I am a fan of Harman's auto setup, I feel it does just as well as Pioneer and Onkyo receivers I have had with MCAAC and Audyssey.

Now as for sound quality, I am very impressed. The HK throws out a nice wide soundstage, voices are centered and each instrument is nicely in its place. I run everything into the HK with either spdif or HDMI connections. It does a quality job of digital to analog conversion and I am quite pleased. My old Rotel was a much better analog machine, but did not have the good sound through its digital inputs (at least to my ears) that the HK does. Of course that could be the room correction setup that is helping that out. SACD sent out as 176 khz 5.1 PCM from my Sony BluRay player sounds very clear and detailed, music fed by my sonos zone player through spdif connection while not as detailed as a CD played through my Arcam DVD player is still pleasant to listen to. While the power ratings do not seem to high, thus far they have been good enough for me. With music I have had no issues, the HK gets as loud as I need it to. As for movies I pushed it as far as my ears could take when watching the Marine, a good explosion movie. I might have sensed a slight amount of hardness to the sound when the volume got really high, but that could also be my Energy speakers.

Video is not bad, but not great and thus the four stars. I am not a big user of upconversion, all my sources do that well on their own. I do feel that the HK passes video very well with little degradation to the quality. The problem I have is the occasional video dropout that lasts for 2 seconds or so which leaves us staring at a blank screen while the sound is still going. Does not happen often, but is annoying when it does. Overall I am very pleased with this unit and feel I have not given up too much in the way of sound quality by purchasing it.

I have purchased several AV receivers in my excursion into the home audio world, and I would have to say this one takes the cake. It was very cheap ($350) and it sounds like a much more expensive unit. I have this receiver hooked up to JBL Series L830 bookshelves, LC1 center and L810 surrounds and let me tell you, it blows me away. The clarity and production of the surround sound, even from a mediocre signal from my laptop sounds better than anything I have ever had in the past.

The sounds processing for stereo music is even more perfect. I have an old, but still high quality, Pioneer CD player (PD-F100) I use quite a bit and when I crank it on this system, it is eerie how crystal clear and balanced everything sounds. The imaging is spectacular and it sounds like I can hear where every band member is standing when I listen to the music.

My only qualm would be that it is slightly under-powered. Luckily, I live in a studio apartment at the moment, so I don't have the need to crank it up very much, but the times that I have turned movies up to 11 and things went boom (launch sequence in Apollo 13 for example) there was some very slight distortion in the sound.

Other than that, I would rate this receiver as a fantastic buy for your money.

I wish I had listened to other people pointing out the HDMI problems with this unit. AVR 1600 cannot handle HDMI run-through .
After installing the wall speakers and mounting the HDTV I was about to put it the centerpiece , AVR 1600, and sit back and relax. But who would think that the most basic capability of an AVR , i.e. getting HDMI signals from different devices and sending it to the TV, could be defective?
I connected a ROKU player and my laptop to HDMI inputs and the HDMI output to my TV. The TV could not show any of them, even though everything was fine if I connected each of them directly to HDMI of TV.
The OnScreenDisplay (OSD) showed on TV, meaning that I had connected the cable correctly. Also I could see the ROKU if I was connecting through composite video, bypassing HDMI connections completely.
There is no point in having a HDTV and then settle on anything other than HDMI- the picture would clearly be of a lower resolution.

I had spent more than 30 days putting my setting together so I couldn't return the unit to the merchant, I wish I could- instead I am now paying for my sins by being forced to deal with Harman Kardon support team. They are there to add insult to injury. They told me to factory reset the product- it didn't help. Then they told me to go to the website and return the product :

support tab > support for your product > select your product > {choose that you are in warranty} > Returns

and that's where I am stuck, I haven't heard back from them for more than a week, even though they say they contact you in 2 days. I will update you if anything comes up.

UPDATE1: 2 weeks later and still no reply.

UPDATE2: They exchanged it for another AVR 1600 (I had to pay $50 for return shipping): it AGAIN couldn't pass the HDMI through.

makes my cheap speakers sound great. I cant wait to get my Bose speakers to see what they sound like. this system is loud and it picks up back ground sound like no other system ever had in the past. but, you have to take out batteries and put them in every time you change settings to another setting like AVR, CD, and etc. to rebut the controller so the battens will work. if not the batteries don't respond.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)

I find this receiver perfect for our requirements. The set up instructions were difficult for me to follow however their Tech Department was very good in leading me through it after I gave up trying. I don't believe the remote works all other units. Attractive design except for the "O" bright light on the front panel but it can be dimmed or even turned off. A blue or orange color would have been nicer.