Harman Kardon The Bridge Docking Station for iPod

by Harman

Product Details

• Item Weight: 5.9 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000BX9I40
• Item model number: BRIDGE
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Enjoy complete coordination between your iPod and Harman Kardon A/V receiver with "The Bridge" iPod docking station. Compatible with Harman Kardon's AVR 140, 240, 340, and 740 receivers and all iPods with docking connectors, The Bridge literally links the two units, letting listeners navigate and control the iPod using the receiver's remote control. In other words, you can select iPod playlists, skip songs, shuffle selections, and perform a host of other tasks from across the room--or even from down the hall--while the music plays through your home stereo system. Operation couldn't be easier: simply dock your iPod in The Bridge and you're ready to go. The receiver's onscreen and front-panel menus will guide your track selections, so you'll have no problem figuring out which playlist to play. All the while, The Bridge will recharge your iPod's battery.

The Bridge comes with several inserts for coordination with third-generation or later "click wheel" iPods, iPod photos, iPod minis, and iPod nanos (it's not compatible with the iPod shuffle). The sleekly designed docking station also includes a "universal" insert that's designed for use with yet-to-be-released iPods. The Bridge measures 4.5 by 1.19 by 4.5 inches (W x H x D) and is backed by a one-year warranty on parts and labor.

What's in the Box
The Bridge docking station, connecting cable, iPod inserts, user's manual.

Product Description

Together for the first time your iPod and your home entertainment system thanks to The Bridge. IPod and Harman Kardon: two names synonymous with music playback, ease of control and elegant design. Now, The Bridge literally links the two, allowing you to share the favorite tracks and playlists stored on your iPod with anyone in listening range of a compatible Harman Kardon AVR even in a connected second room. Dock your iPod in The Bridge, then sit back and operate it with the AVR remote control while on-screen and front-panel menus guide your track selections. The Bridge also charges the iPod while you use it.A single connection provides complete navigation and control of an iPod with the remote control from a The Bridge-Ready Harman Kardon receiver, and charges the battery at the same time. Of course, you can also hear any track on the iPod through your home entertainment system. Compatible for the following Harman Kardon receivers: AVR 435, AVR 340, AVR 240 and AVR 140.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Digital Jukebox, January 10, 2006

By 

Ryan (Jupiter, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Harman Kardon The Bridge Docking Station for iPod (Electronics)

Ignore the review below, you CAN shuffle with the bridge, there is just a little trick to get it working. You have to hit a different input other than the bridges DMP (such as Am/Fm) on the remote so the iPods own menu starts up. Then manually hit shuffle in the iPod menu itself. Then switch back to the bridge and when you hit play on the controller, it will start the shuffled list.

If you happen to have a Harman Kardon that is bridge compatible, and an iPod, don't sleep on this product it would be blasphemy. While the iPod is playing, the album name, song name, and artist name scrolls on the AVR's screen. It also shows the time of the track, and how much time is left. The sound quality is superb, which is the most important thing. I was afraid that using an mp3 player would basically ruin the purpose of having the superior H/K sound, but it sounds awesome. Getting the shuffle to work is easy, just would be very hard to figure out if I didn't ask H/K tech support. You can still select playlists or select by genre, by artist, by album, by song with the controller and without having to use the ipod manually. This is a slight inconvenience but all in all it's helluva lot better than using an RCA hook-up with more limited sound quality.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quicker Searches, February 2, 2006

By 

KEM "KEM" (Hilliard, OH USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Harman Kardon The Bridge Docking Station for iPod (Electronics)

Love the sound. The AVR240 is my third HK since college. The bridge gives me a 501 CD changer in 3 square inches of space. I have used the "Genre" slot on my ipod to break my CD collection into alphabetical listing, since I find the whole genre category pointless anyway. Just enter A,B...XYZ in genre for each CD. Then you only have to go through the Z's to get to ZZtop, not the other 499 titles.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sounds great, but my thumb's about to fall off, January 19, 2006

By 

M. Elvin "lunaharpua" (brooklyn) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Harman Kardon The Bridge Docking Station for iPod (Electronics)

While your iPod looks and sounds great when plugged into The Bridge and using one of harman/kardon's AVR x40 receivers, you must switch back and forth between The Bridge button and AVR button to be able to alternately switch tracks and control the volume. Worse, you won't be able to access your artists, songs, or albums unless you have a half an hour to kill to get to the one you want. After testing it out and speaking with harman/kardon customer service, it's official: there's absolutely no way to fast scroll through the menus. When scrolling, you must sit there and punch the "forward" button each time you want to advance to the next artist, song, or album. If you have 870 artists on your iPod like I do, you have to punch the "forward" button 855 times to get to Yo La Tengo, and 870 times to get to Zappa. There's no way around it except to create playlists beforehand. Awful design flaw. The service rep was very agreeable and told me that h/k appreciates customer comments and forwards them to their engineers, and that maybe a future model will incorporate that change. Until then, don't bother with this one unless this issue doesn't bother you.

UPDATE: While it's true that you can navigate thru your artists by alphebetizing them by genre, i still have about 56 "B" artists and 46 "S" artists...the point is, you shouldn't have to do this. There are plenty of similar products for the iPod that allow you to navigate thru your collection using a separate remote (such as the DLO HomeDock Deluxe and the Kensington StereoDock). The downside is, they don't provide a direct digital output -- someday, they will. A week after writing this review, my brand new AVR 240 receiver wouldn't turn on. Since it was already outside the store's return period, I packed it up, spent $40 to send it to H/K, and they sent me a refurbished one that wouldn't charge my iPod through the Bridge and wouldn't allow me to navigate my music at all. So "Shanley", with all due respect, H/K has severely disappointed me...I reserve the right to rant.

ANOTHER UPDATE: After upgrading to the latest iPod firmware, as of November 2006, my 5G video iPod will no longer work with The Bridge. I get an error message saying my iPod "is not compatible with this accessory."

I'd try to sell my Bridge on eBay, but my moral fiber prevents me from burdening someone else with this thing.