Get Visual Studio® 2010
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5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"A great bargain for sure!"
Pros: Plenty of inputs, great audio quality, real-world high-current and discrete power amplification, suprizingly good headphone amp (makes my Sennheiser 595's sound amazing)
Cons: Setup can take some getting used to, remote could be better (if not in the AVR mode it wont control volume or power of the unit), crystal clear bezle fingerprints easily like a black iPod
Summary: I was in the market for a new receiver because my 3 year old Pioneer bit the dust. I never liked the sound quality of the Pioneer unit, and always felt that it was underpowering my EPI 100's which I use for the fronts in my HTPC surround setup. I liked some of Denon's offerings. I have owned Denon in the past and was very pleased with the quality and durability, not to mention the sound quality of their products and was about to go for one of those models until I saw the HK AVR 145 at my local Costco. I researched and found that it was a good price for the unit despite it being last year's model. However, I preferred it's specs over the newer AVR 146 (50wpc in stereo and 40wpc in surround as compared to the 146's 40wpc stereo and 30wpc surround). The AVR 147 matches the ratings of the AVR 145, but it is more expensive. This coupled with the fact that I do not need the HDMI switching of the 146 led me to buy this unit. I wouldn't consider myself a die-hard audiophile, but I know good quality audio when I hear it and this thing has a very clean amp section, and drives any set of speakers I throw at it (within reason) with little no problem. It can even drive my Magnepan's (in stereo mode) without much struggle and they are a tough load to push for sure. The Pioneer unit I had prior to this couldn't drive them well at all and sounded hollow. It was rated at 100wpc. Go figure.
