- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 12 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4.5 stars
"The best $250 I've ever spent on a HT receiver."
Pros: Clean power, plenty of connections, easy set-up, elegant design and Harman Kardon quality make this the ideal HT receiver for moderate sized rooms.
Cons: I had to wait about 5 business days for the AVR220 to arrive from Harmanaudio.com.
Summary: Harman Kardon makes the best home theater receiver that the average blue collar American can buy. The lower end models like the AVR220 have many of the features of the higher end models, even features incorporated from Lexicon a divison of Harman International (i.e. Logic 7). Sure I would love to have been able to purchase the AVR525 or the new 630, but my budget just didn't allow it. I didn't bother with the EZ-Set function. Radio Shack sells a nice SPL meter for under $40. Incorporate the DVD50 and some Infinity speakers like the HTS-20 satellites and an SV Subwoofer like the PB12-ISD and your entire perspective will change of what home theater can sound like on a budget.
I say budget because my AVR220 was purchased for $249.00 US, DVD50 for $188.00 US, HTS-20 sub/sat package w/12" 150w subwoofer (sub later disgarded for the SV Subwoofer) for about $400.00 US (all purchased at www.harmanaudio.com)and the amazing SV Subwoofer for $525.00 US (check out www.svsubwoofers.com). That's less than $1400.00 for all the audio, video and speaker equipment, less the television and the JVC VCR, both non HD pieces.
The power ratings of the AVR220 can be deceiving. 45w x 5 doesn't sound like much, but the HCC (high instantaneous current capability) of the 28 amp fuse is quite suprising. I considered an Onkyo with 100w x 5 and found the difference in total volume compared the the lesser wattage of the AVR220 not enough to pay more than double the price (price of my AVR220 at the harmanaudio website and an outlet store for Onkyo). By the way the Onkyo only has a fuse rating of 39 amps and is supposed to have more than twice the power. Don't be fooled by numbers concerning wattage. Look deeper and see what actually makes the power in the receiver you may choose. It is hard to do better than Harman Kardon audio products.
