Harman Kardon announces three new AV receivers

Harman Kardon AVR 354

While most audio manufacturers trot out a new line of AV receivers every year, Harman Kardon generally sits out of the "feature war" and lets its models stay in the product line longer. That's why it's a big deal that the company has announced three new receivers, bringing many cutting-edge features that were previously missing from the company's lineup. As always, these new receivers have Harman's typically refined look, and now that some of the models include updated features--like high-resolution audio decoding, a high-def graphical user interface, and video upconversion--you won't have to settle for beauty without brains. Let's take an in-depth look at the new line.

Harman Kardon 154

(Credit: Harman Kardon)

Key features of the Harman Kardon 154:

• 5.1 channels, 30 watts per channel
• Three HDMI 1.3a inputs
• Standard Dolby Digital and DTS decoding
• Two component video inputs
• Five digital audio inputs (two optical, three coaxial)
• Source input renaming
• No onscreen display with HDMI, standard-def menus
• $400 list price, available in July
• Read the full user manual (PDF)

Harman Kardon 254

(Credit: Harman Kardon)

Step-up features on the Harman Kardon 254:

• 7.1 channels, 50 watts per channel
• Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding
• Faroudja DCDi Cinema video processing, with upconversion to 1080p
• High-definition user interace
• Automatic speaker calibration
• XM-ready
• $600 list price, available now
• Read the full user manual (PDF)

Harman Kardon 354

(Credit: Harman Kardon)

Step-up features on the Harman Kardon 354:

• 7.1 channels, 75 watts per channel
• Three component video inputs
• Six digital audio inputs (three optical, three coaxial)
• Includes The Bridge II docking station for iPod
• $800 list price, available now
• Read the full user manual (PDF)

Don't get spooked that the watts-per-channel specs on these receivers seem low. While other manufacturers tend to inflate their power ratings, Harman Kardon sticks to real-world numbers--in other words, Harman Kardon's 30-watt receiver may sound just as loud as another company's "100-watt" receiver.

Overall, these receivers are a big improvement over the existing models, but they'll face an uphill battle versus the competition. Onkyo's TX-SR606 has most of the same features as the Harmon Kardon 254--plus it has four HDMI inputs--and it's currently selling online for about $440. Sony is also offering four HDMI inputs in the midrange level, and the STR-DG820 only costs $400.

Of course, Harman Kardon fans have always trumpeted the brand's excellent sound, but we'll have to wait until we get our hands on a review sample to do a comparison. Harman Kardon also puts a big emphasis on making products easy to use, and we have to admit that the company's manuals are a cut above the competition.

[dhjellen]

Can someone confirm that the Sony STR-DG820 can upconvert to 1080p as stated in this article? I do not see that feature listed anywhere in the Cnet review included here, at amazon.com or at Sony.com. Sony.com states it has "inputs that are capable of accepting resolutions up to 1080p". That implies to me that it is pass through, but the more convincing thing is that the word "upconvertion" is nowhere in Sony's description.

There would seem to be a ?fact checking? position open at Crave... anyone interested?


The fact that the author says that upconversion is not important concerns me. This concerns me because other people who do not know any better will read this and think it is an unimportant feature. Most televisions out there do not have high quality video processing; many have video processing but this typically leaves much to be desired. Most will never process an image for deinterlacing, upconversion, noise reduction or many of the other EXTREMELY important image attributes better than a quality Faroudja chip will (or one of its first rate competitors). Audio/VIDEO processing is the end all be all of the Audio/VIDEO reciever industry, to suggest otherwise displays an unfortunate lack of understanding of the industry.

There appears to be an ?industry analyst? position open at Crave... anyone interested?

[MoskovciakM]

The STR-DG820 does not have 1080p upconversion capabilities. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in the post, but I didn't intend to imply that. We did a blog post comparing the Sony line of receivers, if you're interested in the differences between the models (http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9878133-1.html).
Regarding upconversion, we test video upconversion on all the receivers we review and do consider it an important feature--although it won't make a big difference in every setup. However, not every buyer is concerned with upconversion performance (those that only use HDMI, for example), which is why Harman Kardon will face tough competition from companies offering more HDMI connectivity, such as as Onkyo (4 HDMI inputs, 1080i upconversion on the TX-SR606) and Sony (4 HDMI inputs, no upconversion on the STR-DG820; 4 HDMI inputs, 1080p upconversion on the $600 STR-DG920).