Harman Kardon AVR-354 7x75W 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver

I'm using this with Klipsch Quintet SL series speakers and a KSW-12 sub. The sound is good, but the receiver lacks options. On my other Sony ES receiver, I can modify every aspect of each speaker, along with being able to choose from every single available "zone" I want for every since one of my sources. On this receiver, the receiver a) chooses the best zone b) you can choose between 3 others, one for music, movie and game. You can not choose from any available zone, only selected ones for each source. One of the other reasons I bought this is because it was supposed to upconvert non-1080p signals to 1080p. I do not feel that it's doing much good, in fact I believe that it distorts the picture a bit. I am using Monster Ultimate 1000 series HDMI cable (Best Buy's Magnolia series) between 4 sources: Receiver; Direct TV HD box; Playstation 3; 50" Samsung Plasma 1080p. Needless to say, it's not the cords that are causing the problem.

If you believe that this receiver is going to do a better job with upscaling than your TV's upscaler, you will be disappointed. I wanted my Direct TV HD signal upscaled from 1080i to 1080p, but I think the picture actually looks worse when I have everything running to my receiver first, and then into my TV.

In order to have any audio coming out of the PS3 into my reciever, I had to download a firmware version on the PS3. That has nothing to do with how this receiver works, but wanted others to know that they may have to do that too.

I bought this receiver from Amazon and got a pretty good price compared to my local stores. However, the remote that I got was already scratched and looks old. The manufacturer's production date was September 2008 and I bought it in November, so I don't think I actually got a used product, but I do wonder why the remote looks so old and beat up.

If you want a nice looking receiver, but without a ton of options, this would be a great system for you. I'm keeping it for my 2nd entertainment room.

Could not be happier with this product--my second HK, also having the 347. The sounds are smooth and crisp, HDMI flawless--and one of the few machines that carries both audio and video via HDMI. With this receiver you get a great deal for your money and will find it very difficult to outgrow.

Enjoy it.

I would encourage anyone to purchase this product. I have been researching and listening to receivers for more than three months, ever since a lightning strike wiped out my NAD T-762. I was getting ready to pull the trigger on the NAD's successor, T-785, which would have run about $2,000, when I saw this on sale for $599 and read the specs. What's not to like?

I am a musician, and to me, it's all about the sound. Harman Kardon was where I had begun, more than 20 years ago, and I knew it had sounded good. I am still using my 20-year-old JBL speakers, and when I plugged them in to the 354, I felt like I had come home. The sound is heavenly. I have no other word for it. I've been listening to Denon, Pioneer Elite, Yamaha high end products on high end speakers at Best Buy Magnolia, and couldn't quite go ahead. I know I would have liked the NAD. But why pay so much more? I don't think anything could sound better than this. I can listen to this for hours on end, and enjoy the bliss of warmth, clarity, and resonance.

I'm also very satisfied with the video. I had to tweak the brightness on my TV up a hair, no big deal. I really wanted 4 HDMI inputs, and this has only 3, but I worked around that using component for a non-HD source - ROKU Netflix player - that happens to have an HDMI output, and that has worked out well. So I have room for HDMI from my media server, DVD player, and HD cable/satellite. The upscaling works very well, ordinary DVDs look almost HD, and my ROKU Netflix player, which is putting out SD at best, looks better than DVD when upscaled through this. The NAD did not upscale, by the way.

Be ready for a few quirks. I think every product has them. HK is addressing them through firmware updates, and hopefully they will keep improving. I can bust at least one myth you may read about. Noisy fan? If my unit has a fan, which I doubt, either it's never on or a stethescope couldn't hear it. I am a fanatic about this. My PC is completely fanless.

I am mildly disappointed in a couple of things. Zone 2 has separate source and volume control, which is nice, but it works with analog input only, no digital. I use it for my outdoor speakers, and it's annoying that I have to put in analog connections just to use those. The PCM lock can be a little slow, so you can miss the beginning of a CD track occasionally, if it starts very quickly. My NAD did that too, so I'm used to it. I hope HK will improve this one. But it's not too bad, better than the NAD was. Lip sync delay setting is across the board, not per source. When I reported that, HK said, "We thought it was per source too," so it's probably a bug they will fix.

But to me, it's all about the sound. If you like to listen to music, especially classical music, which is what I listen to most, you won't be disappointed. This is a fine piece of gear.

It's unfortunate about the previous poster but I have the same unit and it is incredible! The unit has all the bells and whistles that you would expect on a much higher priced receiver. Do some research on the the chips used in this thing, they are incredible and are found only in a $5000 high end competitors line. The weakness of this receiver is that it can sometimes be too rich of a sound and lacks the crisp high that some look for because, honestly the degraded sound that we have received from companies like Sony and what we listen to in our cars have ruined our idea of what even sounds are. Just a side note, one of my buddies was the one who brought this "weakness" to my attention because he said it didn't have enough high range. I told him well watch the whole movie and lets see how fatigued your ears feel. Afterward, he was amazed how nice and easy it is to listen to this HK. The strength is it's punch and ability in the home theater to make gun fire sound like gun fire and not rocks being thrown against a tin roof. HK doesn't disappoint in my opinion with this receiver and it's too bad one customer, and the only review had a experience that is honestly out of this world. HK customer support is probably one of the best in the world, and are often recognized for that fact. Besides one month old and breaks, why not take it back to Best Buy?

I purchased this receiver from Best Buy since I liked the features and trusted the brand name, although I never had owned a HK before. A little more than 1 month later the HDMI connections died on me. I called HK and talked to an autobot and paid $40 to ship it back to them. 1 month later they were supposed to send me a new unit and instead I got a refurbished unit that was probably 1 year old, not to mention missing button switches etc. I called back HK infuriated about this and I get another autobot instead of a live person. I will have to call during their business hours to get a live person and ask for my money back. I would never ever buy a HK again or go through their archaic customer service system. I will update this review with the conclusion to my woes, but get this piece of advice from me: buy an extended warranty on a brick and mortar retailer and cross your fingers that the product won't crap on you. For $800 I expect A LOT better. I think I will go with a Denon instead.