Harman Kardon New Products

Harman Kardon AVR 7300 Receiver
Harman Kardon gave us a warm welcome and introduced us to their rather stylish new line-up of receivers. Tom McLoughlin, Harman Kardon President noted: "Harman Kardon's 2004 product line is the company's most innovative ever, incorporating a number of important design and engineering breakthroughs to offer more and better ways to experience home entertainment than ever before. For example, our AVR 7300's built-in progressive scan video upconversion gives viewers the ability to enjoy dramatically improved picture quality from all of their analog video sources - a major evolution in home theater receiver functionality."

We were impressed by the value of the new offerings they had ready for CES. In particular, their new flagship AVR 7300 receiver was an impressive performer at its price point of just $2,199. Their flagship features:

• 480p (progressive) component video upsampling with DCDi image processing by Faroudja (upconverts ALL input sources to 480p)
• 110W x 7 channels of power
• Bass management on analogue audio inputs
• 7.1 channel preamp outputs
• Quad crossover bass management
• Cirrus CS 49400 DSP
• 192kHz/24-bit DACs
• 3 assignable component video inputs
• 3 coax digital S/PDIF inputs
• 3 optical digital S/PDIF inputs
• Remote Control with EZSet Automatic Speaker Level Calibration
• 55 lbs

Harman Kardon Next Generation DPR 2005 and DPR 1005 Receivers - MSRP $1699/$1399
HK has entered the realm of Class-D amplification with its new DPR 2005 and DPR 1005 receivers. Both feature a fully digital signal path from input to output with more powerful digital-amplifier sections and several new features:

6 A/V inputs	Cirrus CS 49400 DSP
6 S-Video Inputs	7.1 Channel Preamp Outputs
4 Analogue Audio Inputs	Quad Crossover Bass Management
2 Coax Digital S/PDIF Inputs	192kHz/24-bit DACs
2 Optical Digital S/PDIF Inputs + 1 Front	2 Assignable Component Video Outputs

The DPR 2005 features 120W x 7 channels or power amplification, while the DPR provides 70W x 7. Both amplifiers are rated at 8 ohms, 20Hz - 20kHz with < 0.15% THD all channels driven. These receivers also feature bi-directional RS-232 connectivity which allows flash-memory upgradeability. The idea with these new receivers is that the signal from digital sources (DVD player, CD, Digital HDTV cable box, etc) is routed directly to the receiver's DSP section and then to the digital amplifier section, while remaining completely in the digital realm until reaching the final amplifier output stage. This eliminates multiple A/D and D/A conversion and also has the net result of a cooler running unit. Availability on both units is February 2004.

We liked the hybrid look of black and silver and Harman Kardon's signature blue lighting looks great on the volume knob. The knob itself feels rather flimsy, but most people will spend 95% of their volume-changing time using the remote, so we're not too worried. Overall, these receivers are priced right and are sure to do well. We look forward to reviewing an HK unit soon to hear for ourselves what it sounds like.