Harman Kardon AVR 3700 Wireless Networked A/V Receiver Preview

With receiver season in full swing, Harman Kardon is next up on the list of those looking to lure your buying dollars with their shiny, new offerings. Harman Kardon has a long history of putting out receivers that seem to bridge the gap between the "mass market" consumers and "budding audiophiles." They did this by putting out receivers with "real watts" ratings that were often a fraction of what the other manufacturers were claiming. 

That's no longer the case.

The new Harman Kardon receiver is the AVR 3700. This receiver claims 125 watts into 2 channels (even though on the spec sheet it is listed as "All Channels Driven") at 8 ohms. That's a 20Hz – 20kHz signal with <0.07% THD - a robust measurement to be sure. The AVR 3700 is a fairly light 17.6 pounds.

Sorry for the quality of this image - HK didn't have one on their site and we had to blow it up from a PDF

Though Harman Kardon doesn't have a full list of many important features of the AVR 3700 (like the number and type of inputs), they do list no less than 19 Audio Specifications. With a little digging on our part, we found an (albeit blurry) image of the back of the AVR 3700. On the rear it has seven HDMI inputs (and 1 on the front for a total of 8) and two outputs. There are two composite and one component video input. There is a composite video output as well, though it seems that is just a backup. All the analogue video inputs can be upconverted to HDMI and upscaled to 4K. The HDMI inputs are version 1.4 and can pass through 3D as well as 4K, and at the primary output is ARC compatible. 

On the audio side, there are a number of RCA-style stereo analogue inputs and two optical and one coaxial digital inputs. Pre-outs are available for all nine channels (seven speakers and two subwoofers) plus Zone 2. There are seven pairs of five-way binding posts for connecting your speakers and HK has made the AVR 3700 compatible with the height channel features from Dolby.

As suggested in the title of this article, the AVR 3700 is both networked and wireless-ready for connection to the Internet. There is an Ethernet port on the rear for a physical connection for those interested in the best possible bandwidth. The AVR 3700 is DLNA 1.5 certified for local streaming and supports Apple's AirPlay wireless streaming. The only built-in streaming mentioned comes from vTuner for Internet Radio stations. 

The front of the AVR 3700 has an iDevice compatible USB port which will work with other flash drives. The included remote may be able to control that media as well though it is not clear which devices it will work with. For those with iDevices or Android portable devices, Harman Kardon has created a remote app for control of the AVR 3700 as well as its connected media. For new users, Harman Kardon has included their EZSet/EQ technology for speaker setup and calibration.

Conclusion

The AVR 3700 has a lot of technology that many users clamor for. With built in wireless networking, pre-outs for those with external amplifiers, two zones of audio, eight HDMI inputs and two outputs, 4K upscaling, and much more, Harman has touched on all the right bases. At $1000, the AVR 3700 will have a lot of competition. Time will tell if this feature set mated with the Harman name will prove to be a winning combination.

For more information, please visit www.harmankardon.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.