Harman Kardon AVR120 A/V Receivers

Harman Kardon AVR120 A/V Receivers 

DESCRIPTION

HARMAN KARDON A/V RECEIVER, 50WPC, DOLBY DIGI, DTS, LOGIC 7, VMAx, MP3 DEC => Model AVR-120

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-10 of 14  
[Feb 20, 2013]
IBO CABRERA
AudioPhile

IMPRESIONANTE EQUIPO
A PESAR DE SER UN MODELO VIEJO (LO COMPRE EN EL 2001) TIENE UN MEJOR SONIDO Y PERFORMANCE QUE LOS NUEVOS MODELOS.

LO COMPARAMOS CON EL HK 1600 HK 2600 Y HK 3650 Y TIENE MEJOR
DESEMPEÑO EN LOS 5.1 CANALES - LO TENGO CONECTADO A UN SISTEMA DE BOCINAS BOSE ACOUSTIMAS 15.

RECOMIENDO ESTE AVR HK - 120

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jun 20, 2009]
Mark Jacks
Audio Enthusiast

This is my first quality receiver. It is everything I could have asked for. True it is more than that compitetion. The sound is loud and crystal clear. My Blurays & DVD's come through the AVR 120 perfectly. My next HK is their 7.1

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Sep 27, 2003]
dgjr
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Looks Power & Sound.

Weakness:

Remote,but it's a none issue to me. I use a Sony learning brand. :)

Don't let the low watts fools you. AWESOME SOUNDING UNIT!!!!! Very smooth sounding. I watch alot of T.V. DPL II & Logic 7 come in handy. I like Dolby Pro-Logic better. It just sounds smoother to me. DD & DTS are AWESOME for DVD's. I bought 2 HK's. 120 & the 220. It's the only brand I will buy from now on.

Similar Products Used:

Yahama,Onkyo,Sony,Pionner Kenwwod & Sherwood. HK is the best out of the ones that I have owned.

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jul 27, 2003]
Martin
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Cant' have strengths if it doesn't work.

Weakness:

Really weak when sitting in the closet.

This is one reciever you need to stay away from. After only a year I lost the microprocessor that memorizes your settings and the right front channel went out for no reason. Bummer. I won't buy HarmanKardon anymore. This was my second reciever from them. Now it's my last.

Similar Products Used:

1983 model HK still works.

OVERALL
RATING
1
VALUE
RATING
1
[Apr 21, 2003]
Andrew
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Great, clean sound Looks awesome High-current amplifier Digital inputs/outputs Build quality

Weakness:

Only thing I can think of so far is the remote could be improved

After testing out other brand receivers (sony, etc.) I tried out the AVR 125 and that's when I instantly busted out my credit card. I have only had the receiver for 2 months, but I am very impressed with the unit. The sound is phenomenal, very clear. As stated below this thing has plenty of power, don't be fooled by the power ratings. I highly recommend this receiver. Buy it, you won't be disappointed. Kudos to HK for such a great product.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood, Sony, other receivers not in the same league

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
4
[Dec 14, 2002]
johnny26
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Very High-Current Wide bandwidth amplifier H/K made the first HI-Fi receiver Doesn't run too hot unlike higher curent H/K amps Next years models (avr 325 and 525 etc.) have built in cooling fans. Looks nice

Weakness:

Cheesy volume Knob No A-B speaker switching No DTS ES or Dolby Digital EX Too bright at night with all those green lights

Got this pretty-looking monster at Future Shop. Unlike a great majority of you uninformed consumers out there, I was aware that it had more than enough power in watts and amperes for my needs. Even while it was breaking in, this mean machine could shake my bedroom with just a pair of Paradigm Titans up front, Polk R15s for surrounds, a campy little Quest center, and NO subwoofer. Ahh the power of high instantaneous curent capability. I watched Star Wars ep. 2, Jurassic Park 2, Gone in sixty seonds, Joyride, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves etc. etc. It was fun to play with my new toy, although in the back of my mind the Voice of Practicality told me it was foolish to pay this much money for sound. I took my H/K (carrying it ceremoniously like a treasure box) to my den and hooked it up in twenty minutes to two 250 watt Polk rt 100i towers for fronts, polk 400i center, Polk rt25is as surrounds.Yeah baby, Jurassic Park 3 sounds shakes the floor like a tremor. Getting to the power specs, let me be clear, the 45 watts times five is rated in continuous average power from the frequency range that humans can perceive (20 to 20000 hertz). If you actually look at the instruction manual of a Panasonic or Sony receiver some day for fun, you might see they specify something like 100 watts at 1 khz into 8 ohms ONE CHANNEL DRIVEN.That's bad. If you could see their power output on a graph while playing a movie, you would see a brief and occasional spike at 1khz going all the way up to 100 watts. And that would be driving only one speaker. Once you hook up five speakers,with more drain on the receiver's limited power supply, the spikes would probably only go as high as 70 watts or so. Thats horrible.Welcome to the world of Distortion. 100 watt receiver you say Panasonic?It's hardly even a 350 watt receiver! If you look at Hk's web site, they state that watts are "an incomplete measure of power." Even so, if you rated the HK avr 125 amp in the "different manner" of budget amps, you would get a peak rating of 180 watts at least with ALL channels driven together, and over 200 watts per channel in stereo mode. To put it technically, its hung like King Kong.If H/K wanted to be deceptive to its consumers, they could very well call this a 1000 - watt receiver. Yes it does have more power than you need, unless you live in a football stadium, but let me get to my gripes. The remote doesn't have enough options for controlling various components, The volume knob feels loose and very low quality to the touch. I prefer Yamaha's remotes,although they aren't the best, and they are also no slouch when it comes to receivers, in my book. It's a bit bright in a darkened rooom at night. I would like to see component video switching as well, along with a-b main speaker switching instead of that silly multi-room function. The price seems a little high for a receiver, but compared to the marginally lower cost of other receivers with far lower quality components you will find, in the long run, that it is worth every penny.

Similar Products Used:

H/K avr 500,320 Yamaha htr 5560, rxv 530/730 Kenwood vr 506, 507, 6050 Technics sadx950, 750 Panasonic Sahe70 Pioneer

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Nov 28, 2002]
Pod
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Clean sound. Great Design. Quality product and build.

Weakness:

1.Remote 2. Remote 3. Remote!!!

I have had many receivers in my time ranging from brands like Luxman, Denon, to Yamaha and now an HK 120. I must say that I am quite impressed with this purchase. The amp is very clean and quite powerful for the rating. Great front panel design that is easy enough to get around. Apparently the manufacturer of the volume control design didn't do a very good job which resulted in HK taking it on the chin with returns and complaining customers. They have refurbished models which have this volume control problem fixed (they also apparently dumped the contract with this supplier and now have a new one for the new models.....125,225, etc..). Overall, this receiver comes out strong. You won't be disappointed. Don't fall for cheap imitations (ie: Sony, JVC, etc.....).

Similar Products Used:

Luxman Denon Yamaha Kenwood

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
[Nov 23, 2002]
Deoxy
AudioPhile

Strength:

Sound Quality, Power (dont be fooled by 40 watts!) and its million dollar look that would make your friends jelous.

Weakness:

there arent many downsides but the remote could use a little work and the systems ability to accept other remotes.

After purchasing my first Reciever (Avr 120) i was amazed at how clear the sound was compared to most other brands (sony, Yamaha, Panasonic etc). I also took into consideration the price which was pretty hefty for a reciever but after 2 years of listening i had understood that it was worth every penny. The sonic realizm and overall sound imprint that is sent out is consistantly at the highest of quality. To complete my home theatre i purchased a CHT-12 sub ($600), Infinity il-30 floorstandings(pair for $699), Infinity il-30 bookshelf as rear ($399) and an infinity centre($299). My cd;s are played by a Harman/Kardon Fl 3830 with HDCD decoding. I must say i have spent close to a fortune on my system (considering im a student) and have been completely satisfied with everthing. The harman/kardon Avr120 now replaced with avr125 is still competing with most of my friends new systems.Harman/kardon remains strong in holding their tradition of making the worlds most easy to use and affordable high current receivers.

Similar Products Used:

(Onkyo, Kenwood, Yamaha) dont even consider campring a sony or panasonic with this unit,,no compition!

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
3
[Oct 01, 2002]
palsgraff
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Many soundfield options. Numerous input options. Clear, strong sound and adequate power for 40 wpc. Attractive display.

Weakness:

No onscreen display. Marginal remote.

This unit is set up in my bedroom, since I assumed it to be underpowered for a large room configuration. The 40 watts per channel seemed marginal, at best. However, as has been said before, the HK ratings are pretty conservative, and this unit provides plenty of continuous power, resulting in very clear sound. I personally like the soundfield options. Dolby II is nice for television and stereo, as it creates an enveloping sound. To me the unit is attractive, even classy looking. The remote control is OK. It has some functionality with other devices, but you will probably need a third party remote for a home theater set up. Which leads me to my biggest gripe about HK. This company insists on different codes for power on and power off, which makes it difficult to configure a remote for home theater. I am not sure why they do this. In summary, for the current price that these units can be obtained, they are a terrific bargain. Many of the features previously offered only on high end units. Good sound and adequate power. As an aside, my unit is a manufacturer refurbished unit carrying a HK warranty for two years. Ubid is listed as an authorized dealer on their site. I have purchased three HK refurbished items and have had trouble with none of them so far (knock on wood), so my confidence is high.

Similar Products Used:

HK 3370 receiver (also very good) Yamaha RXV-620 Sony and Aiwa junk

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Sep 01, 2002]
Jason
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Quality, looks, simplicity, power, very balanced and accurate sound and support of analog and digital surround formats.

Weakness:

Only one set of front speaker outputs, no 5.1 inputs (which they have added to the AVR-125 which replaces this model this year) and only a mono subwoofer output (which means I loose some db's using an RCA splitter to my stereo sub inputs.

I purchased this unit to replace a Sony I had that did not have DTS support. I am very impressed with this unit and Harman Kardon in general. Although it lacks some features of higher end units, I think it makes up for that in really clean power (which equals great sound quality), simplicity and quality. This unit is the loest end HK makes so it does not have 5.1 inputs or "B" speaker hookups. It is also rated at 55 watts per channel in two channedl stereo. I think this is a conservative rating given the power I am seeing. Of course, it doesn't take much to push 96db Klipsch RB-5II's. I also have a Velodyne CHT-10 subwoofer and it sounds great taking 100Hz and below. I set the speakers to cut at 100Hz and the sub to pick up there and it blends beautifully. Also, this reciever does really well in surround sound. Dolby Digital seems a little quiet, but DTS is nice and loud. The Dolby Pro Logic II is great for VHS tapes as is the vMax and Logic7. Overall, a very impressive entry level a/v reciever and well worth the money. I will buy HK again and again.

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
Showing 1-10 of 14  

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