capernicus

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.80 of 5, 5.00 votes

Price Paid:  $750.00 from Ebay

Summary:
If anybody is a hard credit about anything it is me. And i really played with this unit until I decided it was just a piece of over priced junk. But wait. Its not cause it didnt sound good. Its cause the unit didnt do what you told it to do. First of all the unit looks cool. It went perfect with the rest of the Citation amps I had. The sound was very clear and detailed. Some of you may say Bass and treble controls are enough to tailor the sound of any speaker. Thats bull. Back in the day units came with Bass Midrange and Treble. This unit has NO controls which sucks. The best it can do is a bass eq like a boost and something like a re eq of a THX processor for the Highs. The remote hardly ever worked. I found later after buying the unit that all Harmom Kardon products (even todays units) still suffer from poor remote control capability. I had the latest upgrade and it still didnt work right. The sound would sometimes pop when switching between surround modes. the unit stayed hot. But It sounded sweet like I said but at what expense would you take? I had to get up sometimes and manually change the setting cause the remote wouldnt change anything. The company said it wasnt the remote, rather it was the unit that had problems thinking of what information it was recieving and couldnt decide what to do with it! The coolest thing about the unit was the stereo mode cause it has stereo subwoofers plus a good crossover for mains and sub. These days to get a stereo with sub out you have to spend big bucks. Then if you want stereo subwoofers you need to ask for a miracle. Why? its not hard to make. The surround modes sounded great. I tried the 6 axis mode on all kinds of songs and movies. I found it sucked. The center channel sounded about 6 db lower than the other channels even when calibrated with pink noise. DD was fine. All the other modes played great. 6 Axis just sounded like a glorified all stereo mode where the surrounds had echo effect on them. To be honest the prologic sounded better than 6 axis. And I had a model with no bugs according to Harmon! Thast just the way it was suppose to sound they said! I think people subconsciencely wanted to justify the high price so they stated the 6 axis was awesome. LOl save your money. Buy a new Yamaha system. This thing is a pain in the bung hole. Trust me you will sell it a month after you buy it. Everyone else here said the same thing. The programming is all wack.

Strengths:
Sound in Stereo and DD. Prologic is also good.

Weaknesses:
Useless on screen menus since its a nightmare to walk through. Programming to change modes. No tone controls.

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha DSp-A1 which was better as far as useability but not sound.

Price Paid:  $630.00 from ebay

Summary:
After deciding a Lexicon MC-1 or perhaps an MC-12 was going to be my major move to upgrade my HT, I stumbeld on an old review online about the Citation 5.0. Intrigued by the possibilities, I jumped at the chance to purchase one locally through ebay. I have no regrets and am enjoying saving thousands of dollars. Madrigal has been super in helping me by sending me a PDf of the manual and getting me the 1.55 eprom software upgrade ($20) to help me through an otherwise totally inscrutible set up experience. Thank goodness I asked the seller about the remote and he found it before I left! The 5.0 immediately improved every one of my HT pieces, except my DVD player, which now has to go. By adding a Monster Power 5000 Conditioner at the same time, my SharpVision LCD picture is improved 100%. Set up was mind blowing (in a bad way) using the installed 1.54 software, but with 1.55, life is good. The DTS and DD services are fantastic and Axis-6 is unreal. Party mode, however, is the bomb when doing karaoke (don't smirk at me. I'm NOT an audiophile). Overall sound improvement is notable even to my aging, nonaudiophile ears. The high end especially is improved, and the low end is tighter and more tonally specific. Midrange will knock you on your rear if you don't watch out. Based on the money saved, flexibility of the unit, excellent support on the used unit even aftter discontinuation, and the wonderfully clean sound, I give it two 5s. Did I mention that it's attractive, clean, and simple on the rack, too? Citation 5.0 Soundcraftsmen PCR-800 amps (4 of 'em) JBL L7 (4) JBL L5 (2) JBL SVA 1800 (center) AudioSource Passive Sub SharpVision XV120ZU Sanyo LD/Karaoke (really!) Pioneer DVL700 Panasonic S-VHS HiQ VCR DD/DTS DVD/CD player (name withheld) Monster Power Reference 5000

Strengths:
Sound Sophistication Flexibility Appearance Support

Weaknesses:
Initially daunting complexity

Similar Products Used:
Lexicon DC-1/JBL Synthesis, Parasound, B&K 20, Carver (when still Carver, if you know what I mean), Rotel, Adcom (from better to worse), Kenwood, Technics AC-300

Price Paid:  $800.00

Summary:
Simply Great sound, I had always liked fosgate products (pre-Citation) and decided to go back and try out a Citation. I was looking at Citation 7.0's (to be used with a separate digital decoder) but the lure of dolby-digital, DTS and a digital 6-axis encoder in one box for an extra couple of hundred of dollars managed to sway me to the Citation 5.0. Setting the unit up is straight forward and simple, no problems what-so-ever and it has worked faultlessly for me. The sound is awesome with great clear highs and powerful tight bass, stereo Sub pre-outs are a welcome addition. You simply become totally immersed in whatever you are watching/listening to. Wonderful stuff. The only real downside to all this is the inter-action between the remote/front panel buttons and the Citation 5.0, sometimes it responds instantly and at other times it can take a second or two to acknowledge a command. Not a terrible flaw but annoying on an otherwise great product.

Strengths:
Clear powerful, wonderful sound, With Great looks and a great pedigree.

Weaknesses:
Sometimes Flakey inter-action with remote/front panel operation. And not really enough S-video inputs to be useful (only 2)

Similar Products Used:
Marantz, Pioneer, Fosgate, Lexicon, JBL Synthesis.

Price Paid:  $1050.00 from eBay

Summary:
Pros: Very clean sounding. Maybe as clean as Ive heard. Nice looking unit. Cons: A nightmare to set up. They had to work at making this as difficult as it is. It has a habit of forgetting its settings so you have to reset things. The bass response is very weak. What bass it produces is very nice but it cant produce the punch that the original recordings intended. If you dont care about geat (not strong overpowering) but just great tight bass this is as good as it gets for the price. The highs are as clean as it gets. Be prepared for a lot of stress when setting it up, though. The setup difficulty alone is worth a full point off the rating. The weak bass is worth another point. Since you can pick these up for less than $1000 I would only take one pont off for value. I would rather give it a 3.5 overall but cant so it gets a 3 because of the 2 major flaws

Strengths:
Extremely clean, especially highs.

Weaknesses:
Weak bass and unbelievably difficult to setup.

Similar Products Used:
Most high end gear at one time or another. Current system: Citation 7.1 amp/5.0 pre-amp. Maggie 3.6 speakers (main) Maggie 2.5 speakers (surround) Rogers LS 3/5 (center) Vandersteen (sub woofer)

Summary:
I got a good deal on a brand new Citation 5.0 with dts containing the newest software rev (1.55). I must say that it does not disappoint in the least. I have owned an HK AVR65 (one without the quirks) for two years connected to a Citation 7.1 amp and while the HK is a good unit (sound wise) the comparison between the two isn't even close. The Citation is completely quiet and the detail is nothing short of stunning. I have demoed all the above units in my system and the only one that is on par with the Citation is the Proceed (also made by Madrigal). The proceed and Citation are nearly identical in terms of sonic quality. The EAD is a good unit, but doesn't present quite the richness of sound the Proceed or Citation does. The Citation presents such a large soundstage that it almost takes a few hours to get used to after using a receiver for years. If you can get a good deal on this gem, do yourself a favor and pick one up. It is truly audiophile by any definition and can compete with the best in the world. On a final note, it is outstanding on home theater as well! 6-axis really rocks for regular TV viewing and other non-digitally encoded shows. This unit gets the highest possible rating that I have ever given a product on audioreview. I have included my system below, so feel free to email with questions as necessary.

System:
Paradigm Reference 100s
Paradigm Active Reference Center
Infinity Reference rears

Citation 5.0 Pre-Amp
Citation 7.1 Amp
Sony S550D DVD player
Panamax Conditioner

Cardas Cross interconnects (fronts)
Cardas Microtwin interconnects (rears)
Tara lab RSC Prime 1000 bi-wire (fronts)

Strengths:
Clarity of mids/highs and Soundstage
VERY QUIET PRE-AMP

Weaknesses:
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

Similar Products Used:
EAD Encore, HK AVR65, Yamaha 995, Proceed AVP, Classe SSP-25