I bought this Receiver a few years ago, and my disgust with it is fueling me to write this review. HK had a good name and this is what sucked me into this purchase, and a friend bought one also. It worked fine for a years or so and then would not output sound. Everything turns on, but no sound. I found a thread on a forum explaining this was engineered incorrectly and they will all eventually fail due to weak capacitors and resistors. I replaced the weak components after buying a soldering iron and parts from an electronic store. A week after the unit working it started shutting off for no reason. It still does this to this day. This has become my bedroom receiver and I just leave it on all the time now to avoid having to reset the pos after turning it back on. To reset, hold the tone mode button for 5 or 10 seconds when the hard power on button is turned on (orange light). That will clear the brain fog in the unit and allow more running time. Seriously thought this thing was almost $600. Stick with Yamaha, Marantz, Onkyo, etc if you want a receiver to last more than a few months.

I have used this for more than 4 years now. The only reason I would have for getting a new receiver of any kind would be the need for HDMI inputs. The audio is impeccable. The output power has never been an issue because you don't really need any more power than this for home audio/ video. It provides enough power to piss off the neighbors and with great clarity of sound. You are not a DJ at a club after all! The setup may not be idiot proof but is simple enough if you read the directions. This piece forced me to become an audio setup enthusiest from a novice. I have had the receiver in an enclosed cabinet that gets very hot inside, and have not had any problems. This receiver will be passed on to my children, much like my mom's eight track player was to me. This is not a cheaply made or engineered piece of electronics! but is still affordable.

Had this unit for about two years but only use it VERY sporadically. The sound is good when I can turn it ON-therefore the 3 star rating- but that is the PROBLEM! Very often the damn thing just would not turn ON manually or by remote. It is very disappointing. Sometimes I unplug it and after repeated tries in turns on just to turn itself off automatically whenever it pleases. So far, no help from MediaMarkt, the chain where it was purchased and I do not expect them to move a finger. These guys just move boxes.
Hey HK, any tips? Soon it will be Good-Bye for ever.

I have owned this unit for about 2 years. This is my first and only stereo receiver I have owned and I have been very happy with the quality and sound of this unit. It was quite complicated to set up for me being a beginner but Circuit City hooked it up nicely for me when I purchased my LCD TV.
The sound is amazing, at only about 30 watts it delivers a lot of boom to my movies. I am presently in the market for a second receiver for a family room entertainment center and plan to upgrade to a more modern HK receiver with HDMI.
The only weakness I have noticed about this receiver is the remote is a bit complicated as is the set up for a beginner. Also, being a little outdated compared to todays receivers, there is no HDMI outlets in this unit.

A very good receiver and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good quality receiver without paying the big bucks.

Sound, that magnificent sound.
Price point
Looks

That damn remote control, who designed it?
Reliability

I decided to jump from the mid-range products (JVC, Sony, Kenwood and the like) to the relm high-end stuff. Of course my budget took my down to earth a bit but I figured I could afford a nice HK receiver and DVD player. I got them and hooked them up with much haste!! I was blown away by the sound this unit produces despite it's modest power level. It made my Celestion Monitors sing like never before. I was in love.
But all was not well. After about 9 months the processor would not switch to different modes, it couldn't find dolby signals! After quite a few calls to HK they told me to send it back. None to happy was I. After 9 months of use it was dead!? I did send it back (at my considerable expense) and got another one promptly. The new one lasted about 5 hours and it has died. After a few days I have not recieved a response from HK.
I'm shopping for a Marantz or Onkyo, see ya HK.

Customer Service

My first contact with customer service was great, this was is not going well at all.

Similar Products Used:

None in this relm of audio....yet.

Plenty of A/V Digital inputs, Good sound,great price and HK quality look.

No power, in stereo 5 channel it produces 60 watts per channel but in Dolby anything,5,6,7 logic it only produces 40 watts.

This is my first all digital a/v receiver, compared to my fiirst Aiwa analog this unit is underpowered. But on the good side like the others stated it produces amazing sound, with plenty of digital inputs it was a perfect buy for me and anyone else who cant afford a 1000$ receiver. Remote is ok once you get to know it. I would like to see a LCD remote with my next HK purchase!!! I would buy from them again, unless Yamaha comes down in price i will stick with HK.

The sound is a1 top notch.

The remote.

I moved to a mini apartment in manhattan, I sold my HK AVR7300 and auditioned some mini receivers to match up with my athena .5 mk2 mini speakers system The contenders 1- Onkyo TX-LR552 from Ubid 2- PANASONIC SA-XR55S from J and R 3- HK AVR135 from HK online ebay 1-First up the Onkyo TX-LR552 purchased from UBID. It was a refurb with a 1 yr warranty and a rip of cost of $25 for s&h. It was defective out of the box. The volume control skips up and down in unequal increments if used manually. The sound was very good. The feature set very good and the remote excellent. The remote was the best of the three. The seller UBID was the WORST. They wanted to charge me 15% to return the defective unit they had sent me. What a rip off I wont be buying from them again. 2- Next up the PANASONIC SA-XR55S from J and R music world. Good price at $239. 100 % functional out of the box. Great feature set. The remote ok. The sound was the worse of the three units. Absolutely terrible. Thats my opinion, its a digital amp and to me it sounded very sharp and shrilly in all modes. 3- HK AVR135 refurb purchased from HK online via ebay w 2 yr warranty. 100 % functional out of the box. The sound was great, number 1 in this group and far better then the other two. The feature set excellent but the remote dead last. The remote was the worst in this group. The seller is excellent and mantains an excellent rating on ebay. Final rating 1-The ha avr135 awesounding little receiver for the money and the one I kept. 2- the technics sa xr55 wonderful feature set and easy to use and set up. Sounded good in home theater bad in stereo. 3- Last was the Onkyo. Just a terrble experience with the seller, UBID, compounded the functionality problems. The Onkyo would have placed a close second but theres no forgiving a non working unit. I work too hard for my money to throw it away. The seller, UBID IS THE WORST. Its like legalized robbery on the internet. I would not recomend them to anyone for anything. I now have to spend more money to send the unit in for repair.

Similar Products Used:

PANASONIC SA-XR55S from J and R music world. Onkyo TX-LR552 purchased from UBID

Great sound (and looks too!); Decent number of audio inputs; All the processing modes you could ask for (except maybe for DPL IIx); Nice front panel display; OSD; Easy (although manual) setup; Good build quality.

"HDTV-ready component video" is not so ready for 720p and higher (degrades signal); Remote is crap; Manual could be better.

Great receiver for beginners in the world of home theater and multichannel audio. I've used it with an Infinity Primus speaker setup and couldn't be happier :-) IMHO, it sounds really great (very clear and defined sound, strong bass), with both movies and music. It features Dolby Digital EX, DTS ES, Dolby ProLogic II, DTS:Neo6, and HK's own Logic 7 processing, has plenty of audio inputs (both analog and digital) and a reasonable number of composite and s-video inputs. There are only two component inputs, though, and they cause some signal degradation in 720p and 1080i (picture is somewhat softened). 480p is fine, however. Setup is all manual (no EzSet), but reasonably straightforward (speaker size, delay, bass management, done). Speaking of which, it allows you to set different crossover points (40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 200 Hz) for different groups of speakers (fronts, center, surrounds, surround back), which is really handy for anyone with less than a 100% full range speaker setup. I really like the front panel display: it looks great, has big letters and a cool dynamic speaker layout diagram (it shows the size and number of speakers in use, and also which ones are receiving a separate signal, be it 2.0, 5.1 or 6.1). And it also features a simple but effective OSD (only through composite and s-video, though). IMHO, it has more than enough power for any small to midsized room. If you have no regard for your long-term hearing and love to listen to music at really loud volumes, you may find it too weak, though :-) The remote is indeed an utter mess, as other reviewers have pointed out. Important buttons, such as the surround mode and OSD buttons, are ridiculously tiny and squeezed together on the bottom part of the remote. Thank God I'm using my universal remote instead. The manual could have been a little better organized and designed too. That's a minor gripe, though. You will find all the info you need, it just won't be as easy as you might have wished for :-)

Looks, quality, six channels and price.

Remote

This is a great deal! The 135 has plenty of punch for the H/T user. This six channel unit has an on screen display and is very easy to set up. The remote is not user friendly at all. The great looks of the 135 makes up for that. It pushes my Acoustic research speakers well and is crisp and clear. It has plenty of inputs (more than I will ever use). Use quality cables and speaker wire. (I installed this unit with some old cables and speaker wire at first and it sounded like crap!!!) I bought some "monster" cables and speaker wire and it was like night and day. Use the optical audio from your DVD player it sounds much better this way. For the price I feel it's a great buy. Remember this is an entry level receiver and if you want to rock the block get something with more power. For H/T it is great and if you need more power for H/T you must be deaf or have power hungry speakers....

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, JVC and Pioneer....

very easy to use and comes with all the bells and whistles in an affordable package.

remote is a joke. the back doesnt accept banana clips and the power output is pretty weak.

this is your typical entry level hk product with some nice features.after a while it gets very easy to use which by looking at the cluster of a remote might set some people to look for a different reciever. the remote is an absolute mess, lets put this here attitude, that hasnt got much thought into design. the output of this amp is only 45 watts, but i have found it to be more than sufficiant to drive my customs to a bone rattling pitch. this unit doesnt have on screen display like its bigger brothers, or a self microphone setup but it does the job as good as its higher priced kin. there are more than enough inputs in the rear and the layout is nice but the new hk's wont take the standard size banana clips. someone has definately made a great mistake here.