Price Paid:  $200.00 from ebay

Summary:
Unlike the negative review from poolorpond this received, I have nothing but positive things to say. Apparently that guy won't be happy unless he builds it himself or if it comes with a lifetime supply of Grey Poupon. Whatever. Listen, here is the skinny. Do you like to watch movies and listen to music on the same stereo system? Do you go to a friend's house and see their boxed or packaged HT system with all 5 or 7 speakers crammed around the TV and slap yourself on the forehead because you know what he is missing? Do you spend a good deal of time looking for steal on a piece of audio equioment because you can't afford to buy $3000 worth of speakers? Do you know that their is better equipment out there than Sony or Pioneer? If you answered yes to any of these questions listen up. This is a wonderful receiver.
HK's first stab at a totally digital amplified system has been an awesome addition to my HT. I moved from the AVR325 to this bad boy. Crisp sound, clean power and smooth running machine. The digital circuitry has cut down a bit on size, weight, heat and noise (my avr325 weighed north of 40lbs and had a fan built in to cool it down). HK receivers are legendary for pumping out well over their meager ratings. When you see the typical 100watt x 6channel offering from the other players, this is a maximum rating achieved at an optimum specific frequency. HK's are for across the audio spectrum. When I moved up from my first Pioneer that was 100 x 5 to my avr325 that was 55 x 7, you could easily tell how superior the HK was after 5 minutes. The DPR1001 does it all in a smaller package with the same great functions as the analogs.
The auto calibration in the remote is pretty cool. The remote has an SPL meter that responds to the test tones and automatically adjusts the speakers to their proper levels. It is pretty accurate in setting up the sound field.
The Bass Management system is incredible. If you utilize a subwoofer in your HT, get yourself a receiver with bass management. It essentially allows you to send the frequencies to the receiver your individual channels can't reproduce due to their limitiationsin woofer size. The onscreen display is a little hard to navigate, keep the manual next to you.
The remote control is one bad S.O.B. that can be a bit daunting for the timid. Even thought the receiver is "aged", the learning capabilites are able to keep up with my latest Dishnetwork Receiver and its DVR capabilities. If you need a good receiver and want a mid line brand, don't be afraid of the first stab HK took. It was a death blow.
I power a Definitive Technology CLR1000 center, 2 Polk M series surround monitors, 1 Klipsch KSW-10 sub and my mains are 2 KLH Reference series p66t's. Before you smirk at the KLH p66t's, note these aren't your Costco specials. They are the reference series built up until early 2000 that were every bit online with Klipsch's reference line. These bad boys weigh 42lbs each and can handle some power,and they get clean and lowww, all the way down to 28hz. They sound incredible with this receiver.
Check out HK's website. In their product support, you can find out all the details.

Strengths:
Bass Management
Componet Video Inputs
Remote with LCD Screen
7 Channels x 55 watts way underrated
Dual Room (dual zone) capabilities
Digital circuitry with no dig to analog to dig conversions
Plenty of Coax and optical Digital inputs (front of receiver too)
Light weight
Color coded wire nuts
Awesome build quality
Wonderful cabinet display
Auto Calibration

Weaknesses:
A little deep when mounting, doesn't fit my audio rack like all the other componets
Either 5.1 with dual zone or 7.1 with dual zone, no option to make it 6.1 and bridge the rear channels.
Display could be less bright for night time viewing, butI forget about it 5 minutes into my movie.
No rca or s video up conversion
Remote can take some patience

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer VSX-D498
Harman Kardon AVR325
Klipsch
Polk
KLH
Definitive Technology
Zenith DVD+-R\RW recorder

eaglescorpio1

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Price Paid:  $235.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I think it is a 2004 model, it might be 2005. Anyways, in my personal opinion, this reciever is awesome. I bought it on clearance and open box buy for cheap, and I think it sounds great. I set it up how the manual said, using the ez-set then fine tuning the gains of the channels. I think it is phenominal. I always use the logic 7 sound processing which I think is way more superb then any of dolby's processing. Granted I don't have $1000 dollar speakers or anything, but I am running dcm's on all my speakers, and I have to say that this system is one of the best I have ever heard and the best I have ever owned. There are many bigger and more expensive systems I have seen and heard that don't compare to this. For the money, I would have to say that this is a great reciever for someone that doesn't have thousands to spend on a home theater.

Strengths:
ease of installation, ease of setup and configuration, for the money-awesome, sound quality is great, and goes on

Weaknesses:
of course, does not stand up to carver or sunfire preamps, not a whole lot of power, what do you expect for 250 bucks though

Similar Products Used:
pioneer, kenwood, sony, etc.

poolorpond

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
1.80 of 5, 5.00 votes

Price Paid:  $350.00 from audiogon

Summary:
What a shrill piece of crap. I am not even sure where to go with this. I was curious to try on of these PWM amps and needed to upgrade to 7.1. I replaced an MSB MDP-1, which is their DTS upgrade on a rebadged yamaha DDp-1, played through a Parasound psp-1500 for volume control. I would switch back if it were not for the 7.1. The HK is cheaply made. If you like the build quality of brands like Parasound, you will be disappointed. The sound was too bright, which I attributed to the PWM amps but it did not sound much better hooked up via analog preouts to my parasound HCA- 850 five channel amp. I will have to take a look at upgrading the analog stage although the problem must go all the way back to the filters used after the DACs. The mids tend to get beat out by the highs. I swithced the L- pads down 3db on my Halfler studio monitors and that helped. However, I would not recommend this unit for high efficiency speakers that are bright to start with- like Klipsch synergy series. The base in my system is supplemented by two 12inch custom subs powered with a Yamaha pro amp and Behringer digital EQ. They integrate well using the preouts on the HK but the highs are just overwhelming, causing listening fatigue. Imagine listening to the beginning of T2 when the skull is getting crushed- only its your skull. I use an MSB Link Dac III in a dedicated two channel system and have come to love the balanced sound of their digital products. The highs are smooth, the mids are warm and the base can stand up for itself- very dissimilar to the HK. It almost sounds like the Denon AVD-2000 decoder in terms of the sharpness of the sound and lack of midrange detail. My hope was to bring some of the resolution of new products, like the Link, to my HT setup- the MSB unit is going on ten years old now. And yes, I understand that higher sampling and bit rates give you extended frequency response but it should not hurt. I should have saved up for the new Outlaw Audio pre/pro. Or, maybe I will just go back to the MSB decoder or use the analog outputs on the DVD-A player with the parasound. This raises another issue. The analog inputs must be converted to digital by the HK- unnecessary and unwanted when using as pass through for DVD-Audio. At least with an older Pro- Logic with 5.1 inputs, the signal was not processed a second time. I take my two channel pretty seriously and have built many analog circuits and amps. This by far sounds like one of the worst.

Strengths:
At least it doesn't smell like crap. Back panel well organized and easy to navigate menus. Have not tried the auto level adjust but is an idea that should be on every model by now. Maybe it would sound better with different speakers. The monitors I use cant mask poor quality audio.

Weaknesses:
Build quality and sound - two pretty important factors when investing in audio products. I cannot believe that this listed for what it did. Looks aren't that great either, but not important to me.

Similar Products Used:
Denon AVD-2000 Yamaha DDP-1 MSB MDP-1 Parasound pre/pro/amps Millenium 2.4.6 decoder (made by MSB, the best DTS decoder that I have heard yet in any price range- only 5.1 though) JVC 1090 (or something) top of the line junk with USB input, 7.1, used as a processor, gave to a friend because I could not in good conscience sell it- sounded better than this. ADA prologic decoder Various other home theater receivers/processors over the past 15 years- Nothing really high end for HT.