I bought the HK AVR 65 in April before reading the reviews on this site. I also bought (and returned) the Denon AVR 2700 to check it out.
I would like to say that I am happy with the AVR 65. The sound is nice and for the price is right for the features.

My list of pros for the reciever:
1) DD and DTS decoding
2) price of $700 at OneCall. I probably wouldn't have bought it for the MSRP $1,200. Now that I know, the price was probably discounted because of the quality issues and negative PR.
3) multiroom audio source. why doesn't any other review mention this? This was one of the critical features because I also listen to audio in my kitchen and elsewhere in the home. I use my old reciever as the amplifier for the other room(s).

My list of cons:
1) the remote and on screen interface are really bad when compared with the AVR 2700. I agree with another reviewer in that I don't buy audio components for their remotes, but the interfaces should at least have a certain quality standard (such as intuitive).
2) I haven't had any of the noisy channel problems discussed in this forum (my s/n is over 10000) but I did notice some interference with my TV reception. I have to move the antenna depending on the channel (which I didn't have to do with the HK AVR 20). The TV is right next to the receiver and there is no distortion on it.
3) no support for banana plugs. I know this may not seem like a big issue (especially for those who don't use them), but it could be an indicator of design flaws. If you look at the back, it doesn't support the plugs because the two poles are too far apart and the poles are oriented vertically (pos top, neg bottom). If the poles were oriented horizontally (pos right, neg left - this was the orientation of the HK AVR 20 that I own), I think a banana plug would fit with the current spacing. Did somebody switch the orientation for some other reason and not realize that the plugs wouldn't work?

Some issues which I'm wondering about which may be problems:
1) the center channel in DD mode is often not loud enough (problem could be something other than receiver?)
2) I have noticed in a couple of DVDs (probably 2 out of the hundred or so movies that I've watched on it) where the DD decoding drops out for a few seconds and then starts again. This could be a problem with the movie encoding or with my player (the Panasonic DVD-A110) - although if it were a problem with the player I would expect to see it more often.

I can't tell you how happy I was the day I finally took this turkey out of my home theater rack.
Never have I owned a piece of gear that suffered such a combination of manufacturing flaws and stonewalling by the manufacturer itself. HK made mistakes in the design of these units,then left it to the consumer to figure out what to do about it. They've taken a hard won reputation for quality and thrown it in the toilet. Perhaps the higher serial numbers have had the RF interference problems (Wavy lines on your TV while watching lower channels (or bringing in a VCR through channels 3 0r 4) and poor choice of fuses and grounding material that resulted in spontaneous hum problems fixed, but why would you take a chance with a manufacuturer who has so blatantly hosed their customers?

The fixes from the manufacturer were slow in coming, and inadequate. Like the girl with the curl on her forehead of the Nursery Rhyme: When she was good she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid.

I'd posted a review on this product earlier, but can't find it, so please forgive this additional post if it's here.

This one only gets 1 star because there's no option for ZERO!

Surround memory by input device! Clean layout. Simple design. Farily decent user's guide.

Weight unbalanced remote.

My first HK was the AVR-25 II which I loved but the 65 appears to produce even cleaner, richer sound. Since I'm no audiophile, I can only describe the attributes that make my user experience better than the 25 and other stereo receivers I've used in the past.

I love the multiple input devices it supports. What's even better is that it remembers how you configured each device. For instance, when I select FM or CD the only front two speakers are used; this is something I intentionally did. When I select DVD all five speakers are employed and when I select TV all five are employed but the rears have +1 db directed through them. Perhaps this is a feature of many receivers today but I've never seen it before, not even on the my old 25.

The remote is clean and simple to use. Of course you have to think a little bit ("Ok, I'm going to watch DVD so hit that ... I need the TV on so hit that then hit power ... I need the stereo volume up so swith to AVR and increase that one.") but this is MUCH cleaner than an SONY I've ever touched and even easier than the 25.

Finally, I found the user manual very useful. Before the 65 I never understood the white noise test. The manual provided tips and suggestions for speaker placement, height and distances as well as calculations to use for setting the speaker size option on the AVR. I loved that. I feel, for the first time, my home theatre is setup and tuned in correctly.

**Outstanding sound, Very clean high power, Good seperation in DD 5.1, music sounds excellent on it too, goes extremely loud without distorting.

Generates a lot of heat. Heats up my whole living room

The AVR-65 is the best sounding reciever I have ever owned.
This reciever is a great piece of equipment. I highly
recommend it. (Specially to you Dan "Danny" Walker). The HK AVR65 works perfectly with my Polk Audio speakers. It really filled my Polk Audio speakers and made them sing!
The DTS and Dolby Digital are crystal clear with exceptional seperation. It took a while to learn and set all functions of the unit, but once learned it was easy to use. I have listened to similiar Denon, and Yahama recievers and they don't compare. Listening to classical DTS encoded cd on this unit blew me away! feel like I'm inside the Arena watching live concert. Hearing every singel details on sound. Thanks to Hassan Syed for getting me to listening to classical music loving it!.

Similar Products Used:

Denon 3300, Onkyo 959,Yamaha 795

I had an AVR 65 from November 97 with a 5000 plus swerial number. It was very good and very flexible, and exhibited none of the grounding problems that earlier units are reputed to be subject to.
A best bang for the buck product, and one of the first with decent DTS. I now use a Lexicon, which does have superior sound, but also triple the price.

Purchased the AVR-65 from OneCall along with the Atlantic Technology Compact Theatre-1 (salesman recommendation over the Energy Take-5) and the Toshiba 3108 DVD player. I am *very* pleased with this system, I only wish there were a few more digital inputs (1 optical, 1 coaxial, and 6 ch. direct).
I was unsure of the HK quality after researching this receiver in the various review websites, but took a chance anyway since a friend had very good experiences with previous HK receivers.

Have experienced no problems at all with the system and I'm very satisfied. I also feel I got a great deal with OneCall. Now I just need to upgrade my DSS to AC-3!

I've have owned a HK avr25MKII and recently upgrade to AVR65 and to my awe, its better than most of the DD & DTS amplifier I've tried. The power that used to drive my speaker is very stable and clean. I strongly recommend anyone going to get a digital amplifier to go for hk avr65 and no compromise to others!
You will love it!!

Excellent sound quality. Rich warm sound. ample bass.

Only two digital input.

Bought it from ONE CALL at about $500. Wonderful receiver! I know it is replaced by AVR-500, which is about $800. I first tried this receiver from ABC Warehouse, who still sells it at $999. I returned it.
I had owned onkyo 575. It was great,but my very inefficient speakers (Bose AM10) needs more, or even eroneous(?) bass, thus I looked for a new receiver. This unit has rich, warm sound and more than enough bass, which compensate weakness of AM10. You can find it with any of your music CD. When playing movie, onkyo and HK both are good. When playing Eagles 'Hell Freezs over'(dts), I prefer HK, but when playing 'bug's life', I prefer onkyo. I also had Denon avr-97 which is expensive than its quality. Definately HK 65 is much better than Denon.
Many reviewer pointe out Hum or Unreliability, but I have never found any of these problem. Its power is 65w /ch but you will be confused if it is 165w. HK 65 is much more powerful than Denon avr-97. (Which claims 85w/ch)
I think this receiver has more strength in playing music, so I would like to recommend this item if you listen to music as well as watch movies.

Similar Products Used:

onkyo 575

Great quality

My front 3 channels are making some noise

I am trying to find a repair center in IL, can anyone help, email me at nismo96max@cs.com

Incredible bass and treble, LOUD CRISP sound with very little distortion

no 5 channel stereo mode; could use more inputs

Unbeleivable receiver especially for the price you get them for now! I bought mine open box from Circuit City in Febuary, 2000 for $400. I've recently seen then on uBid for about $300 refurbished. Great deal.

I previously owned a onkyo 575. Had it for about a month and returned it. It didn't have nearly enough bass (I'm currently not using an external sub) and hissed at high volume levels. I had to crank this thing up to nearly full power in a little dorm room to get a full enough sound while watching movies. I heard good things about the HK ARV65 and saw a good deal on one and bought it. Great decision!

The AVR65 has incredible bass and extremely crisp highs. Much, much, much more power than the Onkyo. I haven't watched anything in DTS yet, but the Dolby Digital is great. I'm now in a fairly large apartment and have to keep the volume modest at about -25 or -20 with the bass turned down a bit not to disturb the neighbors.

Only drawbacks is that I really liked the 5 channel stereo and the learning remote the Onkyo 575 had. But I would definitely recommend the HK over the onkyo any day. I haven't had any of the hiss problems mentioned in other reviews.

Similar Products Used:

onkyo 575