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Harman/kardon AVR3000
Dolby Digital AV surround sound receiver
Recommended retail price: $1399 (inc. GST)
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Reviewer: Richard Morgan
Harman/kardon has always been renowned for cutting edge technical design and I reckon that this talent extends to the cosmetic side of its engineering endeavours. The AVR3000 receiver, with its minimalist design philosophy, is not only a refreshing alternative to the banks of light and buttons from other makers, it's down right gorgeous. And you can even get an excellent DVD player to match.
Almost everything you could want in an AV receiver is included on the 3000. It doesn't feature Dolby Pro Logic II, but there are other attributes here that counteract this, and it's my guess that there's a whole bunch of people who don't really care about lower end surround processing functions.
This receiver does great deal to expand the skill set of the surround sound medium and our home entertainment experience in general. It's designed to not only enhance our movie viewing but also make the performance grade when it comes to music.
It's also neat and compact (measuring 167x441x435mm and weighing 14.1kg) and features a simple yet easy to read display of major functions and operation.
One of the main claims to fame of the 3000 is the proprietary and patented EzSet remote, which includes a built-in sound pressure level measuring and calibration system. This lets operators automatically balance speaker-channel levels for optimum surround-sound listening, regardless of the playback format. Since setting speaker levels is one of the most critical adjustments when optimising for movie soundtrack playback, the EzSet remote is a real boon and is made even more valuable because it's dead simple to use - follow the instructions and you shouldn't have any problems.
Also right up there in terms of features for many people is the ability of the receiver to decode and playback MP3-encoded CDs or, perhaps more important ion convergence terms, Internet-delivered streaming media material'..
In terms of audio capacity the AVR3000 features 24-bit, 192kHz processing, using multiple (latest generation) Crystal Semiconductor 49326 DSP processors and 4392 DACs. The effect is ultra high audio playback resolution. What's more, feeding conventional CD inputs to this processing system also improve sound performance.
AVR3000 offers and outstanding combination of features, flexibility and performance.
The AVR3000 provides plenty of power for anything up to medium sized rooms and upper mid market home-theatre systems. It offers excellent sonic performance for movie reproduction, and if you're even remotely interested in music give this unit a go, because it's outstanding in this regard.
You can't undersell the relevance of the calibrations system and even if you don't agree with some of the settings it comes up with, it's always good to have a performance benchmark of some sort or another in this area. The unit looks am million bucks and is built like a little tank too.
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