Need Help Picking! Harman Kardon or Onkyo? JBL or Energy Take Classic?

[H0us3]

Hi complete newbie, getting a new system, after a lot of research and browsing I'm down to a choice of

Harman Kardon AVR 1700 5.1 or Onkyo TX-NR616 7.2-Channel THX

(I like the look of the HK, my wife will definitely be more willing to put up with it than the Onkyo)

Speakers
Energy 5.1 Take Classic or JBL CS6100BG,
Klipsch HDT-600 Home Theater System

(Due to aesthetic reasons I believe my wife will prefer the JBL and give me less grief for putting so much tech in the living room!)

NR 616 seems to have ton's more features than the HK but no ARC. The JBL has a 200 W 10 in Subwoofer as opposed to the Energy which has 100 W 8 inch.

I have not heard either set....but look wise and price wise I am inclined towards the HK receiver and JBL speakers.

Please let me know what you think would be the best quality!
Thanks

 

[sholling]

Hi complete newbie, getting a new system, after a lot of research and browsing I'm down to a choice of

Harman Kardon AVR 1700 5.1 or Onkyo TX-NR616 7.2-Channel THX

Neither, HK tend to by shy on features and I'm not found of that model Onkyo. Instead I'd look for a deal on a Denon AVR-1713 for somewhere around $330-375 from an authorized dealer.

Speakers
Energy 5.1 Take Classic or JBL CS6100BG,
Klipsch HDT-600 Home Theater System

This is harder because 1) speakers are very subjective, and 2) I find it hard to recommend any $350 5.1 speaker-subwoofer system just because they are so limited. You're looking at systems that were designed for little tiny rooms and just get lost in anything much larger than a dorm room or small bedroom. My advice is to piece something together as you can afford it. Watch for sales and start with a quality 2.0 or 2.1 system and add the matched center when you can. Then add the surrounds or surrounds and sub when you can afford it.

It's double your budget but this Infinity 5.0 system is on sale for $752 and a heck of a deal and then you can save up for a sub when money allows. I know it's not the answer you were looking for but I'd rather be honest with you. If you have your heart set on one of the packages that you listed then at least listen to them and pick the one that sounds best to you.

 

[3zones]

So I've got the NR616 and love it. I love all the features and it works perfectly but understand that it does indeed have arc. There were a lot of complaints about the 616 but understand that Onkyo has a 40% market share of the AVR market and so you are going to hear a whole lot more complaints compared to the other brands with fractional market share. Plus of course they've corrected with several firmware updates. I am currently using ARC to stream netflix from my tv through the AVR. It actually even has an ARC indicator that lights up when it is receiving the ARC signal. You just have to turn it on in the set up menu and do a soft reboot of the 616 and it works perfectly. Be aware some smart tv's won't output 5.1 from their onboard apps (ie Samsung Smart Hub) and so you could be stuck with 2 channel which is insane to me. I was only lucky that my new tv does output 5.1 from the apps since I didn't even think about that when purchasing. BTW part of my system is the Energy Take 5.1 system that is connected to zone 1. Energy Takes sound decent for the money and considering the room I have them in has 20 foot ceilings.

I shopped high and low for an AVR and had intended to spend a lot more money but the 616 was just too compelling for the insanely low price. My only beef that is a beef with most mid and even higher end avr's is that you can't pass digital sources to zone 2 or zone 3. There's some work arounds but I'd have had to spend a lot more money to get this to work. I'm building a 3 zone whole house system now and have 2 zones so far. Whole house audio in an old construction is insanely time consuming and difficult to accomplish. I'd like to be able to press whole house mode when watching a football game and not miss the action when I am going from room to room. As it is then I can just use the second HDMI out (extraordinalrily rare) and just connect it to the kitchen tv and so at least don't miss what's happening on the main tv when I walk into the kitchen like when I'm watching a movie.

The 616 is almost too good to be true for the money plus the wireless dongle is 20 bucks on sale and you can plug it into one of the two (again rare) usb ports. Take a look at the youtube video that compares the 616 to some other avr's. Even the 616's boards are better quality plus it has a large cooling fan or at least so says the reviews.

 

[H0us3]

So I've got the NR616 and love it. I love all the features and it works perfectly but understand that it does indeed have arc. There were a lot of complaints about the 616 but understand that Onkyo has a 40% market share of the AVR market and so you are going to hear a whole lot more complaints compared to the other brands with fractional market share. Plus of course they've corrected with several firmware updates. I am currently using ARC to stream netflix from my tv through the AVR. It actually even has an ARC indicator that lights up when it is receiving the ARC signal. You just have to turn it on in the set up menu and do a soft reboot of the 616 and it works perfectly. Be aware some smart tv's won't output 5.1 from their onboard apps (ie Samsung Smart Hub) and so you could be stuck with 2 channel which is insane to me. I was only lucky that my new tv does output 5.1 from the apps since I didn't even think about that when purchasing. BTW part of my system is the Energy Take 5.1 system that is connected to zone 1. Energy Takes sound decent for the money and considering the room I have them in has 20 foot ceilings.

I shopped high and low for an AVR and had intended to spend a lot more money but the 616 was just too compelling for the insanely low price. My only beef that is a beef with most mid and even higher end avr's is that you can't pass digital sources to zone 2 or zone 3. There's some work arounds but I'd have had to spend a lot more money to get this to work. I'm building a 3 zone whole house system now and have 2 zones so far. Whole house audio in an old construction is insanely time consuming and difficult to accomplish. I'd like to be able to press whole house mode when watching a football game and not miss the action when I am going from room to room. As it is then I can just use the second HDMI out (extraordinalrily rare) and just connect it to the kitchen tv and so at least don't miss what's happening on the main tv when I walk into the kitchen like when I'm watching a movie.

The 616 is almost too good to be true for the money plus the wireless dongle is 20 bucks on sale and you can plug it into one of the two (again rare) usb ports. Take a look at the youtube video that compares the 616 to some other avr's. Even the 616's boards are better quality plus it has a large cooling fan or at least so says the reviews.

Thank you both for your replies. I ended up getting the NR616 and unfortunately not getting any signal from the receiver through the inputs. I upgraded the firmware still not working.

I am waiting for a replacement from amazon now, hopefully the second one will not be a dud. In the meantime i picked up the Harman Kardon AVR 1710, this one is working fine for cable, but i cannot hook up my PS3 in full HD, apparently could be some sort of HDCP handshake issue. PS3 will play full HD 1080p when directly connected to the TV, but through the receiver will play only 480p.

Am I doing something wrong that two AV receivers are not working properly? Sorry as mentioned before total newbie.

hope to hear from you thanks!

 

[3zones]

Thank you both for your replies. I ended up getting the NR616 and unfortunately not getting any signal from the receiver through the inputs. I upgraded the firmware still not working.

I am waiting for a replacement from amazon now, hopefully the second one will not be a dud. In the meantime i picked up the Harman Kardon AVR 1710, this one is working fine for cable, but i cannot hook up my PS3 in full HD, apparently could be some sort of HDCP handshake issue. PS3 will play full HD 1080p when directly connected to the TV, but through the receiver will play only 480p.

Am I doing something wrong that two AV receivers are not working properly? Sorry as mentioned before total newbie.

hope to hear from you thanks!

Did you try Onboard (Pandora and the rest that are built in), HDMI and analog sources? The set up was really pretty straight forward. The only trick I encountered is that when using the ARC function on the 616, you have to do a one time soft reboot (unplug) the 616 and then sound will be output also have to shut the tv off one time. There are a few things that could be set wrong in the set up that could cause this but it would be unlikely that no sound from any of the sources would be heard. While it is a midlevelish avr, it has functionality of far more expensive units and so not the easiest if you didn't do some homework ahead of time. Just kills me to hear people have issues since I'm using the heck out of mine in a bunch of different ways and it just works like it is supposed to.