Receivers

Audiotomb, Got bow? Are you playing with anybody? What do you play? The picture of your fiddle makes it almost look plastic, it's not is it?

What happen to Harman Kardon products???

They use to make nice products but now they make really wimpy receivers. Even their top of the receiver line AVR 3550HD. It's rated at 7 x 75W. The AVR 3550HD is not a bad looking receiver but the specs are awful I think!

as has often been stated, an ht receiver's power specs are hugely misleading because there is no established standard for how they're published. since most consumers buy on the basis of claimed power ratings, many manufactuturers claim power ratings based only on one or two channels driven (or on the basis of all channels driven at some ridiculously high distortion level). i had a yamaha htr which claimed 100w x 5; when i read the actual lab-tested specs, it actually produced 40w with all channels driven in real-world conditions.
hk, nad, rotel and some others are much more scrupulous about their power ratings--that 75w/ch hk unit may in reality have more oomph than some japanese-branded unit claiming 130w. i would look closely at actual bench test results (frequently published in sound and vision et al) and at the dynamic headroom rating, which is a better indicia of how the receiver will actually perform. my nad integrated, for example, is rated at "only" 50w x 2, but goes to 180w for short transient bursts and never lacks for power.
all that said, if you like the hk i wouldn't be dissuaded on the basis of its printed specs.

Loomisjohnson, very good advice as I did not know about power rating. It looks like electronic manufacturers display a very misleading information for consumer.

I suppose most of us will never know what you are really getting unless you are a sound engineer and full equiptment to test out your new purchase.

I have tried to do a search on a lot of receivers but not successful at finding a website that do a full testing. Does anyone know a website that does full tech tests on home audio gear?

Manta -

you've got to poke around a bit but this one is as good as any of them:

http://www.avsforum.com/

BTW the whole rating game is one of the reasons that a lot of us are doing separates - get a pre/pro with the features you want, and then get whatever amp floats your boat - anthem has a sweet one that comes up here on the Gon for $750 or so - and there is NuForce, Pass, Krell, Butler and on and on.

There is some additional cost in a set of ICs to connect the two, and an additional power cord but chances are very good that you will end up with superior sound.

I personally think that it will be at least 5 years before the current standards evolve enough that you will even begin to consider changing out the pre/pro.

The big factor is that the movie studios are very slow in releasing material that even takes advantage of the current technology. And a lot of it, like deep color, has not even been implemented. Classic chicken and the egg - the studios are waiting to see consumer demand, consumers are waiting for something they can buy...

Point being that the only reason to upgrade from todays standards will be because the content you want is only available in a new, demonstrably superior format. My bet is they are still selling DVDs in five years...

I am equally sure that you will be buried with a good amp...