Overall opinions on Harman Kardon

I've owned a lot of HK over the years and over the past 5-10 years, the quality has started to wane. I have an 880Vxi as the guts for my spare system and I still believe the CD-491 was one of the best, if not the best, cassette decks ever...and I was someone who owned and loved my Nakamichi CR-7a.

I've always thought HK is a good sound value but have never been sold on overall reliability and quality control over the years.

I'll take Citation tube stuff you can have ALL the rest.

ET

I have heard two recently-made receivers and although they weren't cheap models, they sounded like it. They lacked definition in the treble and midrange and that messed everything up. They sure looked good though! Ultimately I had my friend get a Marantz receiver in the same price range instead and the sound was significantly better. I forget the model numbers, sorry.

Arthur

I recently listened in as someone auditioned a pair of Maggies running of an HK A/V receiver. It sounded perfectly fine. Didn't get to a/b it against other amps though.