A look back at the Beast that was the H/K AVR 7000
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- Опубліковано 5 кві 2024
- A nostalgic look at my old reference Home Theater receiver. The AVR 7000 was a powerhouse of a unit. As tested by several magazines of the day the unit, while rated at 110 WRMS x 5, it actually delivered 131 WRMS (ALL CHANNELS DRIVEN!) at 8Ω and 161 WRMS at 4Ω.
"Designed as the engine for the digital entertainment systems of today and tomorrow, H/K proudly unveils their new AVR7000. Following the H/K tradition of "performance first", the new AVR7000 receiver provides unparalleled performance for the most critical listener. Each Harman/Kardon receiver is designed with the same high-current capability and ultrawide-bandwidth design criteria of the flagship Signature series, and the AVR7000 is the ultimate expression of that goal."
Current audio equipment list:
Cambridge AXR-100 Receiver 100 WRMS. (“B” stock)
Schiit Bi-Frost 4490 DAC, which has been upgrade with Multi-Bit and Unison USB. (“B” stock)
Schiit Lokius EQ (“B” stock)
Schiit Mani Phono Pre. (“B” stock)
Loxjie D-30 DAC just for DSD decoding
Elac Debut 2.0 F-62 Speakers with minor mods, i.e., I removed the grill over the tweeter and added damping material and “No-Rez” to the cabinet.
Fluance RT-84 turntable. I ditched the Ortofon 2M Blue for the Audio Technica AT540ML. The Ortofon sounded ok but the AT cart is really on another level.
All line level cables are from Worlds Best Cable. I primarily use Mogami 2964 Wire and Amphenol ACPL connectors. I also have a few of the Canare L-4E6S, Star Quad, Audio Interconnect Cables with Amphenol ACPR Gold RCA Connectors. I like them both. I started with Mogami as almost very recording studio and arena size system use that brand.
My speaker wires are from Phoenix Gold. About 35 years ago they used to make/market 10 AWG for 9s cooper speaker cable. It is about ¾” in diameter. I have been using them for that long and love their sound.
Miscellaneous items include a small format PC (Core i5, 8GB of RAM & a 256GB internal storage. I also have a remote controlled line level switcher so I can run all my source components through the Lokius.
Tidal Playlists: The Fahrenheit Project (ambient electronic music): tidal.com/browse/playlist/69c...
Electronica for Audiophile: tidal.com/browse/playlist/e29...
My Classical playlist: tidal.com/browse/playlist/8e5...
Baroque Weekend: tidal.com/browse/playlist/cfe...
DJ Ed, a collection of music that is all over the place. tidal.com/browse/playlist/f89...
Spotify: Classical Weekend: open.spotify.com/playlist/648...
80’s Patio Mix: open.spotify.com/playlist/4RU...
Hey everybody! I hope you get a kick out of this nostalgic look back on this HK receiver. Please like and subscribe. Thanks for the views.
Thank you for this video.i love the old school HK amps,even the silver faced amps, especially the ones with the long vertical buttons.
I agree. The series up to 1983 had that look. I had an old HK 690i that was styled like that. Thank you for your view.
Gorgeous unit!!!! I get all warm and fuzzy when I see chunky toroidal transformers!!!!! I bet that would sound awesome for a 2.1 setup!!!! Love it!!!!
Ramon my friend. I hope you are well. It did sound awesome for 2.1 but, in all honesty it was voiced for home theater. With that transformer you could just about jump start your car. I will say my Cambridge is a bit smoother and more detailed. Thanks for watching.
I'm a Harman Kardon fan boy. My wife surprised me with a PM-650 integrated amp in 1984 and in 2000 I bought an HK-3370 stereo receiver. I have them both and love them.
The PM650 was a true beast. I had PM665Vxi for a while. They were great units in their day. I appreciate your view and sharing your love of HK.
Good review, to technical for me... I still have this beast, even if the 5.1 doesn't work anymore I use it as a Stereo amplifier in a spare room. Wonderfull unit.
Hippomene, Sorry if it was too geeky. I am an audio nerd. Glad you can still use the unit for something. Thanks for viewing and commenting.
The top of the line 8500 is fantastic picked one up for about £50 a few years back working flawlessly...
What a great deal. Unfortunately I never got a chance to hear/play with the 8500. I bet it was great. Thanks for watching.
Proud owner of the 7200 since 2003. The only issue now is the centre speaker channel is distorted. Not alot folks that are willing to venture into fixing older units. Still works however minus the centre. Vocals when watching movies are mixed to the front now. I configured the unit to set the centre off.
And oh yeah, Over 60lbs. Not easy to move around.
My left channel went out. My guy won't fix it so.... Thanks for tuning in and commenting.
What a treasure! Congratulations!
Thanks so much. I appreciate your stopping by.
I have the HK AVR 330, glad to see the big brother
Nice unit. Thanks for tuning in.
I know they aren`t the same receiver but I was on Facebook marketplace and saw a Harman Hardon AVR 130 that was in damn near mint condition for a mere $50 and I just had to have it!
Wow! What a great deal. I hope you are enjoying it. Thanks for watching and sharing your comment.
@@OldGuyHifi Yeah, not long ago I got tired of the soundbar sound and wanted to go back to the stereo 2.1 glory days, and I bought a Sony STRDH190 receiver with speakers and subwoofer, but I think the Harman Kardon has a cleaner better sound to it and maybe I should move the Sony to my home office instead and make it my secondary setup.
Wow, what a transformer! Have to get three neighbor kids over to help move it? I can't think of any current systems that are as powerful or flexible. Of course my knowledge is extremely limited as my eyes glaze over when the sticker price goes much higher than 2K. Thank you so much for sharing, and I would love to hear more about you and HK as well as your technical knowledge about what really matters in gear (as we all know, VU makes the sound sweeter 😊).
Thank you Chris. It is one heavy SOB. I am going to do a history, kind of a "Whatever happened to..." sort of thing. It might be a while what with AXPONA this week. Thanks again my friend.
OMG! I'm going to Axpona too. I sure hope that I'll run into audio royalty, aka Old Guy Hi-Fi
OMG! Does that makes us BFFs?
Cool!
I know I am, but what are you?
Thanks for this video , as an ADCOM Fan please bring us more video like this , I am looking now for a vintage HK or NAD . Regards from ISRAEL
If I can get my hands on more gear, I will. I used to have a GFA-545. Great amp designed by Nelson Pass. I hope you and your family are safe. Thanks so much.
@@OldGuyHifi Thanks a lot we are safe, I have the GFA 545 MK2 and the 555 MK2 and the GFP 565 preamplifier Thay are great sounding amps. They are both in mint condition. I will sub to your channel. Have a great day
Great gear. I am jealous!
Ed, Thanks for the Blast from the Past. They definitely don't make them like they used to.
Thank you for the kind words. No, that was different era. Now you have to spend a chunk of change to get that kind of build quality.
Just FYI, it had a 6 channel input for outboard processing. At that time, DVD, DIVX were battling formats. Dolby Digital and DTS were duking it out as well. Certain DVD players had surround sound processors built into them. That's what the 6 channel input was used for.
I did mess that up. Thank you for the correction. I need all the help I can get!
@@OldGuyHifi Honestly, it was such a failed attempt by manufacturers to "future proof". Nobody really used it. Especially if you already had a processor built in. So no need to worry about messing that detail up.
Thank you.
Bout week ago found AVR 5550, still has both remotes and works. For 25 eur I,m quite happy.
Not as big as 7000 but still 20kg/1070W so quite a monster.
That's great. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for commenting and for tuning in.
@@OldGuyHifi So far love it (using as main amp for now).
I somewhat collect amps/old audio equipment and from ones I have, its my second favorite so far.
Used Luxman L-405 for 12 years or so and after old Luxman, other amps sound bit off. Don't really want to mess with Lux to much nowadays, its rather old and if something dies... these are one of harder ones to repair or figure out what kind rocket science was used to make it work :)
Good point about Luxman. It seems like most gear these days is considered disposable rather than repairable. Shame. Luxman gear was so very good up until Alpine Car Audio bought them in the 90's but, it looks like their current owner, IAG is letting them get back to their roots. It just so expensive now.
Ooops.... I think that because you popped the top of the case off, you might have violated your warranty!. ( lol ) Looks new inside.... clean.
You mean the warranty doesn't last 34 years. Crap I got ripped off. It was in a rack for years. Thank you for your view and funny comment.
I got one, not using it currently but its great. Have repaired it because capacitors dries out and voltage regulators in the bottom of unit gets superhot
I have the full service manual and service bulletins for the 7000 if you need them Let me know.
HA. I have one of those. Had to switch it out because of HDMI only Monitors. Now have a Marantz.
I totally get it. I got around it by routing my HDMI equipment directly to the TV and then running an optical out f the TV into the AVR7000. That worked great for years. I also love Marantz. You may have noticed the photo on my channel home page is an old Marantz Class A integrated. Back in the day we were pretty big Marantz dealers. Thanks for the view and comment.
Just add a modern surround processor and presto! The electronics may be outdated, but a huge torroidal and 2x 22000 μF sure isn't. I'll have an eye out for one to plug in my same-era Infinity Kappa 600 set.
Great suggestion. The Kappa's are great speakers. I met Arnie just after Harman bought Infinity. Smart guy. I have gone back to my roots of 2 channel only. The HK has a channel out and I am planning on getting fixed and then moving it on to someone new. I have a strong sentimental attachment to it though. Thanks for the view and comment.
@@OldGuyHifi The AVR 335 was my gateway actually., together with a set of small Beta's that are still being used as surrounds. Since I got the 600's (€100 each, killer) I'm lusting for a HK 990. Funny how a AVR 7000 can be had for under €300 whereas the HK 990 is about a grand. End of an era, befor cringing started. Thank you sir, most informative. Subbed.
The 990 is an awesome unit. I had a demo unit for about a year and it drove a pair of Wilson Watts & Puppies with authority even with that famous 1.6 Ω dip in impedance at the X-over point. They are going for about a grand here as well. It would be great to re-visit one of those.
I had one, it was great but went separates after that, was better sound but more work to get to it
I understand. Yes, separates would be better for the purest sound. Compared to the competition these did perform much better. Thank you for your comment and view.
I own 2:)
I agree that they went down hill badly!! But have you seen the avr8000 or the hk990, the 990 is absolutely beautiful.
I had a demo 990 for about a year. It was awesome and I miss it. Thanks for your comments and views.
Serviced them. Giant toaster ovens. No fan cooling was a big mistake. Look at the layers of circuit boards with the power supply smack dab on the bottom. When they showed up for service, all the capacitors had changed value, regulators had been toasted, and I was faced with changing hundred of parts. From my perspective it was the biggest pile of junk that ever graced my bench and the Pioneer SX-1250 was the best of the best.
Thank you. Curiously, I never had any heat issues. Maybe I didn't notice. It does have a channel out. I am not sure that "biggest pile of junk" is the right description. Then again, we all have our own opinions. Thanks again. Maybe you could fix it? LOL.
@@OldGuyHifi I swore those things off. I won't repair anything but American made pro audio now. That channel out could well be a cap that finally opened up. In fairness, Sansui, Sony, and Fisher made their fair share of electronic garbage back in the day, and HK did make some good equipment, when it was made in the USA and Japan. HK left our service shop high and dry, like all the major manufacturers. Towards the end you should have seen the bone yard of abandoned AVR7000's. Nobody wanted to pay for three days labor. Lol
I totally get what you are saying. I saw the decline first hand. It's a shame.
@@musicsoundelectronics5590in
I have a Harman/Kardon AVR 230 7.1 Receiver, I'm not sure how it rated.
The 230 was a fine unit. Very powerful in 2 channel and decent in surround. It can produce up to ±35 amps of "High Instantaneous Current" which is better than almost any other 65 WRMS unit. I bet it sounds great. Thanks for commenting and for your view.
@@OldGuyHifi The 230 has 4 speakers a woofer and centre speaker. It came as a package. The 4 corner speakers are on stands as well. I also bough a Harman/Kardon 430 new a long time ago. It's also mint and works great.
AVR7000 was rather unreliable, sounded ok, but blew up when you drove it hard.
I had a totally different experience with mine. I used it hard for 30 years driving everything from Maggies to Martin Login, Wilson Watts & Puppies and Energy Verirtas first gens, and many others. I never had an issue. It does need service now but it is from caps dying from old age. You can see them leaking on the PC board. Thank you for your comment and view.
@@OldGuyHifi I worked for Harman back in the 00s, we had truckloads of unrepairable AVR7000 we had to scrap.
I was unaware of that. Things were definitely changing at that time. I think that management going in the wrong direction. They were so focused on Harman Motive that HK was an after thought. Also, Dr. Harman was also close to retiring then. Moving production to China didn't help either.
I still run two , and no problems yet. my pair are still sounding great and running strong.
I have a video somewhere of an re audio sxx 18" driver being driven by one of these playing bass I love you and I can definitely say it is not driving them hard that kills them, shamefully! When i was younger I used to use the center channel to drive subwoofers and it worked so well that i did it for years and yes i even ran it 2ohms( now i run a crown cts1200 on the subs).. oh yeah the amp still works greak:)
the caps that makes these amplifiers stop working are on the processing board so your safe to run them full blast as long as your processing boards are good