Harman Kardon AVR7000 Product Information

JULY/AUGUST 2000

47

Harman Kardon

AVR 7000 Digital Surround Receiver

test report

BY DANIEL KUMIN

H

arman Kardon’s new flagship A/V

receiver, the AVR 7000, is one

deep product — and I mean that

literally. It’s no less than 20 inches

from front to back, which means

you’ll need some serious shelving

for it to sit on. Otherwise, it’s more or less

conventionally laid out, with a tall front

panel dominated by a multicolor display

and a single large volume knob. Its glossy

black-and-silver faceplate is handsome,

and its controls are conveniently arranged.

There are tone controls — something

you don’t see on all receivers these days —

plus a headphone jack. But the 7000’s

most interesting front-panel feature is one

you’re unlikely to notice without carefully

reading the manual: the front A/V input,

typically used for a camcorder or game

console, can be configured as an A/V

out-

put

instead, for convenient dubbing of any

selected source to a portable A/V or audio

recorder (like a MiniDisc or MP3 device).

You have to access a setup menu to make

this change (the receiver automatically

switches the connection back to input

mode when it’s turned off), and an adjacent

LED turns from green to red to indicate

that the output mode is engaged. It’s such a

handy idea, I can’t imagine why nobody

thought of it before — at least I’ve never

encountered it.

Harman Kardon has endowed the AVR

7000 with the usual bazillion-jack rear

panel, including four digital audio inputs,

two component-video inputs, and one com-

ponent output, which lets you switch two

high-quality A/V sources like a DVD play-

er and a DTV tuner. Linked pre-out/line-in

jack pairs for all five channels plus a 5.1-

channel line input for an outboard decoder

or multichannel DVD-Audio or SACD

player earn the AVR 7000 an A grade in fu-

ture-proofing. It carries most of the other

usual flagship receiver features as well,

leading with the high-performance ampli-

fier section I’ve come to expect from Har-

man Kardon’s top models.

The AVR 7000 has an unusual arrange-

ment of setup options. You can set certain

defaults independently for each input to be

recalled automatically every time the cor-

responding source is selected. The defaults

PHOTOS BY TONY CORDOZA

fast facts

RATED POWER

100 W x 5 into 8 ohms

from 20 Hz to 20 kHz with less than 0.07%

THD, channels driven individually

DIMENSIONS

17

3

/

8

inches wide, 7

5

/

8

inches high, 20

1

/

2

inches deep

WEIGHT

49 pounds

PRICE

$1,799

MANUFACTURER

Harman Kardon,

Dept. S&V, 250 Crossways Park Dr.,

Woodbury, NY 11797; phone, 800-422-8027;

Web, www.harmankardon.com

Harman Kardon AVR7000 Product Information

Harman Kardon AVR7000 Manual

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