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Audioholics overviews entry level receiver choices
Take one sagging economy, add in advancing technology, bake them with some economies of scale and serve up to consumers hungry for this newfangled digital, HD AV craze -- it's a winning formula. When it comes to AV receivers, however, the pool is so crowded that picking a winner in the entry level category (remember that sagging economy) is daunting enough to push people to HTIB simplicity. The truth is that there's no single "best" entry-level receiver, but Audioholics has gone through the trouble of putting appropriate models from Denon, Yamaha, Harman Kardon, Onkyo and Pioneer into a feature comparison grid. The answer that emerges on which receiver is the "best" is a definite "it depends" -- you basically get to pick two out of three: audio features, video features and price. So the bad news is, you've got some choices to make; the good news is, you've got some choices to make.
Harman Kardon intros AVR 354, AVR 254 and AVR 154 receivers
If you were wondering yesterday how a peripheral could be bundled in with an unreleased item, we've got your answer today. The Bridge II, which was unveiled less than a day ago, will indeed be packaged with the AVR 354 receiver, which was introduced more recently alongside the AVR 254 and AVR 154. The 354 / 254 are both 7.1-channel units, with the former packing 75-watts per channel and the latter 50-watts per channel; the 154 is a 5.1 device with 30-watts per channel. You'll also find HDMI 1.3a capability, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding (top two only) and a new graphical on-screen menu. Price wise, the AVRs will set you back $899, $649 and $399, respectively, and while the first two are available now, the 154 won't arrive until July. Oh, and for you stereo lovers out there, the HK 3490 (2 x 120W) and HK 3390 (2 x 80W) are all new as well.[Via Digital Trends] %Gallery-24032%
