Harman/kardon AVR 340 7.1 channel Receiver

The good:
It sounds amazing. Plenty of inputs for optical and coax. I was afraid the 55 watts would not be enough, but it plays really loud. I need to turn it up pretty loud -15 to really get to play loud, but once I pass that threshold it seems to get REALLY loud, really fast. The sound is very clear.
Auto setup was pretty good. I am no engineer, but I checked my speaker manuals and the auto setup did a good job of getting the correct settings.
I replaced an old Kenwood VR-407 receiver that was 100w/channel and the AVR 340 seems just as loud, but also cleaner.
Receiver looks amazing. My wife loves the glowing blue volume knob.

The bad:
No HDMI. That doesn't bother me too much now, but it is the reason I rate this as a 4 instead of a 5.

The ugly: I had a problem with inputing a 480p source to the receiver. The TV would constantly drop the signal. 480i, 720p and 1080i all worked fine. I contacted HK and they said they were aware of the problem and it was supposed to be fixed on all refurbished models. They are sending me another one as a replacement.

This receiver looks great and is very heavy but looks is not all that matters to me like with some.I am replacing a 1995 radioshack brand(Optimus) with this receiver and i really thought i was going to be blown away by this receiver.My old receiver was rated at 250 watts RMS(R/L 2x50watts center 1x100 surround 2x25).It is the standard pro-logic which was the best back in 1995 when i brought it.I was running a non-powered subwoofer from the receiver also(using the A/B speaker setup) and it had speaker outputs for 2 satellites speakers, so i did have 7 speaker setup ,just not the lastest decoding method for the 7 speaker sound field.When i got this receiver for $255 off ebay, i also ordered a powered subwoofer due to the new 7.1 decoding called for it now.I hooked everything up like it said and used the EZsetup to contour the sound just right but i used the EZsetup as just a guide to help me adjust my sound.the EZ will adjust to were the speakers can be turned down to a negative level and causing you to turn the volume up past -20 to here a movie clear,but if you see where EZ sets the speaker adjustment you can tweek it yourself to give you more volume.EZ had my front right set for -2 and my front left for 0 and the center for -1.what i did is used that that as a guide and made my Front right a +4 and made the left +6 and the center +5(it goes to +10) and this way they are still tuned to handle the difference in space and delay times but they will play louder.Now i have to say i dont notice that much of a difference between the old receiver and this one besides a little cleaner but i think that has to do with no bass boost!I always kept my bass boost on and they said that is why they dont have one.One other problem i have been having is the "logic 7" that they use to decode with seems to go out and then puts it in a "hall" effect and it will stay like that untill i turn off surround and then turn it back on. In the middle of a movie that can be annoying.My verdict is in now and i would say if you can get one on ebay for under $300 it is worth it,but do not pay retail for this receiver.Now i have only had it 2 months now and i am still learning things about it so dont take my word as gospel,but coming from a 1995 radioshack brand receiver, i just thought i would be blown away by the power and sound of this newer receiver.I did give it "good" because it is just that , a good receiver! Now if you paid the $699 it sells for new and you have had other high current receivers with more watts(high current watts) then you will be dissapointed.But it sounds like most people who brought this are like me and are just upgrading from a lower line receiver, which most of those lower class units over rated their power ratings to start with.So if you had a sony (or anything along that line)that was 100x7 then it probally was really doing what this thing does 55x7(RMS) so that is why you wont be blown away by the power of it or it wont really play louder than your older one ,but will play cleaner.I hope this has helped! i wasted my time to do this because i noticed people really wasn't explaining the whole situation to really help a person who knows about home audio.A person who is buying there first receiver could enjoy most of these reviews,but a expert like myself would need alittle more to go on,hence my review! Enjoy and merry christmas!!