In reply to:
I have heard Axiom with both Yamaha htr-5250 and harman kardon avr-320. No contest, Harman Kardon win hands down...
I have absolutely no intension to belittle H/K or blurb about Yamaha (I don't own either brand), but whenever I see a report like this one, I immediately start to suspect that the two receivers were not set up carefully and identically, or one of them were calibrated wrong or actually defective. There CANNOT be this much sonic difference between two "decent" receivers of today.
Incidentally, according to my own relatively brief auditions of various Yamaha receivers ($1000-ish MSRP and up) at the dealers, the "brightness" of the brand is unfounded, period. Yes, it's an internet legend IMO. Yamaha and H/K receivers are both just "neutral" to my ears.
