Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Which receiver HK,Denon,NAD?????

It's just H/K tests their amps with all channels driven and not all companies do that.Check out this site and you will see H/K is one of few that tests out true to what the ratings claim.

I have often wondered that myself. I guess part of the answer is that they don't have any trouble selling a lot of product even with the conservative specs they have.

One answer is that HK rates with all channels driven to full power at the same time; most other brands rate with only two channels at full power. HK does have "stereo" power ratings with only two channels driven -- those are typically 20% higher than the "all channels driven" rating but that still seems conservative compared to what the receivers can do.

I have seen "power vs distortion" curves in magazine reviews for HK and other receivers -- unfortunately I didn't pay enough attention to them at the time. What I do remember is that the HK receivers had a bit of a different shape from most -- the distortion line started to go up at lower power than other receivers, but went up quite a bit more slowly than most. The interesting thing was that if you cut off at, say, 0.5% distortion the HK actually put out MORE power than the comparably priced receivers even though if you cut off at 0.07% the HK produced less power.

I'm guessing this means higher power supply voltages on the HK (might explain why they idle hot) but that really is just a guess.

I read the Output portion of that matrix on the link you gave me correct? If so, it seems H/K actually outputs more wattage than they advertise (per channel).

However I do appreciate this matrix, because it really helped me in my decision cycle of Denon vs. H/K as the stats for this particular test show Denon way over H/K for noise/distortion etc.

Glad to to have helped.

>>Check out this site and you will see H/K is one of few that tests out true to what the ratings claim.

Wow. That should be required reading for everyone buying an HT system. I liked the Sony comment -- "the manufacturer advised that their product is not designed to provide full power into all channels simultaneously"

My vote goes to the Harman if you're doing strictly 5.1 movies. If you're going 6.1 or 7.1 I'd go for the Denon because it has superior processing for multichannel matrixing.

In my history with NAD...I wasn't as impressed as I was hoping I'd be because I really wanted to buy one.

I owned an H/K, my friend has owned two Denons and I've demoed NADs. That is the basis for my recommendations.

Also I've owned a Sony and Yamaha. Yammys sound kind of sterile to me, not bright, sterile. And Sony will blow up on you unless you get a higher end model. Stay away from the bottom dwellers. I had mine go in for repairs 3 times and it was a $600 model from Best Buy.

Good luck!