Hello all- My wife and I just moved from our cozy apartment to a new condo. I made an impulse purchase and bought and HK7300 to replace my Yamaha RX V2400.

In listing my other equipment below and my room specs, do you think the HK will tame some of the highs that are produced by the Axioms in our new room:

Here is the setup:

2xM60
1xVP150
2x QS8
1xEP500

Now for the room. It is 29ft Long, by 13.5 feet wide, and 10 feet high. It is ALL Hardwoods which is creating a fairly bright environment. We do have a large shag are rug that runs the length of the plane of the fronts all the way to the primary listening postion.

With the Yamaha currently hooked up, the movie peformance is great; however, music is good, but the room is adding to the highs.

If I take the time to unhook the Yamaha (not excited about that), do you think the HK7300 will help tame the axiom/hardwood combo at all? It seems like around here that HK is thought to pair w/Axioms better than some of the Yamahas.

Thanks for any guidance.

P.S.- THE SUB CRAWL THING TOTALLY WORKS!!!!!!!! WOW What a difference for 5.1.

No. The only difference you'll likely hear is that the H/K may sound louder or quieter at a given volume setting than the Yamaha. Assuming the tone controls are off or set to neutral, neither should be brighter or duller than the other.

the hardware is not the issue, it is the room, the room that you have your audio equiptment in has a larger impact than any of the equiptment it self.. so they say on many other websites. you could try the rug like you said, or other cloth room treatments on the walls, mabe hang a rug on the wall? mabe someone else will give some more help soon.

I don't think changing receivers will make much difference re: taming the highs. IMO the "some receivers sound brighter than others" is a red herring -- although I do think a really good amplifier stage can make a difference in tighter, more solid bass in some cases which probably makes the overall sound seem a tiny bit less bright.

I hate to say this, but leaving the 7300's box and packing foam around the room would probably make more difference

BTW, I'm not saying that the 7300 wouldn't be an improvement, just that I don't think it would improve that specific issue.

I do recall reading (from Alan) that although the amp stage might not make a difference in sound there could be a perceived difference in sound due to the preamp section of the different receivers.

I do agree with everyone else though that the room has the biggest effect on what you hear.

I would give the 7300 a try. I used to have a 7200 and loved it. Fantastic sound, great power.

Go for it!!!

Kris, at first I thought you might be referring to a room equalization provision(which the 7300 doesn't have), but some other replies interpret your question to mean some mysterious inherent quality that one receiver has(the "warm" HK compared to the "bright" Yamaha?). If so, mythologies like this have floated around for years but have no factual basis and are total nonsense. Both of these receivers are audibly flat and transparent, but as you say, on some source material that has highs emphasized your room may not be absorbing them as much as a typical listening room would. As has already been said, adding more soft absorbant material may be of benefit, but the 7300 can't help.

I can't say what caused the different sound I heard between my old Yamaha and my present HK, but I feel it has something to do with the fact that the HK has adjustable crossovers, vs the your stuck with it Yamaha. I know that the HK was set at 100 from the factory and it didn't sound much different from my Yamaha. Setting it lower has made quite a difference in perceived sound to my ears. It could be some kind of weird psychological, sonic, placebo effect. Maybe my hearing has simply gotten used to what music should really sound like. This is a totally out in left field stab in the dark.

probably more mid bass in the room, so you dont notice the highs as much as you did with your last reciever. did you set your cross over point at 80hz?

I have the crossovers set at 80. The system is in the same exact location as before.