48
STEREO REVIEW’S
SOUND & VISION
include speaker size, surround mode, and
digital or analog source (the four digital in-
puts can each be assigned to any source).
The remaining key parameters — crossov-
er frequency (80, 90, or 100 Hz), relative
channel levels, and center- and surround-
channel delays — are also individually set
and remembered, but in this case by sur-
round mode, not source. In other words,
the parameters stay the same whether you
use, say, the Pro Logic surround mode for
a CD or a videotape program, though the
speaker-size setting might change between
inputs.
This arrangement provides tremendous
flexibility in setting up and fine-tuning
your system, but in all honesty, I found it
more than a little confusing at first, and the
manual didn’t help too much. And while
the AVR 7000 deserves kudos for storing
relative channel levels independently by
surround mode, it loses points for not hav-
ing separate “user trims” for each channel.
When you tweak the center-channel level
by a couple of decibels, this change is add-
ed to or subtracted from the setup level for
that mode, making it more difficult to re-
turn to your calibrated defaults.
All that aside, the AVR 7000’s sonic per-
formance was rarely anything less than su-
perb. The amount of clean output power
was exemplary in both stereo and surround
playback, and Dolby Digital and DTS
soundtracks both yielded top-shelf perfor-
mance. Even the densest mixes of music,
sound effects, and dialogue, such as those
throughout the elaborate Dolby Digital
soundtrack of Jumanji, failed to trip up this
receiver. It always produced detailed, clear,
and effortless sound, even when I drove the
system to cinemalike levels — and even
without the aid of a powered subwoofer.
Full-range (no subwoofer) playback of
stereo CDs over my low-sensitivity left/
right front speakers was open and dynam-
ic, especially with obsessively detailed
productions like Steely Dan’s Two Against
Nature. This receiver delivered perfor-
mance that I would have expected only
from a separate preamp and power amp.
Like many A/V receivers these days, the
AVR 7000 includes a virtual surround
mode meant to simulate the effect of multi-
channel playback with just two speakers.
But unlike most such processing, Harman
Kardon’s VMAx worked stunningly well.
It’s the first virtual surround system I’ve
used that actually had me getting up to
make sure the surround speakers really
weren’t producing any sound. In my room,
to hear the effect I had to sit precisely cen-
tered between the front left/right speakers
and keep my head steady — even turning it
to one side caused the surround sound to
collapse. But at its best it was nothing less
than astonishing. The final audio vortex in
Jumanji’s
penultimate
sequence real-
ly spun three-di-
mensionally. Even
tougher, the multi-
lingual five-speaker
“cocktail-party effect”
from the original Dolby
Labs test/demo DVD hon-
estly seemed to be coming
from five distinct origination
points.
Nevertheless, since anyone who
buys a $1,799 receiver is presumably
planning to buy (or already has) a good
5.1-channel speaker system as well, the
mind-blowing VMAx processing counts as
more of a “because we could” gesture than
a “because you need it” one.
The AVR 7000 does feature a handful of
“extra” ambience modes using digital sig-
nal processing, including one Theater and
two Hall modes, but the headliner is called
Logic 7, which comes in two flavors, Cine-
ma and Music. Derived from Lexicon’s
impressive 7.1-channel surround program
of the same name (Lexicon is also owned
by Harman International), the AVR 7000’s
Logic 7 is a 5.1-channel program that “. . .
extracts the maximum surround informa-
tion from either surround-encoded pro-
grams or conventional stereo material.”
Plenty of manufacturers have made the
same claim for their proprietary DSP proc-
essing, but Logic 7 delivers. Most stereo
music recordings I listened to with it en-
gaged opened up and sounded solidly three-
dimensional. There was far less of the
mono dominance that Pro Logic process-
ing often imposes on stereo recordings and
little or none of the timbral shifts that too
many other DSP modes induce.
test report
The Harman Kardon AVR 7000
capably handled
Jumanji ’s elaborate
Dolby Digital soundtrack —
stampeding elephants and all.
key features
●
Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic,
and HDCD decoding
●
5 DSP ambience modes, including
Cinema and Music
●
VMAx virtual surround and Logic 7 mode
●
Component-video switching
●
5.1-channel direct input
●
5-channel pre-out/main-in jacks
●
2 coaxial, 2 optical digital audio inputs
●
5 A/V inputs (front-panel set can be
switched to output)
●
2 audio-only analog inputs
●
1 optical, 1 coaxial digital audio output
●
Multiroom/multisource A/V outputs and
functions
●
Backlit preprogrammed/learning remote
●
30 AM/FM tuner presets
