AVR45 is a top-notch product

Author's Rating:

Pros: Very crisp sound, nice remote, lots of features for price

Cons: Can be tricky to tune the machine to sound the best

The Bottom Line: 
If you can find a cheap AVR45, buy it, and don't look back. It is a great machine.

Author's Review
This was my first product that I bought from Ubid.com (see my review of Ubid). I was in the market for something to replace my worn out portable Sony cd player. I am not an audiophile but I appreciate fine sounding music. As a result I wanted to upgrade to a component system. My friend told me about the cheap prices on Ubid so I checked them out. I saw the AVR 45 and read about it's features. The Ubid description of the AVR sounded really good, so I checked around on the web. I came across audioreviews.com and read what others had to say about the AVR45. Out of about 40 opinions, a 5-6 were absolutely horrible. The major complaint was reliability. However, almost everyone said that the receiver sounded awsome, much better than more expensive machines. I figured I would role the dice and see what happened. Most Ubid products are refurbished, and so I thought that the problems people were having with their AVR's would be taken care of.

I went back to Ubid and scanned the auctions. I finally nailed one for $180. At this price I felt that I couldn't really go wrong. I eventually got the AVR and turned it on as soon as I got it. Everything worked. After almost 4 months, everything still works. How about the sound. Man, is it crisp and clear. Sooooo much better than my portable. There is no distortion or hissing at any volume level. In fact the louder the AVR is, the better it sounds. Plus, the dolby digital sounds killer with a DVD.

I think the only thing I don't like about it is the ease of adjustment. It is almost impossible to adjust the output of the individual speakers w/out the manual. Although I find the manual quite easy to understand. I attribute this problem to the fact that the remote is of the universal type. As a result, there are many buttons and one button can do more than one function. Other than this, the remote is really nice. Most basic functions are easy to understand and I found it easy to program the remote to the other parts of the system. Another cool thing about the remote is that it is a light button, which is very handy when watching a movie in the dark.

Overall, I find the AVR to be a great product. I would recommend it to someone looking for a decent dolby digital receiver. I has also been quite reliable for me. I see no problems with the h/k avr 45 and considering the price I paid for it, it is a darn steal.