Gadgetory

hey I'm Matthew Muscovy AK from C net and we're taking a look at the Harman Kardon AVR 1610 this is a slim 5.1 receiver with built-in bluetooth but selling for $400 the AVR 1610 just plain looks nicer than almost any other AV receiver on the market instead of the traditional big and boxy design it has a polished look with smooth corners that manages to pull off a glossy black finish that doesn't look tacky it's also a good deal slimmer than your typical AV receiver and it's remarkably light at just 10 pounds it's not quite as slim as miranne so slim line models but it's pretty close the remote isn't nearly as well designed the fatal flaw are the extremely tiny volume buttons which doesn't make any sense since you're always using the modern AV receiver it ends up being consistently tough to find those buttons especially in a dark home theater so it's a frustrating clicker to live with for features the Harman appear is pretty good on the spec sheet on the back there are five HDMI inputs including an MHL compatible input which is certified Roku ready for Roku streaming stick there's an Ethernet port for networking although note that you cannot update the firmware using that port and only internet radio and DLNA are supported there are no other streaming services the real standout is the AVR 1610 has built-in Bluetooth which is particularly nice for a $400 receiver or at least it would be nice if it worked a little better instead of automatically switching inputs when you pair it with the Bluetooth device the Harman forces you to load an on-screen menu go to the source select screen and then choose Bluetooth every time you want to stream there's not even a dedicated Bluetooth button on the remote so you're forced to use the on-screen menus that defeats a lot of the convenience of Bluetooth in the first place and other Bluetooth friendly receivers don't have the same problem including Sony's excellent STR DN 840 which costs only $50 more and adds Wi-Fi and airplay we also had resident audio file steve guttenberg give the I'm going to listen and he was a little underwhelmed for one the AVR sixteen tens automatic speaker calibration ended up setting the subwoofer much too loud to the point where the subwoofer was audibly distorting and even after we manually tweak the settings it didn't have quite the punch or poise of the similarly priced Marantz in our 1403 which overall sounded better especially at louder volumes and so ultimately the AVR 1610 ended up feeling a bit like an underachiever especially after we live with it for a bit there's a great look and on paper the features are good but altogether it just doesn't work as well as you want it to in practice I'm Matthew moscovia and this is the Harman Kardon AVR 1610