Harman Kardon HK3380 Component Stereo Receiver
By: Harman Kardon Average Rating: 4.5 Total Reviews: 16
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 On: 2007-12-08
I have always been skeptical of the outrageous "wine connoisseur" type of reviews for high-end audio equipment, and lived for about 4 years with an entry-level, store-brand receiver from Best Buy and a pair of Wharfedale Anniversary 7 series speakers in my library. A friend was disposing of a pair of small HK speakers for $25 and I snapped them up. The sound was much improved, but still wasnt right, and I decided to upgrade to an HK 3380 receiver. The difference was like night and day. I listen to a lot of chamber music, and the sound of violins was particularly bad with the original setup. The HK combination provides crystal clear sound.
The unit I had gave off a "burn-in" kind of smell for several weeks after I installed it, but since then it has been fine.
 On: 2007-08-02
I conducted research for months on how to tie together my mess of media including a DVD player, VCR, old AR turntable, iPod, and TV. I have a sat/sub home made speaker system. The subwoofer is powered. This product seemed to fill the bill and I did not want to spring for all the $ to purchase a NAD or other higher priced models. I needed video switching too for the VCR and DVD and the NAD stereo receiver I considered did not have this feature or phono. The H/K 3380 ties eveything together with a nice sound signature, but no musical magic as my separates do. Phono preamp was a suprise, very good, but the linestage does lack that something special. The tuner was another suprise, as I am in a very bad FM locale, but the H/K pulls in everything and I dont have to set it on mono to get rid of noise. Overall, I think this product is a very good value. H/K needs to solve the iPod linkage issue for their stereo models. It looks nice with black and silver shelf mates too!
On: 2007-06-27
I use it only for instrumental classical music, mostly on FM radio. But what convinced me of its good sound was a Beethoven string quartet on a CD player. I seemed to be able to distinguish (better than I was used to)one string instrument from another playing simultaneously.
I had thought at first that it over-emphasized highs (sounded shrill) and was weak on lows. I soon decided I was just hearing the higher overtones Id been missing on our defunct receivers, 20 and 30 years old. And when the music contains lows, they come through richly.
FM station automatic presets worked fine, except that it didnt reject a few stations that dont really come in at all.
Controls on console and remote are labeled with tiny, faint lettering and no color-coding. Display is clear, though it would be sort of nice if it would show station and volume at the same time.
On: 2007-06-24
My first reason for looking at this unit was PHONO jacks! I have missed listening to my old vinyl tunes for so long! This unit was a replacement for a 20 yr old Technics unit, and it is great! Excellent sound, crisp, clean highs with my Polk speakers, and it has more than enough power to rock the house. I guess Im a bit old fashioned, but I just really dont need the fancy home theater system, and this recevier definitely fits the bill for me! I only wish that the printing on the remote had a bit more contrast for my aging old eyes... :-) EXCELLENT product!
On: 2007-06-16
my 70s pioneer finally died,this one has all the same features, turntable hook-up,simple to use and while it has a remote, you can actually walk up to it and hit a button and go. im not an audiophile purist but as far as sound quality it sounds great to me and powers some really heavy speakers well. the only draw back is that for some reason it smells like burned plastic initally, stinks up the whole room but after a few days it has started to subside. i recommend this particularly at this price
On: 2007-05-28
I purchased this receiver to replace my old HK model that worked well for 30 years. This model maintains the HK reputation. It easily supports my bookshelf system. My only complaint is the overly technical volume control.
On: 2007-05-21
What a great deal! I bought this unit to replace an old Harman Kardon PM645. The price of the 3380 was less than the repair estimate for the PM645.
We use it out in a little guest room that we have, hooked to a 90s Dennon CD changer and a trusty old pair of Advent 2002s.
Super good!
Very happy, I am...
On: 2007-05-16
this was just the reciever to go with my bose 901 series IV speakers I was able to plug the eq into the pre amp so that it worked with all the components
On: 2007-02-19
This is a quality stereo receiver! I got this for my mom with some new Polk Audio speakers and everything sounds great. I may have to get one for my bedroom!
On: 2007-02-07
I use this receiver for a couple of months now, for both stereo music and for home theather application. I am no fan of surround systems and all the cable mass, but I wanted a clear, powerful sound system when watching a DVD and satisfactory stereo music reproduction. I am really happy with 3380, it is powerful, easy to connect and has a dynamic sound.
I use a Harman Kardon HD 755 CD player as audio source and a Harman Kardon DVD 37 as a video source. I do not advise to use DVD player as an audio player, though HK presents the DVD 37 as DVD audio/video player with high quality 24 bit 192 kHz DACs, etc. When you play an audio CD, the sound of CD player is definetely better than Harman Kardon DVD 37 or the Samsung DVD player I had. I am planning to buy a HD 970 CD player for a future upgrade.
I just wish they used better connectors for speaker cables, they look a bit cheap, but hey, this receiver is a steal at this price.
On: 2007-01-18
I normally dont write reviews but this HK Receiver works great for our very basic system. We are not high tech stereo people, we just enjoy some background music off of our ipods and CDs.
Shipped on time, great price...highly recommend.
On: 2007-01-11
Im not an amplifier specialist but overall this receiver does a pretty good job. The sound is crispy and it has far enough power for my needs. The only reason I dont put 5 stars is that its not really good looking. But then thats pretty subjective...
On: 2007-01-10
I looked initially at the more powerful version of this, but ended up getting this one as the output wattage seemed to be plenty for the room it would be used in. Indeed, theres no problem getting it to pump out enough sound to a good old pair of Rectlinear bookshelf speakers, and the sound is great quality.
I got this for my dad as a gift to replace an old stereo he was using with one of the old school needle tuning dials for the radio and about 4 inputs. (The AUX was patched in through an external switchbox to handle DVD player, VCR, etc. Yucky mess. This replaced all that, enough inputs for everything.) Radio reception quality is MUCH better than the old stereo, very good over all. (Heck, even having a remote to adjust volume while watching a movie was a huge upgrade). He was also happy that it has a Phono input for the old vinyl records, even though no one listens to them very much these days.
The composite video switching also works great with a new 32" LCD HDTV. Do I regret that I didnt get one with component video switching also (bit higher quality for HD content)? Maybe I will in the future as more devices get component output, but this works great for now. Even with the composite video connection through the receiver, DVD picture quality is quite good.
My only complaints: the labels on the remote and on the input selection buttons on the front panel are unnecessarily hard to read as they are low contrast (dark grey on light grey, or vise versa). The playback controls on the remote are wasted space and complexity without a H/K CD player, and the slide-down panel for the direct-tuning number pad, while cool, is kind of clumsy to operate. If not for these issues, I would have given it 5 stars. (However I looked at a number of other receivers, and most of their remotes looked even worse)
Also, be aware: this unit is pretty deep. It sticks out farther than any of the other AV components on the shelf (in close second is the DISH TV receiver and DVR).
On: 2007-01-08
Outstanding sound quality and performance. It was a noticeable upgrade from my previous receiver, which was good. I have XM radio hooked up as an input, and the sound quality and response are excellent. The ease of purchase and speed of delivery by Amazon were outstanding also.
On: 2007-01-04
I wanted a receiver to play music in my den.Period.Little portable unit wasnt cutting it,needed enough "juice" to power two Infinity bookshelfs and a powered subwoofer.Wow.This delivers the goods!
So,if you are in the market for a quality receiver to listen to music,and your listening room is modest sized,I dont know how you could do any better.Really.At under 200 bucks this is a no-brainer.
On: 2006-10-21
I like the receiver just fine, except for the fact that I cant find a universal remote code for it that my remote will recognize. (Why cant they just publish the code in the manual, right?!) The unit is really nice looking and I love the fact that you can dim the very loud blue lighting on the front. However, you cant dim the blue light of the power switch, which is kind of silly since the other lights on the front panel dim very nicely. Frankly, I dont like staring at a bright blue light while Im trying to watch TV.
But I wanted to write this review mainly to thank Amazon and JR electronics for the amazing delivery service. Amazon offered free shipping if I selected Standard Shipping Speed which was fine, so I was expecting the product to arrive in six days. BUT, I received an email from JR at 2:45am after the day I ordered, saying the box had shipped, and it arrived at 10am that day!!! They shipped it *overnight* to me by UPS at no charge. This is REALLY good service. Thanks!
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