I am not an audiophile, but I do pay attention to sound quality. I purchased this receiver to finally, tentatively, replace my trusty and much-beloved Harman/Kardon AVR 300 for this (by comparison) ultra-modern receiver. It's ridiculously light and, by finally getting to use HDMI for all my inputs, hooking it up is a breeze. Plays well with Harmony One universal remote (though the Harmony lists the HDMI inputs as numbers and the back of the 1700 lists them by name). My first impression was that the 1700 sounded very nice, but slightly lacked a fullness that was in the AVR 300, so that was a bummer. Despite this initial impression, I kept finding myself thinking 'it's hard to imagine a receiver sounding any better that this 1700'.

I just bought the AVR 1700 and one of the first (apparently stupid) things I did was a software update. Yovie and nuno sampai akhir waktu. When I selected update the receiver seemed to.

The sound is fantastic and it is truly so 'clean'. I can't describe it any other way. It's not tinny - it is full. The 1700 packs power and has no trouble filling the room with clean, convincing, high volume surround sound. The auto calibration mic for setting up the surround speakers was very simple and does a stellar job. I find the surround is far more robust and balanced with this receiver, so that's a big plus. This is the first time I've allowed a receiver to manage my VIDEO as well as my audio.

Video quality for my components looked slightly different for the DirecTV guide and the AppleTV main window. It was particularly noticeable with the AppleTV - looking just slightly more washed out than it looked when I had previously plugged directly into the TV, but I tweaked the TV settings and all is well. Still, that was a little unnerving at first. That said, there appears to be NO issue with video quality of watching actual content. TV and Blu-rays look absolutely gorgeous as ever on the new Panasonic Plasma (p65st60). I have not tried AirPlay directly to the unit.

While one can dim the display and turn off the light on the volume dial, I do wish I could greatly DIM the wheel without turning it off. It looks cool to have a ring of light on the dial, but it's ridiculous how BRIGHT the light is. I was tempted to get a 7.2 receiver, but I don't have a 7.2 set up and I'm not looking to get into one any time soon. Considering the network capabilities it does have, it is a shame the 1700 doesn't have built-in WIFI but, again, my use patterns do not require me to plug my receiver into the web. There have been complaints that the 1700 lacks 'pass through', but I am a user who has no interest in ever turning on the TV without also turning on the receiver anyway, so this was not an issue for me.

Other receivers in this price range might have these features (and more), but if you're not going to use them, why pay for them? Bottom Line: I've never paid this little for a receiver and that, quite frankly, made me nervous. More expensive receivers must surely provide greater sound range and higher audio quality but, quite frankly, it's hard to imagine how much better they can sound that this. Considering its price point, the AVR 1700 is pretty amazing. * * * * * UPDATE: JULY 23, 2014 * * * * * All of the even-numbered HDMI inputs have stopped working. Calling Harman/Kardon service then got me routed to India (which is always less than ideal).