This Harman Kardon 3390 was part of a larger upgrade to the home sound system, replacing an aging 90 watt per channel Yamaha. Also included were new speakers in the form of Klipsch Reference Series RF-62 s, replacing Bose 501 s. A similar review will be posted for the speakers. As we all do, I started this upgrade project with certain assumptions some accurate, some not. And like many of you reading this, I relied heavily on user and expert reviews from many sources on the web. But those aren’t always helpful since the world of audio equipment seems to have its own peculiar lexicon with terms that are not defined and often fully understood only by the writer. Actual auditions of the equipment were somewhat limited by the fact that few dealers carry both brands where I live. This is a real problem since best results are achieved not just by selecting a good receiver and good speakers, but by hearing how they work together. For instance, bright speakers don’t pair up very well with bright receivers the result can be something too bright and potentially harsh sounding. That said, I nevertheless attempted to gain as much understanding as I could through things I read (reviews, blogs, etc.) and limited auditions of equipment. In the end, I feel rather lucky to have put together something that works very well as a system. I’ve always been a believer in going with a lot of watts per channel, not so much to produce high listening volume, but to have plenty of headroom in the system so that the sound is better even at modest volume. 100 watts always seemed like a good target. I was therefore a little unsure of the 80 watt rating of the HK, but all the reviews I read seemed to indicate that it would be OK. For those of you who have similar beliefs and concerns, I can tell you that the 80 watt HK is plenty adequate for a medium sized family room, particularly when paired with easy-to-drive speakers like the Klipsch Reference. The sound quality does not seem to be compromised at all by the modest 80 watt output. I have not auditioned the HK 3490, so I don’t know if the additional power makes a difference in sound quality or not. If you are driving less efficient speakers, it might be worth exploring. As others have noted, the sound is uncolored, although it seems rather warm sounding compared to the Yamaha. It sounds great deep and smooth bass, clear and smooth highs with a high quality sound to it. It is not fatiguing to listen to it for extended periods of time. Some say it sounds similar to a Denon, but I find the sound of many Denon’s to be less clear than this receiver. Perhaps I just haven’t heard the right Denon yet. Like a lot of folks my age (58), I have a collection of old vinyl albums that don’t see much action. This was not the primary reason I chose a receiver with phono inputs, but it seemed like a nice feature to have for those rare occasions (the old Yamaha had this feature as well). The HK 3390 is said to have an audiophile quality phono pre-amp in it, so I figured I might as well try listening to some of the old vinyl stuff to see what that was all about. The quality of the sound in this mode is spectacular, and I now fully understand why vinyl is making a come-back. The old records will be seeing a lot more action now. They simply sound better than CD’s when played through quality equipment like this (aside from the usual clicks and pops, of course). This receiver is worth its list price. At Amazon’s discounted price, it’s a bargain. An old fashioned 2 channel receiver may not be for everyone in this high tech world, but for those of us who use a 2 channel set up, it’s great to find a product where the money goes into quality rather than features we’ll never use. Now, about that remote .. yes, it is quite large, almost comically so. But it works quite well and controls a lot of different functions. And you won’t have any trouble finding it!