Harman Kardon The Bridge Docking Station for iPod

I read a lot of reviews about this and some of them seemed very negative and made me really consider this item, but in the end I thought I would take a chance. Well those negative reviews in my opinion must be from people not willing to take a bit of time to set up or read instructions, all in all it took me about 15 minutes to get the hang of this unit and I must say WOW. It really is fantastic and works better than I imagined. If you own an HK reciever with the bridge input, and you own an IPOD you need this, I mean you really do need this, don't listen to the naysayers they obviously expected to plug it in and just go, it takes a little effort but well, well worth it.

Previously, we used an Apple dock, which we connected into our A/V receiver input for audio and into an AC outlet for power, using the supplied Apple adapter. It worked fine, but had it's obvious limitations, such as using the iPod in it's dock for music selections or removing it, selecting what you wanted, pausing it, then re-inserting into the dock for playback. Nice, but not ideal. During a power outage and then subsequent surge, our iPod got zapped and needed to be repaired, which we then had performed. Having just purchased the Harmon Kardon AVR 247 receiver, we became aware of 'The Bridge' iPod dock. We did some research and could see that it would not only replace our Apple dock, but actually had additional capabilities, which were attractive. We bought 'The Bridge' docking station and installed it easily into AVR 247 by connecting one cable. That connection allows power and charging and provides a signal path as well. No AC outlet or other audio connections are required. Easy! The audio is very good, but the best part is the iPod is fully integrated into the receiver. The iPod LCD screen information is displayed on the face of the receiver and on your television screen, providing the same info to either (or both) without any additional setup or changes. You can use the receiver's remote to control everything that you would using the iPod click wheel as well as controlling the receiver's volume and the particular audio setup as well. The AVR 247 has the software included to perform all of these functions. The downside is, the dock only works with selected HK receivers and not other brands, but this is the perfect marriage between an iPod and home audio. It's a great product that is easy to use and is also inexpensive. I would highly recommend this product.

This is a great way to connect your iPod to your H/K receiver. Plus it's really cool looking, with its blue light underneath the base. But this unit has a drawback or two. I personally have The Bridge connected to an H/K AVR-445 receiver. I'm not bashing The Bridge here, but I've just learned a few things a prospective buyer might want to know. When I was first researching a receiver, I was torn between Onkyo & H/K. What I discovered was that Onkyo's iPod dock was much more expensive, and there's a reason... it has the ability to connect video to the television (and maybe even all the song artwork- who knows), where The Bridge doesn't (at least there's no means of direct Bridge-to-TV connect-ability). I thought an S-Video connection between the Receiver & the TV would provide the artwork on the television, but alas, no such luck as far as I can tell. I'm going to verify all this with the H/K support team eventually. Another thing that disappointed me was that when the iPod is docked in The Bridge, you can't control the iPod by hand. All navigation is done through the receiver (mainly via the remote). Once you get the hang of its remote control, all is well; but you must devote some time to learning exactly how to deal with the rather complicated (but capable) H/K remotes. In addition, if the iPod is separated from The Bridge and is playing (or paused on) a song, that you now want to hear on the stereo, docking the iPod into The Bridge reverts to the main menu & you lose your place, forcing you to re-navigate to the song again. All in all, I'm glad I have it. I used to use a cable, adapting the iPod's 1/8" headphone jack into L/R RCA jacks to connect to the receiver. At least then, I could navigate the iPod by hand. On the other hand, it gave me no charging capacity & the iPod looked lousy just laying there on its back. In the end, Harmon Kardon should have addressed these issues during its development (they seem like obvious "wants" for most people), but if you have an H/K receiver and are remote control-savvy, it's a must for your iPod!

upon reading all of the reviews written about this product, i am compelled to jot down a few lines of my own and here it is: 1. the bridge is a great add on to the hk receiver. it doesn't have the ticking sounds that a few of the owners are experiencing. i have a 30gb ipod connected to my hk-avr145 through the bridge with bose speaker system. the sound is amazingly crisp and clear. thats all that matters to me.

The product works fine, but has limited functionality. I agree with the other reviews which state that navigation is a little difficult. To me, the sound is fine. It's easy to set up and use. The fact that you can hook your iPod to your receiver is great. But what I don't understand is why I can't use the Bridge to access the video on my video iPod. After all, it links into a Harman Kardon audio-video receiver. The receivers handle a host of video inputs. It seems strange to say the least that the iPod's video cannot be accessed and displayed. My recommendation is not to buy it. You can get video from your iPod onto your TV by using an RCA adapter cable available through Amazon for one cent (plus $5 shipping). While you cannot control your iPod through the receiver you get far more access to its content and greater control over its display. Surely some day we'll get a product worth owning. This is not it.

I bought the bridge for my AVR 645. While it looks sleek and the sound quality is not bad, the ipod navigation through the OSD is extremely non intuitive. Trying to navigate with the remote is even worse. I would have been better off just connecting my computer to the AVR 645 through the USB input.

Most of what the other reviews have to say is correct. The shuffle or lack or should I say lack of one is a problem. It takes forever to get to your alphabetized artists, albums, playlists etc. Each one DOES require an individual click on the remote. Who wants to manually perform a function that a remote SHOULD be able to do. But an even more disturbing issue is the fact that because it is a digital input into the HK receiver, the receiver frequently drops the first note or two of a song. I have discussed this with HK and they acknowledge that it is an issue but, in their words, "That's the way it is." I'd expect better from Harman Kardon. If you don't mind manually running your iPod, get an eighth inch jack and plug it into the receiver through an analog input. On the positive side, it does charge the iPod. My particular receiver allows it to charge even when the receiver is off but I understand some 40 series models don't have this feature and it only charges when the receiver is on.

Realize that this product is little more than a plastic base and a connecting cable, so its specific behavior and performance depends on which Ipod and which HK receiver you are using. It works great with recent stuff-- I use a Nano and AVR-247. Yes you can turn on shuffle with the remote. I was worried about Mr. Dooling's ticking noise, but there is no evidence of that in my system. Some reviewers have complained about having to switch between AVR and Bridge on the remote to alternately use the volume and FF controls. There is a fix for that described in the receiver manual FAQs. Just program a volume punch-through into the remote for Bridge mode.