After looking at many threads here, and having issues with 2 refurb 635's, I am curious as to how many owners have had issues with their HK equipment. I am holding my breath with my new 635. I can't figure out how a company can operate if the QC is as bad as it looks (based on personal experience and these boards only).
What has been your experience and what was the issue you had with your model?
I know this may turn in to a HK bashfest and a "my brand is better than your brand" thread, but try to be respectful to those of us who, against our better judgement, threw hazard to the wind and bought a HK ....for better or worse.

I've had no problems on my 635 until I did the software upgrade (at least I never noticed this quirk until I did the upgrade). Now, if I am cycling through Dolby modes either via the OSD or remote the receiver will lock up once I get to either of the Dolby Virtual Surround modes. No sound, no response to button pushes on either the remote or receiver, and won't go into standby mode. I have to toggle the power switch under the door and everything is fine. Doesn't really bug me because I only make changes to the surround settings when I do an initial setup and I know it will lock up. So I just power toggle it, turn it back on, turn on EZset again, and everything is fine.

No problems with my unit. I have owned it for over a year.

Have my avr-435 now for 8 months and still absolute happy with it. remote had a tiny quirk but HK service send me a new one right away. I knew at the time when I bought it there were some complains but with the firmware upgrade, excellent customer service and the 2 year warranty it was a no brainer. Ez/Eq made a huge difference and was why I got the receiver in the first place.

my HK AVR335 has a sub hum when on standby, mute, paused or stopped.
they're replacing my unit.

why can't they be more like Yamaha? :)

btw, I am both an HK and Yamaha owner.

for the people not having problems, how much is the unit on?

Keep in mind that most people that own a unit and have no issues don't post how good it is. They seem to really only post when they have an issue.

The % of people that actually have an issue might not be as high as the forums leed you to believe. Although, with your personal experiece of two bad units ... i would be little turned off.

In the end, any manufacturer will have defective units. What makes a company good is how they deal with you when you have a problem. If HK has always taken care of your issues, I'd not worry about buying from them again.

my audio drops out when I change channels on cable or if I change source inputs. All I get is a popping through the speakers. I have to turn the HK635 off and then back on to get it to work. I have been tryign to talk to someone in customer support since last Wednesday to get a replacement but all I got was one email on Thursday asking me to email them the problem, which I did. So far, no reply. It is arefurb, and it was pretty beat up if you ask me. I was not happey with the look but if it worked OK, I would keep it.

My AVR635 is on for about 8 hours a day....either for TV/DVD viewing or music listening.

I got a DPR 2005 from one call. I was very happy until I pluged the unit and hear a buzz from the right front channel. I sent it to the authorized repair and after a week they toll me that I had to call HK and ask them for a firmware update because they are not allowed to do so. At this point I am very fustrated, having to do a firmware upgrade on a brand new unit. I will let you know once I get the software.

What makes a company good is how they deal with you when you have a problem.

in my book, a good company will engineer and produce a high quality products and follow up with good costomer service. So far, H/K seems to have failed on the design and engineering part of it.

If HK has always taken care of your issues,

We will wait to see how true that "if" turns out to be.

I may be crazy, but the sound quality of the AVR635 seems to fluctuate from time to time.

I'm eventually going to replace it for peace of mind.

My avr 130 just shuts off and goes into standby mode, Even with all of the speaker wires unpluged. Also when this happens all of my surround settings change. Mines on 8-12hrs per day.

Let me see. My 1st 7200 had a hum that I could not get rid of, the 2nd they sent would turn off randomly. They replaced it with a 7300 and the only problem I had with it was my own fault. I broke one of the doors off of one of the optical sockets when trying to remove a cable and they replaced the socket no questions asked under warranty.

My AVR430 shuts off randomly. I will be bringing it to the service center soon.

Had a 630 for a few years,never a problem.Have a 635 for about a year,never a problem.

I have an HK AVR235 receiver with no problems

Just ressurecting an old thread for any potential buyers out there.

I've had the 7300 for a year now and have had ZERO problems. It gets heavy usage, i.e. it's always on, at least the multi-room is always on. It is an absolutely amazing receiver. With the exception of a few very minor gripes (I have a lot more on most receivers), it's a steal right now at under 1k new.

That being said, I've only owned this one piece of HK equip. Maybe I'm just lucky...........hope I haven't just jinxed myself. :)

I have owned 3 HK receivers and 1 HK auto amp , none of them ever had a single issue . The HK auto amp even got soaked once and after I let it dry out for a few days it performed as good as new . I have since moved on from HK products but I found them to be very reliable .

---------- Jason

I didn't even bother with doing the firmware upgrade for my 635. I've had it now for 16 months and it is just mmmmarvelous! I didn't see it necessary to upgrade since I didn't have any issues with it from beginning. There ya go...

I have a 635. It's my second and I finally just got it back from repairs.....again. I thought I was buying quality and all I've had is headaches and bugs. Hums, buzzes, amp problems, front door problems, binding post losening and memory problems. What kind of company builds a machine that blocks out the first second of every CD you try and play? Are they serious?? Hugely dissappointed and wanting out. Is there any such thing as quality anymore?? I had a Yamaha reciever worth about $200 that has never had a problem and is still going strong in another room. I should have stuck with them. For a suggested retail well over $1000, this thing should be amazing. It's amazing they got away with it.

Man.....that's a bummer,you need to take that unit down and get it exercised.

I have a 635 it has memory problems but i love h/k amps.

HK 335

Got it brand new from the store.
Pluged power cord in to AC outlet. Pressed the power button. Nothing happened.
Tilted the receiver 45 degrees, and while pressing the power button.
The receiver would turn on.
Letting the receiver flat again. Receiver was off immediately.

So, took it back to the store and exchanged for another one.
This time the receiver worked fine.

However, still couldn't figure out how to use the "two audio sources" feature. (e.g., 5 speakers play audio from DVD; 2 speakers play audio from a radio station)
Don't know if it is user problem (i.e., me), or problem with the receiver.
Other than this, very happy with the receiver.


Will highly recommend HK if you buy it from a B&M store.

Originally, I bought a HK AVR635 from Circuit City while I had the Pioneer 1014 in home for comparison purposes. The reason I brought in the 635 was because, although the performance of the Pioneer seemed good, I just felt it was too sterile sounding for music. The 635 worked perfectly and i had none of the problems you hear about, but I ended up returning both and getting a AVR235 to use as a pre/pro because I got a great deal locally on a Rotel 1075 5-ch power amp, which solved my musicality problem.

I used the AVR235 as a pre/pro and to drive the surround back channels. Worked perfectly until I hooked up S-video sources and then I discovered that it would slowly fade to black and white and back. Support thought it might be a bad capacitor and exchanged for a AVR240. Only cost me $15 for shipping and I got a brand new (not refurb AFAICT) unit of the then-current model after having used my 235 for over a year. I ended up selling the 240 because I got in on a great deal for the 635 between the time I received the 240 and had time to get it installed.

My sister and I both bought 635's at the same time and I did the installation for both of them. She is using the receiver with its internal amps on an all B&W setup and it sounds really really great. No problems on hers. Door stays closed, memory ok, etc. I upgraded the firmware and it still works great. I installed my 635 as pro/pro + surround-back amp using the Rotel power amp and it also works great with no problems. I have not upgraded the firmware on it yet. It sounds awesome on my paradigm + velodyne setup.

So I have experience with one 235 and three 635's and only had the little problem with the video on the 235 which HK resolved quickly, easily, and cheaply.

HK 335

Got it brand new from the store.
Pluged power cord in to AC outlet. Pressed the power button. Nothing happened.
Tilted the receiver 45 degrees, and while pressing the power button.
The receiver would turn on.
Letting the receiver flat again. Receiver was off immediately.


I'd suspect the power cord was loose and when you lifted it up, the cord was pressed against the contacts and worked.

The power cord on my 635 seems a bit loose but it stays in and makes contact so it works for me.

235 with no problems.

I bought a 335 from HK's ebay store. After a while it stopped coming out of stand-by. I sent it in (paid shipping).

They sent me a refurb 335. didn't work. They sent me a shipping label and then shipped me a brand new 340.

Works perfectly!

Update on my earlier post (#8). I returned my HK635 and they replaced it with another. I got them to send me the replacement and chage my card first. Then when it arrived, i returned the old one and they gave me a credit on my card, so I was not completely down for a week. They paid for all of the shipping charges. Communications were less than ideal, as they were hard to reach on the phone and basically never responded to my email (although they told me on the phone that email was the preferred and quickest method to reach them. Yeah, right). New one seems to work fine and looks 100% better (refurb). I see a small scratch on the side, but not visible in my set up. Glass is clean, no scratches or cracks, and the door is tight. Both were awful in my first one. I love the performance and it makes my system sound great. I will keep my fingers crossed that either it works great or I get a AVR735 as a replacement!

BTW, I have the old firmware, even though they told me in writing prior to my purchase that the refurbs came with updated firmware. I do not need the firmware upgrades and I don't have a serial enabled computer at this time anyway.

Glad to hear the second one is working out Tarheel. I wanted to put a nice, friendly post in now. Come NCAA basketball season though all bets are off. :p

Now as to the OP's question:

Have owned various HKs since the late 90's. Have had zero issues during warranty periods. Have experienced problem Caps introducing hum after many years of use with 2 units...both of which problems were undoubtedly aided and abetted by yours truly housing them in too confining a cabinet space. My bad. Bought a DPR2005Z from Harman Ebay last year. Had slight cosmetic issues so sent it back for full refund. Waited for the 635 to be near closeout before purchasing so problem issues would be a non-factor.

Nothing negatively significant to report in over 10 years and in my experience CS has always been fairly quick and efficient with any communications I have thrown their way. Even sent me a free remote when I didn't really need one. Just lucky I guess.

I think the problem is the processor gets 'confused' much like early computers when you tried doing too many things at once, and it locks up.

I have an antenna on my DirectvHD receiver, and if while trying to adjust it for best reception of all my local HD channels I change the channels too quickly, the HK will lock up. Maybe it's using Windows 95:)

My H/K 7200 stopped working a few months ago. I took it in to a local electronic repair shop
and a fuse had blown. They replaced it and I was relieved. I have had it for 3 years and could not be happier.

Have owned an AVR435 for about three weeks and am using it as a pre/pro with no problems. I was a bit disappointed that the unit was built in May but did not have updated firmware. On the bright side the firmware upgrade was easy and went off without a hitch.

Pat

My dpr 2005 turns itself up to a mind crushing volume at random times, about 2x a month these days. Other than that, it is ok.

(this post is a plea for help, what can i do to stop this?)

My dpr 2005 turns itself up to a mind crushing volume at random times, about 2x a month these days. Other than that, it is ok.

(this post is a plea for help, what can i do to stop this?) Tape the Volume knob so it can't turn? Sorry ... that's about All I can say.

AVR110, 325, 125 x2 and DVD5, either mine or friends.

Only one AVR125 had a problem a week out of the box. Local repair under warranty and all good, daily use for about 3 years averaged.

My dpr 2005 turns itself up to a mind crushing volume at random times, about 2x a month these days. Other than that, it is ok.

(this post is a plea for help, what can i do to stop this?)

I would venture a guess this is very likely due to some intermittent IR interference from another source/remote. This can be a b*tch to track down but it's the only way to solve the problem.

I need a big favor! Can someone be so kind as to email me the AVR 435 US120V software upgrade? The HK download link has been broken for a quite a while...

Thank you very much!

Bought my refurb HK 525 from ebay from an "authorized" dealer. The AVR would operate properly for about 5 minutes, then would go into a receivers version of convulsions - it would rapidly change its modes and settings like it was possessed, then stop working all-together.

I called HK and they agreed to repair it under warranty. I sent it out. They sent it back. (Not cheap, and oh yeah, an AVR525 isn't light either.) I set it up and same problem.

I called HK again and they agreed to replace it with another refurb unit. Sent the old one out. They sent a new one. I set it up: this new unit had a few minor blemishes on its face, but otherwise has worked flawlessly (knock on veneer) for the last 2 or 3 years, running 5 x 4 ohm speakers occasionaly at high volume levels.

I have owned three H/K receivers over the years (AVR20; AVR310; AVR520). The AVR20 was new, the others refurbished. The only problem I had was with the (new) AVR20 when ground on the circuitboard would fail when it got hot and cause a popping noise. The CC repairman hard-wired the ground and after that no problem. My brother has also owned two (AVR20 and AVR510), both refurbished, and also zero problems. I did have problems (as did most) with the FL8550 CD changer failing to recognize discs. It was a well-known problem on that player, which was a shame since it had the superb 20 bit BB DACs (1702) used in megabuck CD players/processors (Linn, Theta). I got it fixed under warranty and while it still occasionally skips a disc it plays just fine.

I have also owned several H/k power amps - PA5800, Signature 2.1 and 1.5. All had zero problems (all made in the USA). In fact I have the 2.1 for sale if anyone is interested.

HK just fixed their upgrade download link. Yeepee.......

PLEASE HELP!!..is this normal???
I have gone through 2 HK 635- both of them cause a slightly audible hum when the unit is turned on...NOT when on standby....and this only happens on the front two channels - not the center or the rear channels...the 1st one was refurbished - but this one is brand spanking NEW...not cool...

I thought that this was normal untill i read some of the posts - and then I realized that this is infact NOT normal.....
thanks for any guidance...

PLEASE HELP!!..is this normal???
I have gone through 2 HK 635- both of them cause a slightly audible hum when the unit is turned on...NOT when on standby....and this only happens on the front two channels - not the center or the rear channels...the 1st one was refurbished - but this one is brand spanking NEW...not cool...

I thought that this was normal untill i read some of the posts - and then I realized that this is infact NOT normal.....
thanks for any guidance...


Check your speaker connections or wire. I had a similar issue and found out it was a loose connection that caused the static.

If it is easy, it might be worth running a temporary run to each of the front speakers with different wire just to rule that out.

Your speakers should not have a hum with this receiver.

I had to send three 635's back to ******* (my aching back) for memory issues...all settings lost when power interrupted. Fourth one is the charm. Despite the irritation, it's a great receiver. Would do it again.

all speaker connections checked...actually it took long because I had to unmound them...but still the very low hum is there... :(....

Did you try different speaker wire?

When I had my 635 (currently in the shop for some weirdness) I did have a slight hum (hiss?) from the front speakers as well. However, I had to put my ear right to the speakers to hear it. And, it's no where near as loud as the hum that is currently coming from my Sony STR 935 (the amp I kept before I replaced it with the 635.)

Fred

When I had my 635 (currently in the shop for some weirdness) I did have a slight hum (hiss?) from the front speakers as well. However, I had to put my ear right to the speakers to hear it. And, it's no where near as loud as the hum that is currently coming from my Sony STR 935 (the amp I kept before I replaced it with the 635.)

Fred

Fred..
Do you have a cable box connected to the 635..
Cable systems often have high audible hum levels either due to their poorly designed/maintained distribution system, and/or in-house installs...

AVR240 for about a year, never any problems.

Great forum, Thanks to everyone!

I bought a refurb AVR-340 online for cheap. When it arrived the only mode that worked was Stereo. All other modes had a loud hiss.

I sent an email to HK support late nite on the Friday leading into the Labor day weekend. To my surprise I had an email waiting for me when I woke on Saturday. After a quick exchange of emails they decided that I had a bad DSP chip and on Sunday they emailed me a RMA#. Since it was labor day weekend I had to wait till Tuesday to send my unit to HK.

Good story kept short... four business days later I had received a brand new AVR-340 and it works great!

I'm very pleased with my experience. I saved alot of money for a little bit of extra work.

Chad...

HK AVR-340 - sweet, so far!
Sony KDF-E50A10 - sweet

Fred..
Do you have a cable box connected to the 635..
Cable systems often have high audible hum levels either due to their poorly designed/maintained distribution system, and/or in-house installs...

Yes...a cable box is connected to the 635....but the very low hum is ever present - regardless of wether the cable box is powered on or off...

my biggest immediate concern is - am i damaging the speakers right now??/

Yes...a cable box is connected to the 635....but the very low hum is ever present - regardless of wether the cable box is powered on or off...


You missed the point..
Many cable box installs have inadequate grounds and even if turned OFF can generate a hum..

Suggest you try disconnecting the cable box from the AVR, pull out its audio connections and video connections from the AVR... Also disconnect the coax F connector...

Now what happened to the audible hum..

Still there ..
Or gone..

Post back your results..

I bet it's gone!

I'd suspect the power cord was loose and when you lifted it up, the cord was pressed against the contacts and worked.

The power cord on my 635 seems a bit loose but it stays in and makes contact so it works for me.

Wow ... a bad connection of the power cord might be the only manufacturing flaw. If that thing is just o nteh fringe between makign a connection and failing .... it would kill a processor in quick order I'd assume.

After reading this thread, I'm still iffy on if I should get a 635. Stories of sending units in 3 times till a refurb worked flawlessly kinda is umm bad.

On antoher note ... If I get the 635 now and it fails 6 months down the road ... HK might send me a refurbed 640 ;) I wonder ......

You missed the point..
Many cable box installs have inadequate grounds and even if turned OFF can generate a hum..

Suggest you try disconnecting the cable box from the AVR, pull out its audio connections and video connections from the AVR... Also disconnect the coax F connector...

Now what happened to the audible hum..

Still there ..
Or gone..

Post back your results..
I am at work...I will go home and then experiment...I will keep you guys posted...

After reading this thread, I'm still iffy on if I should get a 635. Stories of sending units in 3 times till a refurb worked flawlessly kinda is umm bad.

On antoher note ... If I get the 635 now and it fails 6 months down the road ... HK might send me a refurbed 640 ;) I wonder ......


I've had 3 of the 635's and was hoping for a 640 as a replacement, since the 635 is such a friggin' pile of problems, but no such luck. They'll just send you refurb after refurb. Until you go mad. Oh but it sounds good.

And that's another thing. Why do so many people have sooo many problems with this reciever, yet still keep it and and want more??? Why do we let HK off the hook so easy? We should be demanding a quality product from a quality company, correct? I find it funny that so many people hear have such headaches from this unit, but end their post with 'I love how it sounds, I'd buy another one' Is everyone nuts!!?? How good is the sound when it's in the shop for 8 weeks out of the year???
It's real relaxing to sit and enjoy some music or a movie while I just ignore the buzz in the speakers, the door not shutting, the settings not staying in memory, etc, etc. Yeah, that's great fun.
MY new mantra: Stay away from HK.

I've had 3 of the 635's and was hoping for a 640 as a replacement, since the 635 is such a friggin' pile of problems, but no such luck. They'll just send you refurb after refurb. Until you go mad. Oh but it sounds good.

And that's another thing. Why do so many people have sooo many problems with this reciever, yet still keep it and and want more??? Why do we let HK off the hook so easy? We should be demanding a quality product from a quality company, correct? I find it funny that so many people hear have such headaches from this unit, but end their post with 'I love how it sounds, I'd buy another one' Is everyone nuts!!?? How good is the sound when it's in the shop for 8 weeks out of the year???
It's real relaxing to sit and enjoy some music or a movie while I just ignore the buzz in the speakers, the door not shutting, the settings not staying in memory, etc, etc. Yeah, that's great fun.
MY new mantra: Stay away from HK.

My Tandberg 2075 stereo receiver was 30 years old last April. A couple of years ago the left channel went totally dead. After a few months it came on intermittently, and now has virtually completely repaired itself. That left channel is now not lower in volume than the right, but is just ever so slightly less full somehow. I can only detect that if I walk to both speakers while playing (at moderate volume- protect your hearing!) and listen carefully. So, 30 plus years of enjoying one of the greatest and most beautiful receivers ever built. Still pristine cosmetically and virtually pristine operationally. If the HK AVR-645 ever appears, I'll buy one after a couple years since I'm still listening in stereo. I had a 635 here over Xmas- from HK on Ebay- and sent it back because I want HDMI connections and a factory-fresh unit. It can open out the sound significantly, even in stereo, in a concert hall mode. I think the sound quality is identical to the Tandberg, and that is a towering tribute to HK. I paid $1,099.00 for the Tandberg at Harvey Sound in Manhattan in 1976. Big price then, but boy am I glad I bought quality. There is a company up on the Hudson River that refurbishes classic high end electronics like Tandberg- $450 to do the 2075 but they warranty it for 1 year. Great to know I could eliminate even this tiny degradation in the unit if I want to. I just listened to Scherazade on a Barclay-Crocker tape on my Pioneer RT-707 reel-to-reel deck thru the Tandberg and my Allison 1 speakers. Tape is analog, so the sound is just stunning. Glad I bought 100 Barclay-Crocker mostly classical tapes too. A couple are Joan Baez, and she sends chills up your spine with that one in a trillion voice.

I've had 3 of the 635's and was hoping for a 640 as a replacement, since the 635 is such a friggin' pile of problems, but no such luck. They'll just send you refurb after refurb. Until you go mad. Oh but it sounds good.

And that's another thing. Why do so many people have sooo many problems with this reciever, yet still keep it and and want more??? Why do we let HK off the hook so easy? We should be demanding a quality product from a quality company, correct? I find it funny that so many people hear have such headaches from this unit, but end their post with 'I love how it sounds, I'd buy another one' Is everyone nuts!!?? How good is the sound when it's in the shop for 8 weeks out of the year???
It's real relaxing to sit and enjoy some music or a movie while I just ignore the buzz in the speakers, the door not shutting, the settings not staying in memory, etc, etc. Yeah, that's great fun.
MY new mantra: Stay away from HK.

At this point ... i've essetnially decided to go with a used Pioneer Elite. now I jsut have to find one ;-) To many reports of problems with the 635.

Just to list one more positive HK story...

I have a 7-8 year old AVR 65 that gets lots of daily use, for music and for home theater. It's been absolutely flawless the entire time I've owned it. I bought it because most home theater receivers didn't sound very good with just 2-channel music, and this one did. I still think most HTRs don't sound so good for music.

I'm considering replacing it now because it only has one digital audio input and no video switching other than composite / svideo. I'm thinking about the AVR 7300 to replace it, since right now it can be had for under $1000.

I'm trying very hard to buy another HK product since my last one was fantastic, but all the stories about bad 635s have me a little worried. Has HK's quality gone down of late? Or is that just a troublesome model?

I'm trying very hard to buy another HK product since my last one was fantastic, but all the stories about bad 635s have me a little worried. Has HK's quality gone down of late? Or is that just a troublesome model?

I'm kinda where your at. I'm needing a new avr also and am looking at the new HK445 model. I hear so many great things about HK's, except for their build quality. Not certain I want to deal with another buggy receiver. I've had enough problems out of my current avr, which by the way is an Integra so every brand out there has/had problems.

I like HK and have noticed a lot of people buy them refurb'ed off Ebay and a lot of those have problems. That's poor by HK and I have read of how they quickly replace them, but isn't that part of the risk for the prices people are getting at these places.
I know I was looking everywhere for an HK 635 for under $400, but I was looking at CC when they were closing them out.

I like HK and have noticed a lot of people buy them refurb'ed off Ebay and a lot of those have problems. That's poor by HK and I have read of how they quickly replace them, but isn't that part of the risk for the prices people are getting at these places.
I know I was looking everywhere for an HK 635 for under $400, but I was looking at CC when they were closing them out.I bought one at a local CC for $409. Fully checked out and ready to go, according the sticker on the item. It included all the accessories, but no box. I got it home, hit the button under the door to power it on, and then the main button. It failed to turn on. I took it back to the numbskull that sold it to me and told him the issue and said I wanted to return it. He, of course, needs to verify my findings, so he plugs it in. Same result. He sheepishly looks up at me and says, "It's got to go back to HK for repair. Should take a couple of weeks." I say to him again, I want to return it. End of story.

HK quality, I guess. We should set our expectation accordingly.

I've had a 630 and have two 635's,never a problem.I sold the 630 to a friend,it's about 2 years old,still going strong.

I had a 520, 525, 630, and now a 635. The 520. 525, and 630 all had one problem or another. However, HK always exchanged the units and upgraded me to the next model. Therefore even though the reliability of the previous units was not real good I could consider it as an upgrade path. The 635 has worked very well for about a year and I love the sound after running the auto setup with the mike.

Have had an AVR 125 for ohhh....about 5 years now and never had a single issue. Love it infact, although I have been looking to move up a bit.

Is anyone aware if they have fixed their audio dropout problems? A couple of years ago I had an AVR 130 and it sounded and not to mention looked great but whenever I was listening to a cd it would cut off the first second or two of the songs. That was so annoying. I wanted to like the receiver but I couldn't live with that so I returned it to CC for a refund. Does anyone know if the 140 has this same problem?

Does Harman Kardon have a receiver out that can do 1080p?

Does Harman Kardon have a receiver out that can do 1080p?

According to Harman Germany where the new AVR 645 and 745 are just coming out these only go up to 1080i.

Maybe somebody on this forum has a Sammy BlueRay and a 645 or 745 and could try that out ?

"...the new AVR 645 and 745 are just coming out these only go up to 1080i."

They won't upscale to 1080p, but will they pass 1080p through?

Any thoughts on the audio dropout issue described in my previous post?

"...the new AVR 645 and 745 are just coming out these only go up to 1080i."

They won't upscale to 1080p, but will they pass 1080p through?Yes.

Any thoughts on the audio dropout issue described in my previous post?

HK probable describes it as a "feature."

What does that mean they won't "upscale" to 1080p but they will "pass" 1080p?? What's the difference between upscaling and passing?

"...the new AVR 645 and 745 are just coming out these only go up to 1080i."

They won't upscale to 1080p, but will they pass 1080p through?

Put in a DVD through HDMI at 480P or 720P or 1080I and the receiver upscales it to 1080P. Some sort of Faroudja processor in the receiver.
Some will only upscale to 1080I like some HK's, but if you put in a 1080P output source like Blu Ray it will still do the switching, but hopeuflly send the signal through untouched. Lots of receivers can't switch 1080P.
Until you see this in action, don't believe them.


Leads me to a ? of my own:
So if a Blu Ray disc is 1080P to begin with and I am going to a 1080P input display and using HDMI, what benefits can the Pioneer Blu Ray player have ($1500) over a Sony PS3 ($599) to justify the cost?
How hard is it to read and pass along the info on the disc?

My AVR635 has the memory issue. I finally got ahold of a tech on the phone today, after them not returning my email or voice mail messages last week. He wasn't helpful at all, and even went so far as to suggest the receiver losing all of it's memory as a "feature". He pointed me to the nearest service center after a few minutes of discussion and me finding the page in the manual where it says it should keep it's settings for at least 4 weeks unplugged.

There is only one effective way I know of to deal with a company with poor QC and poor/rude support. I have bought my last HK product, and will not recommend them to anyone else.

I havent been an owner for long but up to this point everything has been great, knock on wood. Just trying to add some positive feedback as the unfortunate human nature is to tell the world about negative experiences and keep in secret good experiences.

even went so far as to suggest the receiver losing all of it's memory as a "feature".

didn't I mention this long time ago that you HK owners should be thankful that you got those nice undocumented features like losing memory, hanging doors, automagic memory reset, and randomly losing settings? HK gave those valuable features to you loyal HK owners free of charge!

:)

You really dont like HK do you?

I dont hear the logic 7 pumping issue discussed much anymore. I am very fustrated by this and wonder if anyone has gotten this issue resolved? I have this pumping or pulsating issue in my rear channels that sounds like the signal is cutting in and out. HK 635 from ebay Harmon.

My AVR635 has the memory issue. I finally got ahold of a tech on the phone today, after them not returning my email or voice mail messages last week. He wasn't helpful at all, and even went so far as to suggest the receiver losing all of it's memory as a "feature". He pointed me to the nearest service center after a few minutes of discussion and me finding the page in the manual where it says it should keep it's settings for at least 4 weeks unplugged.

There is only one effective way I know of to deal with a company with poor QC and poor/rude support. I have bought my last HK product, and will not recommend them to anyone else.

I lost power a month or so ago for a few seconds and my HK 635 lost all of its settings. It shut down and when I powered it back up they were gone. But, on Sunday I was watching the NASCAR race and suddenly the power went out for about 2 seconds, just like before. However, this time when I turned the HK back on it had retained its settings. I was pretty surprised. Not sure why this happened and I never expected it.

Personally, I love the sound and the look of the unit.

My AVR635 has the memory issue. I finally got ahold of a tech on the phone today, after them not returning my email or voice mail messages last week. He wasn't helpful at all, and even went so far as to suggest the receiver losing all of it's memory as a "feature". He pointed me to the nearest service center after a few minutes of discussion and me finding the page in the manual where it says it should keep it's settings for at least 4 weeks unplugged.

There is only one effective way I know of to deal with a company with poor QC and poor/rude support. I have bought my last HK product, and will not recommend them to anyone else.I can't say much about the QC as I had two units that had issues, but as for the Customer Support I had a fabulous experience. They answered all my emails and even called me to make sure what my issues were. I have no problems buying from them again as I am very happy with the final product and with the costumer service I recieved.

My CSR was Frank Portalatin. If you want his email you can send me a PM and I'll pass it along. He did an outstanding job representing HK in my eyes.

My refurb AVR630 has been flawless so far. On average it is on for an hour per day for the past 6 months, but its more like on for 3 hours on and off for 2 days. The ventilation situation is less than ideal in my cabinet but so far hasn't caused any problems. The unit gets warm but still performs fine even after 7 hours on.

PS - I use Logic 7 almost exlusively for TV and use it often for 2 channel music. I haven't noticed any problems with pumping. I really enjoy it!

H/K introduced the L7 pumping "feature" with the 635. Just kidding, but it didn't exist on the 630.

To answer the question by audiophyte, my 635 still drops the first second and a half of audio when first starting a CD after power-up. I have to restart the disk in order to hear the beginning of the track. I don't believe that this occurs with subsequent disks. It seems that once the unit knows what bitstream to expect, there is no delay. Changing sources, exposing the receiver to a different type of bitstream, and coming back to CD causes the delay again.

If I recall correctly, this isn't as bad as the 630, but it still isn't up to par with virtually every other brand of AVR made during the last decade. One has to expect these anomalies with H/K.

I have an AVR320 a few years old, no problems but it is mainly a backup unit.

My 435 is in the shop now - LF channel went out. Wasn't really able to deal with HK customer service...phone menus just wound up referring me to their closest service center (none local).

Unfortunately I have the L7 'habit' which restricts my selection of receivers and processors!

I have the 335 and for the life of me can not find the remote sensor on the unit for use with a Buffalo ir emitter. Have spent several sessions to no avail. Even took the chasis apart (as much as I could) and still couldn't find it. Looked at the manual and where it is depicted, it doesn't seem to be. Does HK mount their remote sensor further back in the chasis? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance. Other than this issue, I've been pretty pleased with the unit as a back up.

Don

I just sent back my AVR745 and I will not be buying another HK product until they they their act together.

Bottom line this unit is listing at $3600 CDN (I bought it from a US dealer for considerably less.) and compared the the Yamaha Z9 I had which was $5K and a previous HK AVR8000 the build quality is a JOKE. Hell my old Yamaha 992 was higher quality.

Right out of the box the front trap door wouldn't close. The EZ/Set EQ froze up on me twice right when I was trying to save the settings and had to redo the entire process. The Logic 7 couldn't maintain a steady soundfield - sometimes adding echo where it didn't belong including the dialog.

After I finally got it set up I would say it's a good sounding unit, but it is not as good as my Z9 / SMS-1 combo was.

When the L7 works right I absolutely love it. It's too bad about the rest of the unit.

I've had a 630 and have two 635's,never a problem.I sold the 630 to a friend,it's about 2 years old,still going strong.

Glad to see you had good luck with the 630. I purchased a brand new 630 and it crapped out right after warranty. I took it to an authorized repair shop and they diagnozed the Dolby section as a goner. They wanted $600 to fix the thing. I still got it in my equipment cabinet, at least until I replace it with a non HK product.

After I finally got it set up I would say it's a good sounding unit, but it is not as good as my Z9 / SMS-1 combo was.

When the L7 works right I absolutely love it. It's too bad about the rest of the unit.Do you think that's a fair comparison? They're not really in the same price range. The street price of the z9 is just about twice that of the HK.

I can understand your frustrations with the QC of HK.

I agree...there is always going to be something better outthere but comparing things in such a difference price range has no logic to be honest.

Do you think that's a fair comparison? They're not really in the same price range. The street price of the z9 is just about twice that of the HK.

I can understand your frustrations with the QC of HK.

I don't buy into the more dollars always gets you better sound theory. And that's why I said that it is advertised up here at $3699 CDN and the Z9 is now selling around $4200. So they are not far off as one would think.

The HK AVR8000 I had IMO was a MUCH better product and worthy of flagship status - the 745 is not.

I din't get into it because this is an "HK problem" thread, but I should qualify my comment about the sound, it was more a comparison of the EQ systems - without EQ there's not a huge difference in sound between the two, with the Z9 being just slightly more refined in the top end.

Where they started to part company was with the EQ's engaged.
After running the EZ/Set I found the top end of the HK to be a bit too "crisp" and somewhat fatiguing. The bass was good but it seemed to be at the expense of midrange weight and detail.
With the Z9/SMS-1 combo I didn't use any EQ above 200HZ what I did was manually EQ the Yamaha as flat as I could down to it's 63hz limit using the SMS-1's FR display, then I used the SMS-1's and EQ'd them flat up to 120 - then I set the Yamaha X-over to 80Hz and ran the YPAO for just distance and level. The result was stunning.

The HK as far as I can tell from the awful manual doesn't have any provision for selective EQ'ing - you can EQ just the subs but what does that do for the bass over the X-over frequency? I don't know because I was so frustrated with the EZset freezing up when I went to save the settings and loosing everything I'd done to that point that I ripped the unit out of my rack and called the vendor for an RA#.

I guess different speakers and different rooms create a total different experience when using the auto ezset/eq cause in my case is totally opposite, if I bypass the eq the sound is brighter and lacks that extra refinement the eq gives me.

"comparing things in such a difference price range has no logic to be honest."

It's logic like that that lets companies get away with setting prices based on perceived value.

What exactly do you mean?

I guess different speakers and different rooms create a total different experience when using the auto ezset/eq cause in my case is totally opposite, if I bypass the eq the sound is brighter and lacks that extra refinement the eq gives me.

I fairness to the HK - I found the Z9's YPAO to be even worse in the upper frequencies - it nearly made my ears bleed. I've got a very well treated room and for some reason both auto EQ's seem to "over-compensate" at least in the top end.

But this is a "HK Problem" thread and back on topic; HK should be embarrassed to put out a product with such bad QC, especially their "flagship" model.

One DOA HK635 here. I should have a replacement some time next week and I'm keeping my fingers crossed but I think that I'll retain my (also defective but 2.1 capable) refurbished Onkyo 603 for emergencies.

Purchased a new AVR 330 in November 2003. It stopped emitting sound about 2 weeks ago, though the lights on the panel still worked. The authorized repair shop charged me $150 to make the repair -- an expense I wouldn't expect for something that is used about 1.5 hours a day on average tops.

H/K introduced the L7 pumping "feature" with the 635. Just kidding, but it didn't exist on the 630.

To answer the question by audiophyte, my 635 still drops the first second and a half of audio when first starting a CD after power-up. I have to restart the disk in order to hear the beginning of the track. I don't believe that this occurs with subsequent disks. It seems that once the unit knows what bitstream to expect, there is no delay. Changing sources, exposing the receiver to a different type of bitstream, and coming back to CD causes the delay again.

If I recall correctly, this isn't as bad as the 630, but it still isn't up to par with virtually every other brand of AVR made during the last decade. One has to expect these anomalies with H/K.

The single most annoying feature of this receiver (635)... So many great works of music have the first note or lyric completely cut from the audio. Kind of embarrassing when playing music for friends: "Hey, Matt, why didn't we hear the first note of that song... how much did you paid for that Harmon Kardon? Is it broke?"

Yes, very annoying!

Should at least be something that could be disabled in the OSD advanced menu...

M2CW,
Doc

The single most annoying feature of this receiver (635)... So many great works of music have the first note or lyric completely cut from the audio. Kind of embarrassing when playing music for friends: "Hey, Matt, why didn't we hear the first note of that song... how much did you paid for that Harmon Kardon? Is it broke?"

Yes, very annoying!

Should at least be something that could be disabled in the OSD advanced menu...

M2CW,
Doc

I have no issue with this...have you turned off autopolling?

I never had that happen either.

Nearly two years with my 635. No problems and great sound. The firmware update corrected the issue of losing L7 with source or channel changes. After a decade my AVR 20 MkII is working very nicely powering a music oriented stereo system, and my AVR-75 had no problems, but was retired to a back room. Only my AVR 7000 failed after several years, losing most of the volume in one of the surround channels.

I don't plan to replace the 635 anytime soon, but will be considering HK if/when I do.

No problems with my unit. I have owned it for over a year.

I just picked up a 7300, the sound is great, but the fan comes on after 3-4 minutes after power up , it sits about 8' away and I find the fan noise too loud
during low volumn music/dialog.

Any problems with yours?

I just picked up a 7300, the sound is great, but the fan comes on after 3-4 minutes after power up , it sits about 8' away and I find the fan noise too loud
during low volumn music/dialog.

Any problems with yours?


TMV,

mY 7300 is 11 feet away. I cant hear it. But I can understand at 8" how you can hear it. I just put mine in a rack in a rack with an exhast fan. At very low, low vollumes I can hear the exhast fan.

I have no issue with this...have you turned off autopolling?

I do have autopolling turned off under the advanced OSD menu, but it, unfortunately, goes deeper than that.

The problem is that the H/K's hardware purposefully silences the first half-second of a new digital audio stream. :mad:

I hook up my ARCHOS MP3 player or my HTPC (both output digital) and whenever skipping to a new song or bit-stream, the first half-second is cut off... "O-F-F, off." It's a well-known, but distracting, "feature" of the H/K receivers. :rolleyes:

This was implemented to protect both the receiver and the listener from any stray digital "noise" which, in theory, could harm the circuitry and the listeners speakers/ears if amplified loud enough.

The problem is two-fold: 1) so many great songs have a great first note intro, or a great vocal missing the first word of the lyrics if it occurs right away in the song; and 2) the H/K's handle this poorly (unlike Pioneers, Yamaha, Denon, etc.)

Here's a quote from a long running "H/K 635 Question" thread found here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-557549.html

Ok, I called HK tech support and they were very helpful, the guy knew his stuff. He had me hook up all 3 of my cd players just to be sure, but he had a hunch from the beginning. The CPUs in the HK receivers have a built in function that will mute output for roughly 1 second when a digital stream is dropped or switched - this is a form of protection. Say for example you are using a digital cable box with a digital audio connection and a commercial is outputting a digital PCM stream. Now a show or movie comes back on in DD 5.1 - if the processor doesn't mute the output initially when locking on to the new signal, you will hear white noise that could very well damage your speakers. I have tried this before by playing a DTS .wav track on my computer, and I would sometimes get it on my old receiver while in college when I was using a crappy dvd player and fast forwarding - the dvd player would switch from the DD 5.1 track to stereo while in fast forward for some reason.

When a song is skipped on a cd player, the laser has to move, and the stream is temporarily haulted. The 635 picks up on this and gives the temporary mute as protection. This can be confirmed by watching the display panel of the 635 when switching songs. The L and R speaker icons temporarily flash, meaning no signal is present for second, and when the stream is picked back up, the front display goes from "SURROUND OFF" to "44.1KHZ", back to "SURROUND OFF". He told me all HK receivers do this, firmware version has nothing to do with it, and there is no way to turn this protection off. I asked him if most modern day receivers have this, and he said they very likely will...

My 4 month old 435 quit on me this week...won't stay powered on for more than a few minutes.

My first and definitely my last HK.

A month and I'm still waiting for HK to just get the parts to the repair shop for my AVR635. It got frozen on the firmware upgrade and wouldn't turn back on. Plus I had problems with video flickering (my Pioneer 811 handles the same sources just fine) and the front panel connections wouldn't play audio. I doubt I'd buy HK again, how many other brands do you see countless threads about this many problems? It's not worth the headaches with so many other receivers available that actually work the way they are supposed to.

I have a DPR 2005 with a pair of infinity beta 50, bose center and bose shelf rear. I have not had a problem since i purchsed back in janurary. My new reciever replaced a yamaha that died after 5 years. Very happy with current setup will be upgrading center to infinity beta 360 and surround to Infinity 265's and rear to 265's as well and HSU sub later this next year.

I've had a new 635 for a few months now, gets daily use for a few hours. The only problem I've had is some tearing/artifacting a few times when using the component output, a power cycle clears it up.

Owned my 635 for almost a year now.. probably gets used for a couple hours a night during the week, and around 8 hours a day on the weekend. I haven't had any problems with the receiver. I do know what you are talking about with the 1.5 sec. mute "feature." I guess I have learned to accept it. If it is going to save some speakers or the receiver so I can use it longer, than thats something I will accept. So what if you have to rewind the song, tell your friends that HK is looking out for itself and your speakers. Maybe I am just a little more relaxed when it comes to these sorts of things.

I finally got my AVR635 back last Saturday, more than a month after I dropped it off. Well it is still broken. The OSD is gibberish and the front panel looks like the computer screen from The Matrix. Needles to say I'm asking for a replacement.....

Coincidentally, I just discovered my HK 7000's centre channel amp is blown. This, after it's remote stopped working just after the warranty expired, and my $1000 HK DVD player stopped working just after it's one year warranty expired. I decided this morning HK, never again.

Coincidentally, I just discovered my HK 7000's centre channel amp is blown. This, after it's remote stopped working just after the warranty expired, and my $1000 HK DVD player stopped working just after it's one year warranty expired. I decided this morning HK, never again.
How much do you think those timers they insert into the equipment to blow it up after one year add to the price?

How much do you think those timers they insert into the equipment to blow it up after one year add to the price?

I have to agree...it's just a little too coincidental.

Its bad all thats happening but lets not get too crazy here :-) Just in case I am scanning my 635 for any timers ;-)

My 1.5 year old AVR235 recently lost its subwoofer output. I've tried everything including a total processor reset. Still nothing. All other pre-amp outputs work fine - just no sub.

My six-month old AVR435 has been in the shop for 6 weeks now waiting on various parts...left front channel went bad with heavy distortion....

Are the reliability issues primarily with the 6XX HKs or are the lower level models afflicted also? I'm trying to decide between a refurb HK-130 or a refurb Onkyo TX-504 for my inlaws, and I'm having a hard time with the decision. The HK seems by all accounts to be the better receiver, but not if it's going to break 20 times.

I love my 7200. yes, it's old but going strong. i'll get a new one, when they have DD+ & DD TrueHD decoders.

My 7000 just recently stopped emitting sounds. I emailed H/K customer's rep. for some recommendation. NO HELPS THERE! I took it in to the nearest authorized dealer for about a week now. I have not heard from them, will call on Wednesday. I will post my problem after it 's repaired.

HK 130- Loved it never had a problem with it, truthfully I'm looking for another one or a avr 140. ( I sold my 130 to a friend who loves it and won't sell it back.)Was used 6-12 hours a day. Now 2 years old.

Also I currently own a 435 which is completely under utilized for our living room. Never had a problem with it. 1 year old, used a few times a week. Now its starting to get used more because the wifey realized how much better Directv sounds through optical into the receiver versus analog cables to the plasma. In short great receiver they have a warm sound which is hard to find in other receivers. At moderate prices I should add.

Just bought a AVR 340 (refurb ebay), rear channels seem to come in and out when using 5 channel- not totally though, sort of like a low/high effect, I would best describe it as "audio sickness". I often tell myself there is no way pro logic II was meant to sound this way. Also it is apparent that when I turn up the volume I get an "ocean-like" noise, it gets very noticeable when turning the volume higher than -23 db. Also is apparent when I turn up the reciever with no audio playing, right when it gets to about -25db fffffffffffffshhh. I find it really annoying in movies, especially action scenes where you can hear the fffffffsssssss intermitently when the rear channels get a signal. Its not crazy loud, but you can tell which speakers do it. Anyone else have this problem?

ugh my avr 435 started having issues. took it in to only authorized center in town (not very nice people). two seperate trips and they couldn't figure it out. had it RMA'ed and got a refurb. refurb had broken door and would only turn on for 20 secs and shut down immediately after that. sent that back. just got a brand new avr 445 as a replacement. used it for about 4 hours and it froze on me. restarted and rear (sbr and sbl) didn't work; turns out it somehow changed to 'none' in set up. i hope that was just a fluke. if not, i'm selling this on ebay and buying something else.

Damn, I hope if was just a fluke cause thats some bad luck you are having... every time I read something like that I looked at mine hoping that I wont be the next one posting :-)

Luis I am in the same boat with you. I got mine off of Ebay from Harmon and it is Perfect. I can't believe so many people are having this many issues. But I just pray that the next time I post its not to complain.

My factory remanufactured AVR140 initially had a hum in the sub through the LFE. However, when I moved the LFE jacks around a little bit, the hum disappeared and I have had no problem since. (I know - a very scientific solution).

The intermittent problem I am now having is with my left surround satellite. During some movie tracks, I notice some crackling from the speaker. The speaker is a 3 inch JBL (part of an SCS145.5s system). I do not know if the crackling is from the channel on the AVR, a problem with the speaker wire, or if it is due to the JBL satellite itself. I have checked and tightened the speaker wire connections to the AVR and the speaker. I guess I can try to isolate the problem by trying another speaker, wire, etc.
Experts; could a speaker wire that is too long cause my problem with the channel?

I finally got my AVR635 back last Saturday, more than a month after I dropped it off. Well it is still broken. The OSD is gibberish and the front panel looks like the computer screen from The Matrix. Needles to say I'm asking for a replacement.....

Cool! It looks just like the screen from the Matrix? How did you get it to do that? Perhaps HK should look into this as a futute selling point... :D

The 635 has some quirks like if you change inputs and try to change the playback mode (ie stereo, logic 7 ,etc) too fast it wont do a thing so you need to switch back to another input, then select the input you want again and give it a second to sort of react.
The scariest thing that happened to me was one my channels suddenly died. I could have swear everything was connected right as it died while doing the auto calibration. So, reading so many horror stories I immediately thought it was my receiver until I found out one of the stupid cables I was using some how was making contact with the banana plug.
Other than that everything has been fine with me and I love the sound and looks, not to mention how powerful and dynamic this thing is.
Regards

Just bought a AVR 340 (refurb ebay), rear channels seem to come in and out when using 5 channel- not totally though, sort of like a low/high effect, I would best describe it as "audio sickness". I often tell myself there is no way pro logic II was meant to sound this way. Also it is apparent that when I turn up the volume I get an "ocean-like" noise, it gets very noticeable when turning the volume higher than -23 db. Also is apparent when I turn up the reciever with no audio playing, right when it gets to about -25db fffffffffffffshhh. I find it really annoying in movies, especially action scenes where you can hear the fffffffsssssss intermitently when the rear channels get a signal. Its not crazy loud, but you can tell which speakers do it. Anyone else have this problem?i've seen the rear channel coming in and out on the 745 when in Logic 7 Music mode. I left it in music mode after doing some Christmas music listening and then watched a move and got that effect. It went away when I returned the reciever to the Logic 7 Cinema mode.

I posted this in another thread but maybe someone here can help me.

I have 2 subs driven by a hafler amp. Connected to the subwoofer preout, via splitter. The other night I noticed vocals were muffled. As I wanlked closer I noticed that the voices (100+hz) were coming out of the subs. I checked my settings in the OSD. 12" crossed over @ 80hz. I ran my DVE disk. A Fr sweep showed me (with my radioshack spl meter) that my subs were holding +/-4dbs all the way up to 130hz. I was confused. I did a reset and reset my speaker sizes manually. Main left and right @ 60hz. All other (C, Sr, Sl, Sbr, Sbl) @80hz. Sub I put to 12" and 60hz. I re-ran the EZ Eq , in manual mode. I then re-ran my disk, the subwoofer Fr sweep (18-140hz) yealded the same thing, a very audible responce all the way up to approx 130hz, just from the subs. the other channels seem to slope away at apprx the right Fr, but the subs keep climbing instead of sloping away @ or around the Fr set in OSD.

Am I doing something wrong here? I rechecked my connection to make sure I have the sub amp hooked to subwoofer preout. So I know its not that. Its like the H/K is stuck in 120hz, even though I changed it to 60hz.

Any help would be appreciated.

Jake

I took my AVR7000 for repair, tech. stated that most of the capacitors are bad due to H/K design of the unit. They want $250 to repair it, I declined and want a second opinion on it. I tried hooking it up again tonight and found that it only work with the surrround sound off. Any other Hall1, Hall2, DTS, etc,,, would emit scratchy sounds from the speakers. It's frustrating with this unit! I am about to throw it in a garbage. Any suggestion how I can fix this crap?

TIA

Sam

My dpr 2005 turns itself up to a mind crushing volume at random times, about 2x a month these days.

I have this same problem. It happened 3 times just this morning! If it happens again when I'm more than 5 paces away from the remote, it really could blow all my speakers.

So, who else has this issue, and has anyone tracked down a cause? For the record, I'm using a Harmony 676 remote, but I don't think that's the problem. Then again, who knows? Qadinho, are you using a Harmony?

i need some help with my h/k 525

i turned it on, along with the cable box,plasma,dvd,vcr.

everything turns on, but no sound. i get a tv pic, no sound. i changed from video1 to video 2, picture , no sound, played with the other buttons, but unable to get any sound... then

i switched to dvd (no dvd in the player), and on the tv screen it flashed the phillips dvd logo, and i get sound, the tv channel sound, switch back to video 1 or 2, i get the tv pic, no sound..

so in conclusion. on video 1 or 2 , i get a tv pic, but no sound and on dvd no pic but tv sound.

the unit was working fine last time it was used (about a month ago).

is it a faulty unit (switch maybe??) , or am i not doing something properly??

thanks

Had my HK 125 for four years, used alot, concerts, movies. Never had a problem, now sitting in a box in my basement replaced by a Yamaha RX-V2500. However, the $300 HK DVD22 packed it in after only eight months, this is complete crap for that kind of money, never again for HK in my house.

my new avr 445 has been working ok except for 1 issue. it freezes once a week or so. a hard freeze where i have to turn off the main power switch and it will loose some ezset settings. it seems that it freezes when i fwd commercial breaks on my tivo series 3. i tried decreasing remote command interval and it seemed to help. i think it locks when it looses an audio signal for some reason. works fine and sounds great otherwise.

i need some help with my h/k 525

i turned it on, along with the cable box,plasma,dvd,vcr.

everything turns on, but no sound. i get a tv pic, no sound. i changed from video1 to video 2, picture , no sound, played with the other buttons, but unable to get any sound... then

i switched to dvd (no dvd in the player), and on the tv screen it flashed the phillips dvd logo, and i get sound, the tv channel sound, switch back to video 1 or 2, i get the tv pic, no sound..

so in conclusion. on video 1 or 2 , i get a tv pic, but no sound and on dvd no pic but tv sound.

the unit was working fine last time it was used (about a month ago).

is it a faulty unit (switch maybe??) , or am i not doing something properly??

thanksHave you looked to see what input each one is taking it's audio from? Digital or Analog?

If you haven't used it in a month and it was unpluged, most likely all your settings were lost. You'll most likely need to tell it where the audio source is coming from (Optical 1 2 or 3, Coax 1 2 or 3) ect.

I love the sound of this amp, but it can be a real pain in the butt. I will post this in the 635 questions thread as well, but here goes. I am on my fourth amp, but first new one. The other three were refurbs that I got beginning in June and ending in August. So this brand new one was purchased in August 2006. A few weeks ago, for no apparent reason, it switched off and into standby mode. I turned it back on and all was fine. It happened again several days later. It happened again on Tuesday, and then last again last night. However, last night when I tried to turn it back on it would not stay on and kept going into standby mode. I checked all connections and they looked fine. Nothing has been changed, and I use banana plugs for all speaker connections. I tried again with same results, about four or five times. Then suddenly it stayed on and remained on for the rest of the evening, about five hours or so.

My first reaction would be a short somewhere that causes it to go into standby, but I can't find anything on my end. Any ideas? Anyone else experience this and have to return for repairs?

davisjl... i brought the unit into a shop for repair, and the tech could not find anything wrong with it... he too said i mite have lost the settings.. (thanks)

at the same time i brought in my 7300 which was doa (no lites ,.no nothing).. he found a bad capacitor, replaced it and a fuse, charged me $135... which i think is very fair.. the unit has a total of 240hrs of use, as it is used for my theatre room and the bulb on the pj has 240hrs on it..
imagine 240 hrs .. 10 total day running and the unit craps out... i will never/ever buy another h/k product...

at the same time i brought in my 7300 which was doa (no lites ,.no nothing).. he found a bad capacitor, replaced it and a fuse, charged me $135... which i think is very fair.. the unit has a total of 240hrs of use, as it is used for my theatre room and the bulb on the pj has 240hrs on it..
imagine 240 hrs .. 10 total day running and the unit craps out... i will never/ever buy another h/k product...If you're saying you only had 24 days of use on the unit ... why didn't you RMA it to HK?

If you're saying you only had 24 days of use on the unit ... why didn't you RMA it to HK?


well the unit is approx 2 1/2 years old, and i think the warranty is 2 years, so i am outside the time, even tho the total number of hours the unit was used is 240 (or a total of 10days).

i actually called h/k today explained the situation to a fellow who said 'sorry' no can help.

i then proceeded to tell him how i will spread my experiences with h/k to everyone i can, and he transferred me to a supervisor, where i left a message, awaiting a call back.

thanks again..

well the unit is approx 2 1/2 years old, and i think the warranty is 2 years, so i am outside the time, even tho the total number of hours the unit was used is 240 (or a total of 10days).

i actually called h/k today explained the situation to a fellow who said 'sorry' no can help.

i then proceeded to tell him how i will spread my experiences with h/k to everyone i can, and he transferred me to a supervisor, where i left a message, awaiting a call back.

thanks again..Well, I can't say that it is HK fault you had a capacitor go bad and a fuse blow after 2 1/2 years (even with the limited hours used). You could have had a small surge do that easily. Even on a Surge protector this can happen. I don't think I would blame this on HK as it could just as easily happen to Denon or any other product.

I've had to put a voltage regulator on my system because it damage my previous unit when the AC unit would kick on. The power box is not balanced well and the voltage drops and then spikes when the AC clicks on. Simular situation as you ... fuse blown and bad capacitor.

I've had my own issues with HK QC, but I don't think this one you can pin on HK ...

I just attempted to use my HK 235 from an HarmonAudio Ebay auction and the left speaker gets almost no power at all.

Attempted to use 2 different speakers and two different sets of cables, but no luck.

They both worked on the right speaker though.

I have a HK avr75 that sounds great but shuts down when watching movies. If I have the volume low it doesn't do it. I got on the forum to see if I could find answers to my problem and I'm very surprised to see newer HK's having the same problem. I think it's time for a new reciever, I've already had this repaired once. I was wondering if my 4 ohm? M&K's are the problem.

My other 2 recievers I've owned have always worked perfectly. One's the garage stereo (Technics sa101) and is 26yrs old and the other (Yamaha rx 530) is in the family room and has been used constantly for 18yrs.

With the outlandish number of people on these forums that have had bad capacitors in their HK, I am quite comfortable laying the blame on HK. My first 635 had a bad amp, my second had memory issues and the bad capacitor and my third will unpredictably freeze up. I've given up on HK and am dealing with it until I upgrade to separates. Can't wait.

I would be curious though, how many of these they have sold without problems. I mean if you sell a million units and have 100 go bad, not too bad of figures. Even if you had 1,000 go bad is it really that big of a deal. Think of how many times cars have been recalled. The more electronics and circuitry that go into these, the more problems I think there could be. I haven't checked any of the other know receivers with issues threads, but I can't believe HK is the only one out there with this many issues. But then again I am a little biased as I haven't had any problems with mine. Knock on wood.

I have a HK avr75 that sounds great but shuts down when watching movies. If I have the volume low it doesn't do it. I got on the forum to see if I could find answers to my problem and I'm very surprised to see newer HK's having the same problem. I think it's time for a new reciever, I've already had this repaired once. I was wondering if my 4 ohm? M&K's are the problem.

My other 2 recievers I've owned have always worked perfectly. One's the garage stereo (Technics sa101) and is 26yrs old and the other (Yamaha rx 530) is in the family room and has been used constantly for 18yrs.

Are you aware that the HK AVR75 was built by Marantz...
It was the exactly the same as their model SR 86..

I would be curious though, how many of these they have sold without problems. I mean if you sell a million units and have 100 go bad, not too bad of figures. Even if you had 1,000 go bad is it really that big of a deal. Think of how many times cars have been recalled. The more electronics and circuitry that go into these, the more problems I think there could be. I haven't checked any of the other know receivers with issues threads, but I can't believe HK is the only one out there with this many issues. But then again I am a little biased as I haven't had any problems with mine. Knock on wood.

HK has a serious problem with quality control plain and simple. I know a front panel "trap door" has no effect on sound, but if they put out a product with the same problem for three generations, to me it's like an "I don't care we'll sell it anyways" mentality.

Currently AVR7300 in the living room and DPR 2005 in the family room, no issues at all. Both of these purchased as replacements for a AVR 525 & AVR 135 again no issues at all.

All units were purchased new, not referb'd. But in general I think referb'd units may be a great deal. It seems to me a very small but vocal group has had problems with HK, not the majority of owners.

kevin

It really isn't a small group. When I found out my 745 had a broken trap door and numerous other problems, I did a search on those problems only to find out there were hundreds of people with issues. Now, that doesn't seem like a lot of people in the big scheme of things, but I would think that maybe only one out of thousand HK buyers would frequent these types of forums so if you extrapolate they have a huge QC issue IMO.
One of the best receivers I've had through my system was the HK AVR8000, that was a quality built and sounding piece, by comparison the 745 sounded good but was built like a toy and that's supposed to be their new flagship??

Dang it my 635 locked up two days ago and required a power off. And of course it lost its settings. And the door is saggy. I'll probably warranty it when I can be a little more certain of getting a 645 from HK as a replacement.

"It really isn't a small group. When I found out my 745 had a broken trap door and numerous other problems, I did a search on those problems only to find out there were hundreds of people with issues."

Hundreds?! May I inquire as to how you found this many?

Unless we know the total number of HK's sold, we really have no basis for comparing the reliability to other brands.

"It really isn't a small group. When I found out my 745 had a broken trap door and numerous other problems, I did a search on those problems only to find out there were hundreds of people with issues."

Hundreds?! May I inquire as to how you found this many?

Unless we know the total number of HK's sold, we really have no basis for comparing the reliability to other brands.

Hi Noah,
The answer is in my quote. ;)

I'm not really concerned about how they compare to other brands, the point I am making is that they are compromising their own brand, specifcally with what they are passing off as their flagship models. The 745 was going to retail for $4k here and the build quality is superceded by $900 Denons and Yamahas. I'm talking cheap chassis, goofy trap door, flimsy binding posts etc.

I got a HK AVR645 because I wanted something with HDMI capability. I have a sony 46" XBR3 and I had no luck getting this reciever to work with my LCD. Audio was working fine but there's no video at all. All sorts of HDMI signal handshaking problems. I have a PS3 and Toshiba HD-A2 and neither of them worked. I was with HK customer support for a while and but no help. The guy I spoke was blaming that its a LCD problem & I told him they all work fine if they are connected straight to LCD thru HDMI but I have no picture & very flaky sound connections when passed thru HDMI of AVR645. Product quality is very poor with broken trap door and not in par with a product price. I spent quite a bit of time with customer support to get this resolved.Finally gave up & sent it back.If someone has XBR3 and trying to get AVR645 I would suggest stay away from this.I actually love HK products but very disappointed with this product and support.

"The answer is in my quote."

I've googled on the 645/745 and only got a handful of hits from unique individuals.

Then there's the dozen or two complaints here.

My question is where exactly you found so much more info.

Had a 630 for a few years,never a problem.Have a 635 for about a year,never a problem.

I envy you. My 630 is just sitting there with it's power plug up it's axx!

Over a year now the unit stopped working. Took it to a factory recommended shop. They wanted $600 to replace the Dolby section.

Looking into a replacement with one of the new units incorporating the new HDMI 1.3.

Whatever I end up with, it will not be a sorry HK again!

I bought a refurb avr-240 from ebay close to a year ago with no problems so far. It has worked great.

M Code, I didn't realize it was made by marantz. So I guess Marantz had to make sure they made a larger number of bad units to match HK's QC.

"The answer is in my quote."

I've googled on the 645/745 and only got a handful of hits from unique individuals.

Then there's the dozen or two complaints here.

My question is where exactly you found so much more info.

Geez Noah, why you bustin my ba**s? :p

That was about two months ago and I didn't write down a history of my searches. I suppose in all fairness "hundreds" could imply 200 or 300, so in that context it might be an exageration. My bad. :o
But, if you consider this site alone probably has at least 20 complaints, how many audio sites are there - 10? 20?

The simple and undeniable fact is that I've had two of their products in my HT and the build quality of the older unit was MUCH better than what they are passing off as flagship today. And really why on earth would they continue to put out that stupid trap door when they knew it was a piss poor design long ago? Doesn't that alone speak volumes?

"Geez Noah, why you bustin my ba**s? "

Sorry, I just get a little bothered when people create statistics to bolster their case.

But you do have a case.

Consider yourself blessed!

Anything out there thats sounds like an HK, but with better build quality?

Are you aware that the HK AVR75 was built by Marantz...
It was the exactly the same as their model SR 86..

that explained it: Marantz wants to be like H/K in build quality too.

BTW, M Code, do you still insist that H/K has excellent build quality and every issue we saw here is caused by incorrect user experience?

as i wrote previously.. a 7300 with 240hours on it (its 2 1/2 years old)... d.o.a. with a bad cap.

525, with blinking input lights... the unit works, and thought it best to leave well enough alone...

what do i think of h/k products... my mum always said if u don't have anything nice to say...

I need to retract my negative comments on my AVR75. It was series of unfortunate events that led to my problems. Several different freakish wiring problems. The AVR75 sems to have a more sensitive shutdown curciut than other brands I've had.

DPR 2005, over 1 1/2 year.

First time I tested 7.1 setup last week, played Die Another Day, sword fight scene in DTS-ES, volume at -15, the receiver will shut off within 1-2 seconds after the guy throws the sword and it gets stuck in the wall. Unplugged the surround back speakers and played it in DTS (5.1) and it was fine at -15 and even at -10. I'm using banana plugs so there was less chance of shorting wires etc. Anyway, after I plugged the surround back again and played the scene, no more shut off at that point, even at -10 level. So, I will probably say it was a lose connection and somehow the banana plug was causing some issue at high volume (as high current will be flowing at that time).

But I'll keep an eye on the DPR as I only 6 more months left in the warranty.

I was a little premature in my last post. It's back to it's old behavior and there are no wiring isues.

My OSD is acting weird now, it gets all distorted like it has a bad signal or something - as soon as you pop out of it though video on the TV is fine. Grr.

BTW, M Code, do you still insist that H/K has excellent build quality and every issue we saw here is caused by incorrect user experience?


H/K sold 450K AVRs last year according the Twice Industry 2006 CE Retail survey..
In this thread there are 27 problems stated...

27 problems out of 450,000 units sold, indicates that 0.00006% of the units sold had a problem reported on this AVS thread...

That seems to be a very low number....
But I guess nobody can be perfect..

C'mon M Code. Be realistic. Not every one of the 450,000 buyers is an AVS forum member. Plus many people don't use all the features of a receiver so they may not notice some of the issues brought up here. AVS folks are probably more demanding than the average Joe.

I love my HK but your calculations have no basis. There are definitely some quality control problems, what percentage I have no clue. But it sure isn't as low as your estimate.

You should be the official spin doctor for HK. :)

H/K sold 450K AVRs last year according the Twice Industry 2006 CE Retail survey..

Yeah and probably about 50% of them were returned and eventually ended up on their ebay store as refurbs....

But hey, that's still good. Because they get to count them as yet another sale...... ;)

I too have a AVR 630 and it forgets its settings after a power interruption or hard power off.

It has also been known to crank the volume to max for no reason.

I also have a volume punch through setting on the remote that will only increase the volume, not decrease it. On other settings, the remote will decrease volume fine.

adam

I have an AVR7200 that I have had now for 3+ years. I had to get it repaired under warranty once. The unit wouldnt power up on morning I sent it off and they had to replace a fuse. A problem that I am starting to have with it now is that if I use the volume knob the volume will jump at random intervals and sometimes after spinning it a little bit it will just continue to get louder. I rarely use the knob usually just the remote. Sure it runs hot but I keep the cabinet door open when it is on. It has TONS of power and I like the sound. I will be upgrading to a Pre/Pro setup soon..

I posted ealier that I had mine for around a year.. well it just died. It started to turn off for no apparent reason. If i leave it off for a day or two and then turn it on it works for around 3 hours then does not turn back on. It happens in dolby, 7.1, regular tv watching or movies. I have allready placed a call and I'm waiting for a responce.

C'mon M Code. Be realistic.

don't you think it is a little bit too much to ask M Code, the unofficial resident H/K spin doctor, to be realistic?

:)

Update to my issue with my AVR 140:
I don't hear the left rear surround crackling anymore, and I suspect the problem was that I am using very thin guage wire and the wire is very long (I think about 40 feet). I didn't know "squat" about wire guage size/length issues when I bought the AVR 140 so just hooked up some of my speakers with some HTIB wire :eek: .

I am now looking for some decent wire that doesn't cost a fortune. Monoprice is completely out of speaker wire until late February it looks like. :confused: I am thinking of getting some discount Monster HTIB wire that I found at an inexpensive price (I know Monster is overrated - the wire is just a good price), but I don't know the guage of the wire, as Monster doesn't seem to include such specifications on their website or product.

Anyhoot, My AVR 140 sounds wonderful and I currently mostly listen to music on it. I have my Pinnacle PN 6+ speakers hooked up to it in the front main position, currently, with my JBL sub 45 on the LFE channel.

I was listening to my Acoustic Research M2 Holographic Imaging speakers for a while with the AVR 140, but I can only take so much listening with those - they are very detailed, but very bright! :eek: However, if I want to hear the finest little details in a recording, the M2s are the speakers! The Pinnacles are less bright, and fuller in the mid-range and bass than the M2s with nice detail and warmth.

My old Camber Laser 7s are wonderful, but alas, one of the tweeter's domes was destroyed in a move. I need to find a replacement tweeter or replace both tweeters in both towes with something that will come close to the sound of the original tweeter.

Well, that's all for my adventures with Harman Kardon for now - except that I had an HK 350i that I finally sold to a good home - the guy saw it in the ad I posted and called me up frantically saying "when can I come pick it up? :p " He seemed to appreciate the vintage HK stuff like I did, and I was glad to see the receiver hopefully find a good home with him in his car stereo shop :eek: . I would have loved to have kept the receiver around, but just was out of room in my little apartment.

I just bought the AVR 140 yesterday and was looking for other owners when I found your post. I have a couple of questions for you if you don't mind. I want to use my HTIB speakers while I take my time testing out other ones, the problem is that they are 4ohm speakers. Any idea what the consequence is if I do this? The second question is about new speakers. I am considering the Klipsch Quintet III to go along with my Bic H-100 and the 140. Any other suggestions in the $400-$500 price range?

I bought a refurb AVR525 several years ago and it has been near flawless.

I plan to replace it this year because I want a receiver that will act as a hdmi switcher.

I just bought the AVR 140 yesterday and was looking for other owners when I found your post. I have a couple of questions for you if you don't mind. I want to use my HTIB speakers while I take my time testing out other ones, the problem is that they are 4ohm speakers. Any idea what the consequence is if I do this? The second question is about new speakers. I am considering the Klipsch Quintet III to go along with my Bic H-100 and the 140. Any other suggestions in the $400-$500 price range?

You should have no problem running 4 ohm speakers with your HK receiver. Just use the appropriate guage speaker wire for the length of wire you are running from the receiver to the speakers.

My dpr 2005 turns itself up to a mind crushing volume at random times, about 2x a month these days. Other than that, it is ok.

(this post is a plea for help, what can i do to stop this?)
ugh. i'm having the SAME prob w/ my AVR 7300. and I've already blown a pair of pretty rare Castle Speakers.

happened 4x in the last 1.5 yrs, i'm taking it to a warranty repair shop. all of my remotes have been de-activated except the Harmony 880. I've sinced moved 3 times and it's happened at 2 of my new residences.

i'm afraid to go ahead w/ my speaker upgrades because of this problem.

re: H/K reliability
i'm scared. i bought a DPR2005 on clearance, after the first week, it would suddenly shut off and not repower back-on. took it back to the store, the demo DPR2005 had the SAME prob. the retailer upgraded me to my (NIB) current AVR7300 at 50% off MSRP, but now this.

next time, outlaw/emotiva/denon/<name-your-higher-end entry-level pre/pro here.>

If you power off and power on your receiver, it will reset and be a lot less likely to crank the volume involuntarily.

Of course, when I do this, I lose my settings, but I haven't had the volume explosion in a while.

Is there any way to solve the "lost settings" issue? My receiver has always lost all of the settings in memory after a loss of power...& today it lost the settings for no reason in particular. I'm getting a bit tired of re-running the room eq...

I do have the .15 firmware & enjoy the receiver, but the loss of memory is making me consider an upgrade.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

yeah return it.... it has a bad capacitor.

Since this thread just got bumped, I thought I'ld add my experience. I tried a 146 from Best Buy and liked it, but decided I wanted EzSet/EQ, which the 146 does not have, and the local BB does not carry the 147, so I got it elsewhere. The Best Buy unit had no issues for the few days that we kept it.

I have to say that we have been delighted with the way these entry level harman/kardon units work with our Polk Audio speakers (first with MiniMonitors, now with big RT55(i) and a CS400(i)). I found EzSet/EQ was very useful for calibration purposes, even if you're going to tweak the settings a little manually afterwards. The sound is significantly better than our Denon receiver (this was a very expensive, $1,000+, unit ten years ago) and better than our stereo Yamaha (even in stereo mode). Everything has worked perfectly so far and the modest 40w/ch rating seems to have better clean power for playing at 85dB measured listening levels compared to the so-called 80w/ch Denon.

I got a refurb off HK ebay store. Worked great for a few weeks then the center channel died. It initially came with the newest firmware.

They sent a shipping label and I got a new one about 2 weeks later. Works great with zero issues for about 4-5 months now. It did come with old firmware and had a bunch of service repair stickers on it from a place in florida.

I got a refurb off HK ebay store. Worked great for a few weeks then the center channel died. It initially came with the newest firmware.

They sent a shipping label and I got a new one about 2 weeks later. Works great with zero issues for about 4-5 months now. It did come with old firmware and had a bunch of service repair stickers on it from a place in florida.

I have had several refurb AVRs that I got from the harmanaudio.com site and none had problems. And from what I have read from others, the harmanaudio.com refurbs are generally in better condition in both appearance and reliability than the H/K eBay store units. I know mine looked brand new. Of course they usually cost a little more than the eBay units, but worth it, IMO.

Any idea what a capacitor replacement would cost? Geis (authorized service center) charges $40 diagnostics & will "call me" if the repair is over $180.

Shrug..... I sent mine back to H/K and they replace the unit for free. I had them cross ship the unit (they charged my CC, but refunded when they received the defective unit).

I have an AVR 135, I've had it for about a year and a half now, with no issues whatsoever. It replaced an AVR 125 which worked great for about 4 years until lightning hit a tree across the alley, about 20 feet from where the receiver was sitting in my house. The 125 still worked but had a hum in the audio, even after getting a near direct lightning hit.

Davis: where did you send your receiver? I've been emailing HK & they directed me to an "authorized service center" because my receiver is out of warranty. Geis seem to be their recommended center. They charge $40 to look at it, but can't estimate the repair costs. They also say they are running two weeks on repairs. (plus I have to ship it to them for another $30 or so)

I bought a refurbished AVR 635 from Harman Audio on eBay, about two years ago. This was my first AV receiver so I can't speak as to its performance in general but to date, I've had the following problems:

Component input sometimes shows the wrong colors when switching to that input for the first time. It appears too unsaturated and it takes a few minutes to "warm up" to the correct colors.
Sometimes, there's a crackling sound across all inputs while the regular sound is playing. After a minute or so, all the channels shut down and I can't get any audio out of the receiver. Turning the thing off and back on fixes the problem.
My biggest problem is that the receiver randomly turns off (shuts down, goes to standby). It usually works for long stretches of time but sometimes it just wants to turn off and I can't use it for more than a few minutes at a time. I've checked the audio connections multiple times, even switching to banana plugs to try to eliminate stray wires. It's not a heat issue because it can happen right after I turn on the receiver. I'm not sure what the issue is.

bump to this thread

Had a AVR 635 refurb from Harman Online that hummed and buzzed out of the box. proceeded to lock up and go crazy. sent it back and was upgraded to AVR 745 and anxiously awaiting it to come.

seems the AVR 635 have the majority of the "fatal" flaws.

Sounded really good when it did work! I am sure the 745 will sound better!

My UK AVR140 (bought off ebay UK) has some interesting flaws :

Optical digital feed from cable box : Logic 7 Movie - occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, the volume increases markedly : a quick flick to another input and then back again to cable sorts it. However, it started happening more and more often so I've sadly given up using Logic 7 Movie and reverted to DPLIIx Movie. Shame, as I liked L7 Movie, but not enough to have my ear drums burst every so often

Centre speaker dialogue suddenly switches to rear surrounds for no reason - again only on cable TV.

Other than that, I'm a totally happy bunny. I recalibrated my entire system today after moving the speakers to conform to exact Dolby standards (you know, angles and stuff - first time I've used a protractor in about 100 years !) and boy it sounds a lot tighter. Particularly as I finally did the subwoofer crawl and found the perfect sweet spot for my sub (right in a corner funnily enough).

Years ago I bought the AV100, my very first Dolby Pro Logic amp, and it was broken when I got it home : front left channel wasn't working. Took it back to the retailer and they gave me a replacement which was just fine. Eventually sold it to a mate who still uses it, I believe.

My warranty is almost about to expire and since day one Vid 2 and DVD (possibly Vid 3 too but I don't use it) has had serious input issues - it will roll the display until you reboot the AVR about 50% of the time. Never happens on Vid 1.

I called tech support and they want me to bring it to some shop, that isn't really my preferred method - any suggestions on how to get HK to do this directly? I'd rather ship the darn thing...

Also are they just giving refurb 635s or is it possible to snag a 645?

Is there any way to solve the "lost settings" issue? My receiver has always lost all of the settings in memory after a loss of power...& today it lost the settings for no reason in particular. I'm getting a bit tired of re-running the room eq...

I do have the .15 firmware & enjoy the receiver, but the loss of memory is making me consider an upgrade.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Mine had the same problem. It might be the 'bad capacitor' problem, but make sure you check the system after a month or so again after fixing it. Mine had the same issue and replaced the capacitor, but the problem happend again after a month or so.

My experience with HK receiver.

1. Defective fan issue. Bought AVR 635. The unit was defective that its fan stayed running loud as soon as turning the unit on. Exchanged it with other unit.
2. Broken optical input door. This may not be specific to HK, but AVR 635's optical input doors are week and I managed to break them although I am pretty careful with my gears. HK authorized service center took 3 weeks to fix this. :(
3. Memory loss. AVR 635 started loosing its settings when ever power goes off. Replaced capacitor. HK authorized service center took 4.5 weeks to fix this. :(
4. Compatibility issue. Composite to component video transcode never worked with my Hitachi VCR + HK AVR 635 + Samsung DLP TV.
5. System hang. AVR 635 occassionally hangs while watching movies. Couldn't reproduce this issue reliably and just made me mad.
6. Memory loss again. AVR 635 started losing its settings when ever power goes off or hang. HK authorized service center took 5 weeks to say that they can't fix this. HK support offered a replacement unit. It tooks 2 weeks to get replacement unit as HK waited to get defective unit and send new one after that.
7. Dings and scratches. Replacement unit suffered from visual dings and scratches when it was delivered. That hurt my heart as my original unit looked brand new.
8. System hang. Replacement unit offered (AVR 635-Z, reconditioned unit) always hangs before finish a single movie. HK offered another replacement (AVR 645-Z, reconditioned unit). Now I am waiting to receive it after sending AVR 635-Z back to HK. This time HK offered cross sending to reduce delay.

Crossing my fingers.

So in short, HK definitely needs to work on quality issues based on my personal experience. HK support is fine, but could be better if they can have process like how Sony supports their receivers.

I had the AVR635 for over 3 years with no issues other than the memory lost but now the receiver will shut off as soon as I turn it on. I tried disconnecting all the cables to the receiver but still no luck. Any help will be aprreciated.

Two years... only about three "hangs" throughout that whole time. Power off solved each one.

No problems otherwise.

AVR 225 working perfectly for nearly ten years. Just recently it has developed an irritating hum in the right main channel.

Got a refurbished AVR335 from the Ebay store over two years ago. It has been working fine up to a week ago. It has power (power indicator light is on), but will not come out of the standby mode whether I press the standby/on button on the receiver or the power button on the remote. Unfortunately, it is 6 month pass it's warranty period. I've written HK; now waiting on a response. Any suggestions from you guys???

edit: I have tried pulling the plug for over 10 minutes and plugging back in. Also pressed the tone mode button trick but got no response.

I've had my DPR2005 since mid-2005 (over 3 years now), and at around the 2.5 year mark, it started shutting off by itself after some scratching noises from the center channel. I can power it back on, and it'd eventually shut off again after some center-speaking noises. But if I switch off surround mode (whether Dolby, DTS, or a virtual surround mode), then it doesn't happen. Over the span of 6 months, it's gotten worse...meaning it shuts off much more frequently. Maybe every few minutes or so.

It's out of warranty, and a couple of shouting matches with H/K's customer service didn't gain me anything. It's a shame, because I thought I got a deal when I paid "only" $700 for the DRP-2005 from OneCall.

I've owned my AVR7000 for about 8 years now. Never had any problems until recently. I had to replace the cap that stores memory settings this summer. That was a pretty easy fix in my living room with a soldering iron.

Now the center, left surround and sub channels are all extremely low when I turn it on. After about 30-45 minutes it they're up to normal levels. I switched the left surround and left front wires at the back of the receiver and the problem moved to the left front speaker. Same with the center speaker. On top of that, there's a 14 dB difference between the left surround and left main speaker. I've got the front at -7 db and the rear at +7 dB for them to hit the same level on a meter. I sit closer to the surround speaker than I do the main.

I have an external biamp system to run my front mains, (and the sub has its own amp) but I run center and surrounds off the built in amps of my receiver.

A couple years ago I bought an HK AVR 335 from Harman Direct - it was a refurb but it worked very nice - but after a while I wanted something newer, more powerful ... yada yada yada... so I bought a used HK AVR-7300 on Craigslist locally. Seemed like a real nice unit - 7x110w/ch and original retail was $2400(!). It was pre-HDMI but had Faroudja video chip enhancement, HDCD/SACD/DTS/Dolby and all kinds of neat features.

Unfortunately, when we had a power outage few months later, I found out it didn't remember its presets - and there are a LOT of things to reset in a 7 channel system! But since I'd already sold the AVR 335, and the AVR 7300 sounded very nice & made the system very spouse friendly, too, I kept it!

I had that "volume auto-turns itself up to too LOUD" problem a few times last summer. It seemed to be only on bright summer days, but it was rare and didn't happen any more after a while, thank goodness! (I've since heard that it means the unit is getting too hot).

But - after I'd had it about a year, one day it hung itself - all the little icons on the orange display panel came on all at once , and it seemed basically locked and dead. Cycling power didn't help. leaving powered down for the weekend and then plugging it in didn't help either.

So I got a cheap Yamaha AVR (RX-V2095) off CL to use for a spare, and got an Hk AVR 347 (refurb) from Harman Direct - what a bad experience. it was funky and unstable, but the AVR347 was a refurb, so after a couple weeks I got an RMA and just shipped it back for a refund.

I got a (new) Emotiva UMC-1 preamp/processor to try out, but it seemed unstable, and was too much like paying them to do their beta testing, so I packed it up and shipped it back (30 day demo mode), and got my $700 back!) Of course, it had no amps so I had to use external amps (Adcom GFA-2535) for the surrounds and center speaker.

I checked the Harman site and found a local shop was one of their factory authorized service centers! They said $60 for an estimate and the fee goes to the repair costs - so - I'm hoping they can fix it for under $250.


So - that's my experience - of the 3 HK receivers I had, of the 2 refurbs - 1 had problems, 1 was fine
The AVR7300, a flagship receiver I bought used at about 5 years old - had serious problems within a year,
but I'm going to try and have it fixed because when it worked, the AVR 7300 was the best I've had in the system,
(even tho I use an external HDMI switch for some sources).