Has anyone bought an HK recevier & it was a pile? (1 Viewer)

[RobWil]

I've had two older HK models for around 7 yrs now, which I've recently replaced....the AVR 25 and the AVR 10. Never had a problem with either one but maybe the newer ones aren't as reliable? I don't know
Just thought I'd throw that in

 

[Rus Bowisc]

:frowning:

Maybe I shouldn't have bought the 125.

:frowning:



Bowisc

 

[JohnSer]

Let me state that I have a number of H/K pieces, but none that are 2 years old, and hope NOT to have any problems. I have a new 520 purchased before last xmas, and a good number of refurb items, purchased this year, to outfit the kids and basement. For refurbs have a 3470, 310, DVD5, 3-8380s, 2 pair IL10s, 1 IL25, and a pair of IL30s. I had one 8380, that skiped on some CDs. HA replaced it and paid for shipping both ways. Also had one pair of IL10s, actually arive as Entras. Again they paid for shipping both ways. FWIW, these exchanges were very easy, with no agrevating discussions. All speakers, seemed to be be brand spanking new, even though they have been out of production for a couple of years. The 3470 and 310 looked like new, while the CD and DVD players are definitly used and have some light scratchs on the front.

All that said, I would never pay anything near MSRP for any of these. While they all sound good, and may use quality electronics, a number of parts I do think they skimp on. (heatsinks, jacks, chassis, etc) One item they don't skimp on is the transformers in the receivers.

JohnS

 

[BrianCli]

I just purchased a HK 525 almost a week ago. I am very happy with this receiver. No problems yet.

The beast does run hot..... but sounds awesome. I cannot stress enough how good the 525 sounds.

Happy HK customer (so far),

BrianCli

 

[David G Greene]

Harman Audio sent me an e-mail saying that they are going to replace my AVR 110-Z with the 120-Z.

Now my wife want let me buy another brand.

:frowning:


I really like the sound of my 220-Z. I hope this is a better unit.

 

[RobWil]

Hmmmm....they must read this forum
Congrats on your upgrade!

 

[David Ruggiero]

Well, I guess I'll tell my HK story. Around the end of June I bought a HK AVR-525 from J&R.com for $699.99 with free shipping. Hooked it up, was extremely pleased with the power and sound quality... far better then my old Sony receiver. After about 3 weeks, I was outside washing my car and wanted to hear some music so I opened a window closest to my driveway and turned on some music from the radio at about -5 on the volume (max is +10 I believe) which is louder then I usually listen to it. Normally I don't go above -20 or -15. After about a half hour the receiver turned itself off. I went in the house, turned it back on to make sure it still worked (it came back on right away), then shut it back off figuring that it just got too hot and I would let it cool down for awhile. After an hour or so I turned it back on and it seemed to work fine. The next day however, my brother-in-law came over and was checking out my home theater equipment so I offered to demo "The Matrix" for him, as he never really heard a home theater before. I went right to the lobby scene, and set the volume at -15 to really knock his socks off. But then there was a problem... every few minutes it kept shutting itself off, usually when there was a loud sound like an explosion. I used to be able to play the receiver at -15 with no problems but now it would randomly shut off if I had the volume above -25. Tried the processor reset as described in the manual but that didn't help. So I called HK customer service, who told me that I was better off returning the receiver to J&R since it was less then 30 days then taking it to service because "the service department probably wouldn't even look at it for two weeks", his words, not mine. So I reluctantly sent it back to J&R at my expense, and after a week or so I received another AVR-525. Spent about a half hour hooking everything up, turned it on and... NOTHING! No sound at all! To say I was upset was an understatement to say the least. The front display would come on but that was it. No sound or video out of any of the outputs. This time I emailed customer service, and they said that maybe it got banged up during shipping (the box looked fine though, J&R double boxes everything) and to send this one back to J&R for another receiver. Which I did again, also at my expense. After another week and a half or so I received another AVR-525. Opened the box and noticed the the top looked a little bent. Took it out the box and removed the foam from the sides and discovered that the side was damaged as well. It had to be shipped from the factory like that because of the damage was behind the foam, no way it could have been damaged there after being put in the box. At this point needless to say I am fuming. I decided to hook it up just to see if it works and luckily for me it did work despite the damage. So I emailed HK customer service again and included pictures showing the damage. At this point I am so upset and beat down from this experience that I just want to keep this one even though it is damaged. I asked HK in the email if they would somehow compensate me for all trouble I have been having, not to mention shipping the 2 other receivers back at my expense, and will they honor the warranty on this damaged receiver. They offered nothing, other then agreeing to honor the warranty and extend it by 2 more years for a total of 4 years. Whoop-de-do. If I didn't love this receiver so much I would have told them where to stick it. So basically I paid full price for a damaged receiver and got 2 years more warranty that I'll probably never need. Bottom line-Harman Kardon customer service sucks. I am going to call them, and while it might not do any good I feel sorry for whoever answers that phone because I am going to definitely give them a piece of my mind!

Whoa sorry for the length of this post but it felt good to get this off my chest! : )

 

[Doug_B]

...and I was wondering why they have so many refurbished units for sale all over the place :frowning: . As a matter of fact, I just talked my friend into purchasing a 325 refurb from Onecall last week, even though he doesn't have his 5.1 setup purchased yet. As such, I offered to test it in my setup. Reading the above posts about fried speakers and other nasties doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy about hooking it up to $6K worth of speakers.

Doug