H/K 520 shutting down!!! (1 Viewer)

Craig Ball · Oct 6, 2002

Today I packed up my Acurus amps after sending my Outlaw 950 back, well now i'm using just the H/K and while I was trying to adjust the test tones it kept going into stand by mode (really pissing me off) after about an hour of screwing around i think i have my teat tone set right. Then i put in a cd and crank it for about an hour, no shutdown!!! whats going on? When i first got the H/K i immediately used it as a pre-amp and never had it shutdown, why is it doing this now, No it's not a ventalation problem.

Craig

Brandon_S · Oct 6, 2002

Craig,

I would check the speaker wire to make sure it is connecting to the receiver fully. I had a Sony model receiver that went into "Protect" mode a while back. After reading all the horror stories of Protect mode I was ready to buy a new receiver. Turns out it was just a speaker wire that had partially come out of the receiver. I'm sure others here will have ideas also. Good luck!

Brandon Smith

Craig Ball · Oct 6, 2002

Thanks Brandon, I'll have another look.
For whats it's worth I just finished watching Monsters inc. and it did not shut down.

Craig

peter_anderson · Oct 7, 2002

Craig: My 320 shuts down randomly, and I eventually determined it is due to the finicky power in my apartment. Sometimes the shutdown would be triggered by turning off the TV, or the refrigerator. The clue was that it would never shut down while under load, only while sitting idle, meaning that when the transformer had reserves, it wasn't as susceptible.

Yogi · Oct 7, 2002

I dont know if its me but have any others here felt that the internal build quality of HK 520 sucks. The other day I looked inside the top of a HK 520 and was shocked to see the piss poor heatsinks in that piece. The other receivers I have looked inside like the Denons and Onk's have regular machined aluminum heat sinks but the HK had a strip of aluminum bent in the shape of a heat sink. I thought that was very shabby. Maybe the other components used in the 520 are top notch, I dont know. I like HK sound very much and think that their receivers are one of the most musical. The 520 is such a wonderful piece in terms of sound and features but HK should put some more into the build quality of these units. I have never owned a HK and maybe they are more reliable than the other recievers in their price point, so guys dont take it the wrong way. I am not bashing HK by any means.

Craig Ball · Oct 7, 2002

I rest the H/K back to factory settings and all is well in H/K land again.

Craig

StevenK · Oct 7, 2002

I had the shutdown problem with my 520. H/K and Onecall said it's a known problem...but with older houses with bad wiring. Apparently, the H/K amps draw a ton of currents, so if your house wiring isn't up to snuff...then poof.

Funny thing was I was using it as a pre-amp, and my current Newcastle amp draws more juice than the 520. The shutdown problem actually made me get rid of it....it's a shame too, cause it's a nice sounding receiver.

Yogi · Oct 8, 2002

Apparently, the H/K amps draw a ton of currents, so if your house wiring isn't up to snuff...then poof.

They cant be drawing more than a few amps at the most. I have seen 200x7 channel separate amps with 1200W sub that draw not more than 7-8 amps of current during normal listening and 12 amps during peak (really loud)listening in an above average room. So if someone says that the house wiring is at fault for shutting down an average receiver, I'd say he is pulling wool over your eyes. Just MHO.

Click to expand...

Bob Friend · Oct 8, 2002

...but with older houses with bad wiring

Not exactly. My house is less than a year old and my 520 shut down frequently until I plugged it into a UPS.

Click to expand...

Yogi · Oct 8, 2002

Not exactly. My house is less than a year old and my 520 shut down frequently until I plugged it into a UPS.

There ya go. I knew there was more than just bad house wiring.

Click to expand...

StevenK · Oct 8, 2002

They cant be drawing more than a few amps at the most. I have seen 200x7 channel separate amps with 1200W sub that draw not more than 7-8 amps of current during normal listening and 12 amps during peak (really loud)listening in an above average room. So if someone says that the house wiring is at fault for shutting down an average receiver, I'd say he is pulling wool over your eyes. Just MHO.

Oh I know...it's just that's what H/K and Onecall told me. Seems to me, it's really a defect/design flaw in the x20 lineup. Seems H/K's quality control has been not so good lately.

Click to expand...

RobP · Oct 9, 2002

My 520 shuts down randomly too. I've heard the wiring explanation before too and I've noticed that it will sometimes shutoff when I unplug my fan and stuff like that. But no matter what HK's explanation is I refuse to blame it on anything other than HK's receiver. My $150 Kenwood receiver never shut down on me and didn't have half the problems this thing has. Although I am not asking for it back because it also didn't have the great sound quality this receiver has but you see my point.

Lee Shankman · Nov 9, 2002

I, too, have this random shutdown problem. I haven't figured out exactly what makes it happen, perhaps it has to do with turning on or off other things in the house, like appliances or other electronic gear? When I'm just sitting in front of the tv watching, it NEVER turns off spontaneously. When I have it playing music loudly while I"m working around the house, it NEVER turns off. So maybe it has to do with turning other things in the house on.

I need to do a little more research to figure this out. I also may try resetting to factory defaults like Craig did. If none of this works, I guess I'll need a UPS.

Greg Kolinski · Nov 10, 2002

Add one more to the mystery shut down,mine did it last night.I attributed it to getting too hot from being in an enclosed in the front cabinet,and having some components on top of it.Seeing how better than 50% of the unit in not obstructed i figured it would not be a problem,heck my JVC didnt mind.So just in case I now have a 8 in fan mounted on the wall ,blowing across the rear of the unit,and am in the process of building some 2-3 in spacers for the component on top of the receiver.I also happen to have my thermo probe toll here,so Ill get some measurements and keep everyone updated

Greg Kolinski

Craig Ball · Nov 24, 2002

Ok shutdown issue is back again!!!! I see a few of you guys have yours plugged into a UPS and this helped, what is a UPS?

Thanks
Craig

MarkO · Nov 24, 2002

Im going to take a stab at this. It sounds to me the amp's relay is to blame. Since you stated the unit worked flawlesly as a preamp. The amp's relay is the second click you hear when you turn the unit on. For some reason the power circuit feeding the pulldown coil or the coil itself is faulty or of poor design. The pulldown coil is simply an electro magnet that pulls down a set of contacts to power up another circuit. In this case the power amps. Im willing to bet the pulldown circuit on youre unit is very sensitive to current drops. Meanning if the household current droops too low for any reason the power needed to hold the relay closed or "on" is not enough to overcome the spring that normaly holds the relay contacts in the open or "off" possition. This would explain why the UPS helped remedy the problem. I would call HK and see if they have a fix. Goodluck

Craig Ball · Nov 24, 2002

Thanks, but again what is UPS?

Craig

MarkO · Nov 24, 2002

A UPS is a battery backup unit. http://www.apcc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=27

Steve Adams · Nov 24, 2002

This is what i have been saying here for the past while, H/K's have problems. they sound good but have crappy quality control. when I worked at the dealer here, out of all the receivers we sold, Kenwood, sony yamaha pioneer, panasonic and H/K, the Harmons were the ones being returned because they crapped out on people. I would never buy one, they were like this before the x20 series as well.

Louis_L · Nov 25, 2002

I had a similar problem with a new H/K AVR 120 this year. It would shutdown randomly.

I went through hell to get it "fixed" from the service center and finally got a replacement after almost 6 weeks! It's working fine now, but I personally wouldn't buy another H/K after this experience.

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