Another victim of HK bugs, is it even worth getting HK AVR7000 fixed?? (1 Viewer)

[Kevin_Breeze]

My left channel went out on my AVR7000 (been out for a while now actually). Its amazing to me how many problems this reciever apparently has....read the aurioreview.com reviews, and chalk me up as another victim. Anyone know about how much it costs on average to get it fixed? I heard in the $200-$300 range. I also have heard it taking sometimes a month or more to get the thing back!

From what I have read it almost seems like once something goes wrong with these the problems keep recurring even after several repairs and apparently HK is not very good about it either.

So I am not sure if its worth even taking it into a repair shop or not. I love the sound when it works and its really unforunate!! Not sure if I'd be better off just getting a new/different receiver altogether...I can only afford in the $500 range for a new reveiver, so it might be hard to find one that sounds as good...

Comments? Opinions? Suggestions?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Pus Suchre]

Well, my 7200 has been in the shop for over a month now. But it's my fault it's there- so I can't blame HK. The repair guy needed to order a part- seems to take a while.

I'm not sure if the delay is the repar shop, or HK's fault. So I'll remain neutral.

It should cost me less than $200.

Other than that- I do like my 7200, though I have had it for only a few months. And if I had to replace it- it would be with another 7200. Hell- it took me two weeks just to read the instruction manual- that's a time investment

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

haha, I just briefly skimmed the manual for like 5-10 minutes. Is this your first receiver?

I'd like to just get it fixed, I am just afraid of recurring problems.

I can't complain too much I bought it for what was supposed to be under $300 as a factory refurb from Ubid. I actually bought an Onkyo but Ubid ran out and had to substitute and gave me this one and believe it or not, they actually never charged the credit card for some reason...so I actually got it for free... SHHHHHH

 

[Pus Suchre]

Yeah- it's my very first one

I had $1000 and decided that I was going to finally get a surround sound set up. I'm 42 and all I've ever used was what ever was internal to the TV. Well...call it a midlife crisis, but I decided that I was going to finally do the home theater bit.

I started pricing Home Theaters in a Box, and needed some buying advice- so I came to this forum. Needless to say I quickly realized that home theater in a box was not going to suffice.

So I dropped my $1000 on a HK 7200- and I have been slowly feeding it banna plugs, speakers, component lines, etc ever since.

So the manual was pretty dense reading for me. It still is, though now I can at least understand most of it. I really do have at least a 20 hour investment in that manual.

So I can't change recievers in mid-stream

 

[BrianWoerndle]

Denon is no quicker with parts. My receiver has been in the shop for over 3 weeks waiting to get a binding post fixed. Those things are a dime a dozen.

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

well you are going to be in for a big surprise when you get everything all together if you are only used to TV speakers! Prepare to be blown away!

A lot of people comment on this receiver's stereo performance but I think its Dolby Digital performance is the best part of it. I can't tell you how many DVD movies I have sat there in awe with the sound. You are going to be blown away by especially by all the details you will hear. And be prepared to do a lot of looking behind you when certain sounds come out the rear surrounds that sound so realistic that sometimes you don't realize its the speakers.

Movies are SO MUCH more enjoyable through a nice HT system it's like the difference of watching a 5" black and white compared to a big screen HDTV.

What was wrong with your unit by the way?

 

[Pus Suchre]

Yeah, I'm seriously looking forward to the experience! When I was a free wheeling bachelor I had a Luxman stereo system- which was very high end at the time. But marriage and three children rearranged my financial priorities. It's hard to justify $1500 for a receiver when you need to buy baby formula. So for the last 16 years it's been cheap k-mart boom boxes. Anyway- I took a part time job just to finance this new hobby- and I'm eager to hear the fruits of my labor.

I had just received my JBL N26s for my rear surrounds, and I was expecting to get my regular surrounds, which after much debate became the JBL E30s- when it happened... My ex-cat peed on my receiver He shorted out something. After much help from this forum I was able to get it clean enough to take to an authorized repair shop- where it has been just shy of 5 weeks.

It's pretty frustrating. I have what I believe to be a wonderful setup, totally untried. Speaker wires running through the wall, frustrated by their unmet potential. I have my spl meter, my video essentials, and tons of forum printouts on calibration all ready to go.

We are all one cat piss away from ruination- literally and metaphorically

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

lol, man that really sucks. You get another job to buy all this stuff, research it, buy it, almost all setup and the cat pisses on the fruit of your labor. Ahhhh, thats gotta suck! I am an animal lover, but in that situation that might very well have been one less cat in the world...

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

Any opinions regarding whether or not to get a new receiver?

I actually almost bought an Onkyo TXSR601 last night b/c Ecost has them for only $289, or Denon 1802 for $449...but after reading up again on user reviews of the HK, it sounds like I might be in for a big dissapointment going to a cheaper receiver. Seems many people think you can't get any better sound than these flagship HK receivers unless you go to quality separates...

I was just kinda hoping to avoid headaches with this receiver and thinking the sound difference would be neglible with a newer Denon or Onkyo and since ecost has some great deals I almost hit the buy button last night on each of them. However, if I really don't want to downgrade in sound quality which is my TOP priority. I don't even use any fancy DSP modes or any fancy features, just stereo with 2 speakers and dolby digital with 5, in one room... thats all I do.

Sooo...I think I might just take the chance and take it to an authorized HK shop to get it fixed and keep my fingers x'd that the problems will stop after I get it back...

I'd appreciate if I could get more input from some audiophiles on this...

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

Well, I decided to get the HK fixed and I just dropped it off at this authorized repair shop today:

http://www.sandroselectronics.com

I asked the guy about how long it would take and he said HK is notorious for being slow at getting parts out but he said it would be about a week, which wouldnt be too bad at all. We will see...

 

[Pus Suchre]

Man....a week....I'm seriously jealous. I'm starting to crawl the walls here waiting on mine. All I have is dangling speaker wire to look at....

Hope it all works out!

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

Well, thats what he said, we will see what happens, I figure if I get it back within two weeks i will be happy. Don't be too jealous, its been almost a year since my left channel was out I just nevre got around to fixing it. I just CAN'T WAIT to be able to listen to music at home again! I used to sit there in awe listening to certain CD'd with the AVR7000 playing through my JBL S312's, and I miss that! i remember when I first got it all setup, its amazing, how you hear so many things on CD's that you never heard before. Many CDs literally sounded as if they were playing live right in my living room, seriously.

LOL! your signature is hysterically (although unfortunatley) fitting!

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

Well, i called last night after work (near their closing time) and asked them how it was going (remembre the guy said they would get to it tuesday and this was 5:15 wednesday)-this was a different guy on the phone, but he was like "oh yeah we didnt get to that yet". i asked him when they were going to look at it and he was just like "ahh in the next few days" and kinda casually said "I'll call ya"

is this normal with electronic repair shops. Do I have a long road ahead of me to get this thing back. I get pissed off when places are like this but I don't know if its just to be expected when taking receivers in for repair...

 

[JackS]

Kevin- Next time you call, inform them that your never home and that you will call every day or so to be updated. The "We'll call you" never works unless you know the person who made this statement personally. Inform them that you will call at the end of the working day so that they may have the full day to repair your AVR7000 or if not repaired, an estimate of how far along they think they are. This should speed up the process and also give you some peace of mind instead of wondering.

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

Thanks Jack, that might not be a bad idea. I posted this in a separate thread to get more opinions I am just really curious how normal this is or if these guys might be shady. I get a litte paranoid with these things when people have some of my prize possessions, like my car and stuff....

 

[Sami Kallio]

Instead of getting a new receiver, maybe you should consider getting a separate two channel amp with that money? Have you tested if the preouts still work? If so, use the amp to power your mains and use the 7000 as a surround amp and preprocessor.

You won't get into rat race with the 7000 if it decides to break down again. Also, you are on your way to separates when it is time to upgrade.

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

Yeah I considered that Sami, but I was thinking that if the left channel wasnt working that it also wouldnt work to hook it up through a 2-channel amp to power the mains. I guess its a separate thing, huh. If I knew that I probably would have used the money i am spending to fix this to just buy a good 2-ch amp, like a parasound or something...

I suppose if they havent started on it yet, I could just pick it up and tell them forget it.

 

[Sami Kallio]

I would do that, if for nothing else than to test if the preout works. If they haven't started yet, great. If they have, at least you will be getting it back soon.

If they haven't started yet, shop for amp and get it from a place with a good return policy. That way if the preout doesn't work you are not stuck with the amp. Or if possible take the receiver to a friend who has an amp you can test it with.

 

[Alex F.]

Kevin:

As I recall, you recently purchased an Onkyo stereo receiver for your father. You can feed two preout channels at a time to any Onkyo line input to test if the entire H/K preamp section is working OK.

 

[Kevin_Breeze]

Thanks for the suggestion Alex, but my father already has his 8211 receiver and JBL S-36AWII's. I actually had an older Pioneer AVR sitting around for the past 2-3 years and it figures, I just gave it to my brother along my my Bose AM5's that have been collecting dust for just as long...