Does HK stink? (1 Viewer)

[StephenHa]

good luck, at least they are decent to deal with

 

[Steve Adams]

I think HK is an awsome sounding peice of junk! im not going into the same rant again...because the HK faithful blast me everytime....

 

[mike>r]

I purchased an avr 310 new approx 3years ago no problems.It looks like most people with complaints are buying refurbished, open box, etc.. remember you get what you pay for,a majority of open box or refurbish had problems to begin with.My personal experiences with open box has always ended up with the item returned again.So how much money are you saving when dealing with a defective ,or I mean a refurbished item.I myself will never waste my money or time with an open box item or refurbished again.So when You buy something that was originally broken, and when you receive it and it does not function properly quit bitching and moaning about it.If you buy a used car with a rebuilt motor and it takes a shit, does that mean that brand of car sucks? BUYER BEWARE!!!

 

[JohnSmith]

...and being that av amps are complex pieces of equipment that are impossible to fix by the local repair shop if something is wrong with the LSI's.

Poweramps on the other hand are all solid-state devices, are much easier to determine what the fault is and (cheaper) to repair. So a "refurbed/repaired" poweramp (should) is a wiser purchasing decision IMO.

 

[Dalton]

Well my brand new HK DPR 2005 sounded awesome for about 2 weeks. Now it won't power up. Starts to come on but immediatly makes a ticking sound and shuts down. I called OneCall but since i have had it for more than 15 days they refered me to HK to fix it. I located the nearest service center through their website but it is in NY and i am in RI. I faxed them the invoice and informed them of my problem but haven't heard back from them for 2 days! I just paid $1300 for this thing and now i have no tunes. Why did they only give me a fax number? I would like to talk to someone directly. I am pretty frustrated here and would like some advice on what to do next. I would appreciate any suggestions guys!


Dalton

 

[RobP]

"It will turn itself off."

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! If your having this problem with an HK run fast and far and do not look back. HK's can be real nice and have a good sound when they work. I have had this problem with my HK for YEARS. I bought an AVR-520 a few years ago. It would intermitently turn it self off. I returned it for a new one, same problem, I returned it again, same problem, (I know this sounds crazy but its the truth) I then took it in for warranty work for this problem and the fact that the 520 initially had a faulty DTS level setting (all of them came faulty from factory). Well rather than replace the board HK gave me ANOTHER new reciever but this one had a good DTS setting. So anyway I take it home AHHHHHHHHHHH, same problem. By know I had come to the conclusion that it wasn't the reciever but poor electrical wiring. Well I have since moved from CLeveland to Columbus and my 520 shut off 4 times in a row about two hours ago. A LOT of people I have talked to have had this problem. Like I said WHEN it works I love the sound of it but I will never get another one. As a matter of fact I want to get rid of this because of the shut down problems. Take my advice please.

 

[Pus Suchre]

Does anyone from HK read this forum?

Seems that they are being mightily trashed, and would want to offer some words in defense? I know that I make all of my HT buying decisions AFTER consulting this forum.

One would think that they would want to comment.....or maybe they are just too big for that sort of thing....

Anyway, I liked my HK till the cat got to it. I'm hoping that when I get it back from the shop I will have no problems, and will continue to like it.

 

[MichaelOD]

wow!

I have to say kincaid nailed it with this comment:

"EVERY kind of mass assembled part will have defects. My buddy has been through 3 denon 3803's, and is now on a 3805..."

I owned a marantz before purchasing a new HK [x30 series] as well as an HK pa5800. both HK products have worked flawlessly and i've had both for almost a year. get what you like - if it doesn't work for you, get something else. but it doesn't necessarily mean the entire brand is bad. especially considering that HK is a respected company and make an excellent product in terms of performance. i've had denon product that has belly'd up on me, and I wouldn't hesitate to purchase another one if it suited my needs.

To each their own i guess...

 

[Lee Distad]

Having worked for Sony for much of my adult life (ack!), and having had to deal with my share of service issues (as you can probably imagine), it seems like some people have some sort of weird karma that makes them lightning rods for defects; time and again one customer gets saddled with a piece of crap, while another customer who buys the exact same models never has a single hiccup in his gear. go figure.

Inevitably, this polarizes people and creates "I love brand X" and "I hate brand X" advocates. Go figure.

And as to whether HK stinks, I don't know, I've never sniffed one.

 

[Pus Suchre]

You don't want to smell mine Lee...my ex-cat got to it. It really does stink, really....

 

[Garrett Lundy]

HK sucks, denon is rebranded crap, sony is dead out of the box.

My friend, if you want stone cold reliability, get yourself a Bose!



ps: I keed, I keed!

 

[Vital]

I have an HK 325 that has never had a problem.

 

[Thomas Nichols]

I have had my 125 for a year and half or so and it has worked flawlessly.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

My only HK experience was with a refurbished receiver from the online Harman Karman store. The unit's IR remote receiver did not function at all. I tried a universal remote to make sure it wasn't the actual remote control that was malfunctioning. I simply sent the receiver back for a refund and purchased a less expensive Sherwood. This was for our bedroom system, so I was not looking to spend much money.

 

[Dalton]

Hi Guys,
Does anyone have a contact number where i can actually talk to someone from HK? I live in Rhode Island and i know there are different numbers to call depending on where you live. Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dalton

 

[Tim O...]

I've had a AVR 525 for a year and haven't had any problems I can trace directly to it. I did have some popping in the side or rear channels a couple of weeks ago, but I'm not sure if it was the receiver, DVD player, cables, sub, etc. I constantly tweak so it could have been something I altered. In any case it's gone now. I just love the sound of my 525, especially with my forward-sounding speakers.

I too was a bit leery about buying HK because there seemed to be a disproportionate amount of complaints about them online. However when I asked a local dealer whom I trust, he said they've had few to no problems with HK, aside from one of the DVD players, which did indeed have a factory defect. In fact he advised me not to buy that model, even though he's an HK dealer.

Maybe HK equipment does have more problems than most. I liked the sound enough that I decided to take a "chance" on it. But, one thing I notice is that there seems to be more refurbished HK receivers available than for comparable brands, and this could be skewing the perception of their reliability. A lot of the complaints are from people who've bought these units. Here's a newsflash about buying refurbished or open box: you're getting a used piece of equipment. Like someone said above, it was probably broken once, and could in fact have been abused. IMO people who buy something as complex as a HT receiver refurbished or open box and then complain about problems with it probably deserve what they get. For savings of $100-200, why would you even take a chance? The only thing I ever bought refurbished was a Sony Clie, and when it didn't work right out of the shipping container, I can't say I was terribly surprised. Note that a receiver is several times more complex than a handheld.

Another thing that doesn't seem to get mentioned in these discussions is whether people even have their equipment set up properly. I'm borderline obsessive about set up and tweaking, and even I've made simple booboos as recently as a month ago, like reversing speaker wires on one channel. I ran my system for a week or more like that before I noticed something was wrong and found the problem. Things like that can put excessive strain on your amp.

 

[Dalton]

Well i got a response from HK. They are replacing my 2005 with a new one. I shipped the defective one today. Hopefully my new 2005 will be here by next weekend. I really loved the sound when it was working. I think it sounded better than my Outlaw 950/750 separates combo.