Troublesome occurrence with HK AVR8000 (1 Viewer)

[Jason Price]

I recently took a gamble and picked up a refurb HK AVR8000 from Ubid. I haven't had any issues with it to date (~2 months), but had something turn up last night, and I'm wondering if anyone else has ever seen it. Unfortunately, it was my wife who experienced it, so I don't have first hand information.

She was listening to a cd (logic 7), and then heard a clicking noise, and all speakers except the subwoofer shut off. The cd continued to play, with the only sounds coming from the sub. When she switched sources, the problem remained. I had her unplug the unit, then plug it back in, which seemed to resolve the problem. She did mention that a few times after that, she heard the clicking noise again and the sound on all the speakers except the sub reduced volume briefly, then returned to normal.

This worries me a bit, as it's obviously not supposed to do this. I'm going to attempt to recreate the problem this afternoon. Could this be heat-related? The receiver is in an open-air rack, with breathing room on 3 sides, but top-to-bottom, it's a very tight fit.

Anyone ever experienced anything like this with their HK receivers? Any idea what the problem could be?

 

[Greg Kolinski]

This may be no help ,but its something I'm quickly learning on HT stuff.I have been a auto tech at dealers for close to 20 years,and it appears HT products are the same ,the more exotic,and bells and whistles etc something has ,the more weird stuff its going to do.I have ,well 2nd,HK 520,first one did
"said"weird stuff,enough to warrent return.
My firt one did a mysyery shut down,its in an enclosed cabinet,also DVD player on top,I know ,BIG NO_NO.so I mounted a 7 in desk fan on the wall to blow air across the reciever ,and raised the DVD player approx 2 in with some PVC plumbing caps ,amazing how close alumunum spray paint matches the stands on the DVD color wise
I reccond rhat since it is very intermintant to keep a little note book handy,and write down all settings ,etc that was going on at the time of the "glitch"then possibly you can duplicate the problem,for closer inspection
Greg

 

[Gregory Scott Bass]

Hi, do you have a clean power source? are you using any kind of power conditioner? I ask because in the manual it references unpluging the unit for three minutes to remedy any weird behavior..this supposedly clears the chips. I guess the chips are sensitive to brown outs etc or they would'nt have included this tidbit in the manual. so this could possibly be your problem. Scott

 

[Paul Clarke]

Hello Jason,

2 channel CD in L-7 mode meant all the amps were involved. What is the speaker load? And what was the CD content? The volume setting?

Define "tight fit". From the behavior described, I would think this is the culprit if there is less than 4-5" of top clearance. In my experience you can actually get away with less...say 2-3"...but this is pushing it. You may need a fan.

 

[Jason Price]

Define "tight fit". From the behavior described, I would think this is the culprit if there is less than 4-5" of top clearance. In my experience you can actually get away with less...say 2-3"...but this is pushing it. You may need a fan.

When I say "tight fit", I mean "tight fit". As anyone with this piece knows, it's rather large, and it just barely fits into my rack. It's probably only got 1/2" clearance on top. The front, back, and one side are completely open, with the 4th side facing in toward other components. What kind of fan do people use in an open-air rack? I can't imagine that not being a major PITA...
The more I think about it, the more I think heat might be the most likely culprit. I just added the Studio ADPs recently (had no rears previously), so the additional load would result in more heat being generated by the amps. I think I'll give HK a call and see if this would be a likely result from the unit overheating.

 

[Paul Clarke]

Hi Jason,

Yes, 1/2" is too small a space for vertical ventilation under load. However, aside from mounting fans to your rack to blow/exhaust above the open space (which in your case would likely be ineffective) you can also attach fans on the sides or rear of the receiver to do the same thing. The 8000 has no rear vents I believe but does have side ones. Not a great look but will do the trick in a pinch (or a until a new rack location).