MikeGinIllinois

Continuing my saga I got an AVR 525 in but it was DOA. [:|] Back it went to the Ebay seller. Meanwhile, yesterday, just for fun, I checked Craigslist for an AVR 7300 and . . found one! A nice guy in Chicago was selling his. He said it was in great shape. We talked, I made an offer of $250.00, and he took it. I brought it home today and it sounds wonderfully wonderfully happily sweet with my two front Cornwalls, my two Klipsch surrounds, and my good ole' Radio Shack rears. <-: Gosh it's nice to have a working AVR 7300 back. This unit sounds like it's brand new. The separation in the channels, the bass on the Cornwalls, the fidelity, depth, dimension and accuracy, oh, well, you know what I'm talkin' about. It took a looooong time to find an HK AVR 7300 and it was worth the 3 hours of driving I had to do to get to Broadway in Chicago and back here. I'm gonna nurse this 7300 along for as long as I possibly can. They are NOT fixable, as I have learned, so if it ever gets funky I'll tenderly and gently . . . meanwhile, it sounds GREAT! Thanks for the help! Mike Gallery

I took your advice and just a bought a 525. [] I'll cross my fingers and let you know how it sounds when it comes in. http://www.ebay.com/itm/140998748812?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649 I look forward to sharing my impressions with you. I think I'm going to just sell my 7300 "as is" with the humming. Thanks! Mike Gallery, Crystal Lake, IL

Hi. You sure are helping out. I appreciate talking to someone who understands what I've got. "A great buy i see you could try is the hk avr 520(which needs a second amp to become fully 7.1)although i have bought them for $75shipped on ebay" Why do you say that the unit below, an AVR 525, needs a second amp to be 7.1? It lists as a 7.1. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harman-Kardon-AVR-525-7-1-Channel-490-Watt-Receiver-MSRP-1199-Surround-Sound-/140972882241?pt=Receivers_Tuners&hash=item20d2a37941 I listen mostly to Netflix, Pandora, and some DVD's on my unit. I've got a 49" CRT tv which I like a lot. <-: I'm not too interested in going flat screen. My living room is nicely shaped for a 7.1 setup. I always told my 7300 "no subwoofer" and "no center" so it output those signals through the Cornwalls. I'm not about super loud music anymore. I know real well what a 7300 can do with Cornwalls. It can shake the windows. Well, no more of that for me. I just like a good sounding theater type of sound. Does the 525 have that "presence" that the 7300 has? Is it "less quality" than a 7300, would you say? Thanks for the tip on Harmon vs. Harman. I looked up Harmon on Craigslist and saw a bunch. Thanks again for talking with me! Mike Gallery

Hi. Thanks for your reply. You understand what HK's and Cornwall's are like. [] I will take your advice and keep an eye out on Ebay or Craigslist. It's hard to find new equipment at stores. Best Buy has low end equipment and audio stores are going away. We used to have a Barrett's here but they closed, I guess. There's an ABT Electronics in my area but they have limited stock. I'm reading that stores are tending to go towards packaged home theater "kits" instead of selling components. If you want to demo something higher ended you have to order it over the net, I guess. That's one of the reasons I'd like to find something on Ebay. I do think that it's hard to repair older HK's. One service center didn't want to touch my 7300 saying it was very difficult to fix older HK's. This other place can't figure out what the problem is so they just replace capacitors hoping that will do it. It's a difficult time to try and upgrade my setup but that's ok. I have lots of music in my car and home office and just about everywhere else!

Hi, everyone. I've got a Harmon Kardon 7300 that I use to power 6 speakers. My two fronts are Cornwalls, my two surrounds are desktop Klipsch speakers, and my two rears are some Radio Shack desktops I always liked. I've had a lot of drama with this unit. It's a refurb that came from HK back when real people answered the phone in New York. <-: They gave it to me to replace a 7200 I bought on Ebay which needed repair and which I had repaired, unsuccesfully, twice. The 7300 has given me a lot of joy. A few months ago it started kicking out an intermittent loud buzz. I sent it to Electronics Express, Inc., in West Chicago. They repaired it by replacing capacitors. I got it back and after a short while the buzz was back. I sent it back again and they replaced more capacitors. It's back to me now and it has a constant low buzzzz hummm at moderate listening levels. The repair gal said she knows that and it's the best they can do. I believe her because I know these 7200's and 7300's are very hard to repair. So, I'm posting here to ask a couple of questions. 1. Does anyone have a 7200 or 7300 they'd like to sell? I would expect that it would be in good working order since everyone out here tends towards being an audiophile and knows what's what. 2. Can anyone make a suggestion as to a replacement amp? If you know what an HK 7300 and Cornwalls sound like <-: then you know what I'm looking for. It's a very rich sound, not harsh at all, with great presence in all channels. It gets better as it gets louder. I don't want a harsh bright sound - I like that HK rich warm cozy blanket sound with all the detail from the highs, mids, and bass. <-: 3. If money were no object, what would you recommend? My Cornwalls are pretty old but they are immortal. I have a Yamaha amp I can use which pretty good. It's clear and crisp. For the long term I'd like to either buy a reliable used unit or, maybe, in the future, a new one. I'm thinking a grand or so eventually. Maybe I can get a good 7200 or 7300 on Ebay for $300.00. They pop up some times. I like home theater but it's not my main thing. It's kinda hard to match up an amp with these Cornwalls, ya know? All suggestions welcome! Thank you! Mike Gallery Crystal Lake, IL

Hi, RandyH. I did test for the existence of the problem with my 2nd amp. In fact, the second amp is hooked up now while my HK is in the shop. NO problems at all with it. <-: I've already swapped speaker cable and did that when the HK was hooked up.That didn't make any difference. The HK is at the shop.They tell me the capacitors on the audio board need replacement. I'm hoping this fixes it! It sure sounds like it was the amp. Thanks for your suggestions.[] Mike Gallery

I don't think it's a ground loop problem. I hooked up a different amp to my speakers and had zero problem. I was able to increase and decrease the volume of the bzzzz by adjusting the volume on my Harman Kardon. I'm feeling pretty sure that this is an amp problem.

After troubleshooting my home speaker wiring and finding no problems I sent my Harman Kardon AVR-7300 to a repair shop in West Chicago. ElectronExpressInc.com advised me that I have a few bad capacitors on the audio board. They're going to replace them and test the unit for a week to see if anything else is bad. Total cost so far - $183.25. I did incur a $50.00 shipping charge to messenger the unit down there. Thanks! Mike Gallery

Thank you for these helpful suggestions. It's been three months since my post. I'll summarize. I still have the HK AV7300. The buzzing problem I describe in this thread was still there. I decided to dig in. I disconnected one of my Cornwalls from my HK and powered it off of my Sony. No problem. Then I turned on my HK. As the unit warmed up I could definitely hear a strong static output. It sounded like the fan in the HK was generating RF like crazy and feeding it right into the Cornwall it was sitting on. The more the unit warmed up the louder the static. I moved the HK amp about five feet away from the Cornwall and that problem is now solved. However, I have a second less bothersome problem. When I first turn on the HK 7300 I have zero static or bzzzz in my Cornwalls. None. After about 10 to 15 minutes I get a minor bzzzzzz or hmmmmmmm in the Cornwalls. It's minor but sometimes gets a bit loud. I hooked up one of my Synergies to the same output as I have the Cornwalls on and both the Cornwall and the Synergy had the same hmmmmmm. If I turn off the amp, wait 10 seconds, and turn it back on, I have zero static but after 10 to 15 minutes the hmmmmmm comes back. Are you thinking this a power amp problem? I was given the name of Electronic Express in West Chicago, IL, by Harman Kardon today. A nice gal named Stacy had a long talk with me. I was thinking of taking the unit there after another discussion with her. Has anyone had any experience with Electronic Express? Is there someone else you know of who really knows these HK's? Thank you! Mike Gallery Crystal Lake, IL

Can I switch the HK outputs? I haven't been behind the unit in a while. I don't have multiple choices for speaker outputs, do I? Thanks a bunch for your help. <-: Mike Gallery

Hi, everyone. I haven't been out here in a long time. I have a Harman Kardon AVR-7300 which I got from Harman Kardon headquaters a few years back. They had repaired it and originally it worked just great. I run outputs to a Sony amp and a Yamaha amp. The Sony amp feeds a pair of Klipsch Synergy bookshelf speakers and the Yamaha feeds a pair of Radio Shack speakers. I input a DVD player and a Roku to the amp. My speaker wires to the Cornwalls are thick Monster cables. My problem is that my Cornwalls give a "bzzzzzz" when I turn on the AVR-7300. It's intermittent. I just turned the AVR-7300 and no bzzzzz. Then, after 5 seconds a soft bzzzz started. It will usually grow in intensity until it's annoying. The bzzzzz doesn't come out of my Synergy's or the Radio Shackers (supported by two other amps). How do I troubleshoot this setup? Take it all apart and start putting components back in? Can input devices cause the problem? Is it possible that the AVR-7300 is generating the bzzzzzzz? I appreciate any comments and tips. Thank you! Mike Gallery

http://tinyurl.com/5vf5x2 I've noticed there are discussions out here about Bob Crites' crossovers. The above link is to a set on Ebay. Bob may well be a member of these forums. Would somebody mind explaining to me what the benefit of buying these are? My Cornwalls are pretty old. I got them used. What could I expect if I put these in my Cornwalls? I'm currently running an HK AVR-7300. I do have buzzing and humming in my Cornwalls but that's another subject, I expect. Thank you. Mike Gallery Illinois

I wish I knew of a product that would work as sweetly with my Cornwalls as the AVR-7200. I'm struggling to stay 'behind the times'. I've come to think of the 7200/7300's as fragile products. If you bought one new and it's working great then you're done. Once you start shipping these around or getting repairs done it's like playing repair lottery. You don't know what you'll get back. My original Ebay seller did reimburse me $150.00 for repair costs so the real loss has been mostly my time in lugging this thing back and from from the UPS store. HK is not doing so well these days. If they ship out refurbs that are not fully tested something's going on out in the warehouse that ain't good. Anyway, I think all's well that ends well. I have good sound and video so there we are. Thanks. Mike Gallery

Guys, I've got a pair of Cornwalls and Synergy rears. FYI - in November of last year I bought a used AVR-7200 on Ebay from a guy for $500.00. It had power problems. The unit would not stay on. Shortly after that it I could not turn it on. On/click off by itself - on/click off by itself. To make it brief: 1. Sent to Rex Service in Worth, Illinois - an HK "premier" service center. Came back. Same problem. Paid $175.00. 2. Sent it back again to Rex. Paid $25.00 for shipping. Came back again. Same problem. 3. Meanwhile, ordered a refurb 7300 from HarmanAudio on Ebay - this is an HK owned deal. 7300 came in. DOA. Volume control on unit was wacky. Turn the knob and the volume numbers jump all over the place. Hooked up video. Watched a movie. CLICK. Lost video - could not get it back. Send it back and got my $744.00 back. 4. Back to the 7200 - Called HK - they picked up shipping and repair costs to these guys - http://www.avsl.net/ - another premier HK center. Unit came back. Three days later it no longer turns off by itself! Hurray! But I cannot plug any S-Video devices (DVD player or laptop) into the unit and get S-Video output to my tv. Called HK support - 'it's broke - send it back'. Well, I'm not shipping it again. I have sound. I can do DVD straight to the TV. I'm not shipping for repair #4 no matter who pays. I told Paul at HK the whole story. I said "your infrastructure is . . . I can't get anything repaired and I get DOA's from you guys. Tech support guys are very good - old pro types. He said, "We're aware of the problems and are making major changes." If you own an AVR-7200 and 7300 and it works be thankful. Treat it nicely. You cannot get it repaired. Trust me on this. You cannot buy a refurb from Ebay. It won't work. The good old days are gone. Mike Gallery

"A comprehensive bass management system with triple-crossover selection makes certain that low-frequency sound goes to the right place no matter what type of speakers you own or input including DVD-Audio and SACDTM you use." Hi. I just bought an HK AVR-7300 from Harman Audio's Ebay store. I get a nice one year factory warranty and a 30 day return privilege. I have an HK AVR-7200 that has been giving me power problems. HK has nicely agreed to pick up the tab for my *3rd* attempt at getting it repaired. Well, I currently have two Cornwalls for my mains, no center or subwoofer, and two Synergy's for my rears. My 7200 powers the Cornwalls and a cheap Sony amp powers the rears. I'm thinking that the 7300 will power the Cornwalls and then when the 7200 finally gets fixed it will power the rears. Anyway, the blurb above from the 7300's description talks about 'triple-crossover' selection. What does that mean? I see "crossover" in the on screen display in the programming section of my 7200. Thanks. <-: Mike Gallery

Thanks for the discussion, guys. I had lots of problems with this amp. When I got it in the first time I turned it on it went on/off/on/off/on/off apparently on its own. I wrote that off to a glitch. I hooked it up and it was a sweet sounding amp. I played it for a few days, sometimes loud, and then it started turning itself off at various volume levels. Pretty soon when I tried to turn it on it would immediately turn itself off. With this HK AVR-7200 you turn on the power and then there is one 'click' followed a few seconds later by another 'click'. I never got to the second click. I'd turn it on and boom it turned itself off. I'd have to try turning it on for maybe 15 times before it would stay on and then, in the middle of a movie, it would turn itself off. It sits on top of a Cornwall so ventilation is not the problem. Well, I sent it off to Rex Service in Worth. They couldn't duplicate the problem except one time it turned itself off. Just once. What was different about their environment from mine? I dunno. They didn't have my speaker configuration was all I could guess. So, they "rebiased" the "transistors"?? and sent it back. It was ok for one day and then the same pattern began to emerge. I sent it back *again* and waited a month. Rex is not too much in a hurry on stuff but I was patient. I finally called HK support in New York and talked to a nice guy who had their senior tech call Rex. This time they resoldered some connections. I've had it back here for a week and no problems. It's only turned itself off once during hours of play and the 'can't turn it on' problem is gone - so it seems. In one of my calls to HK a tech asked me what the impedance of my speakers was. I didn't know. But now I do. The cheapier Shackers (surrounds) are 4 ohms and the Cornwalls are 8. Just to be safe I put new Synergies on the surrounds and so far so good knock on wood. This has been a real tough adventure in electronics. No one seems to really have the capacity to diagnose these kinds of difficulties. I *almost* bought a replacement 7200 or a 7300. I paid $500.00 for this and the guy who sold it to me gave me $150.00 as a partial refund which just about covered the repair costs. At one point I even went and bought a $2,000 Rotel amp. My buddy, whose setup duplicates mine (I copied off of him) and I listened to the Rotel for 20 minutes and concluded it was way too harsh with this speaker setup. I returned the Rotel. Well, to end this, the HK is the amp for me. That's why I stuck with it. I wish HK did factory repairs and diagnostics. I'm guessing that my cheapie 4 ohm shackers were the cause (or not) or maybe the resoldering fixed this unit. If there is no rule about mixing ohms on speakers then maybe that wasn't the cause but I'm being very cautious now about what I hook up to this amp. Thank you! Mike Gallery

I have a Harman Kardon RV-4200 I bought from a guy on Ebay. I originally had it set up with two Cornwalls as fronts, no center, and two Radio Shack 4 ohm speakers as rears. I had a lot of trouble with this amp since day #1 and sent it to Rex Service in Worth, Illinois, twice. The short story is it's back now and seems to be working. Is it a bad idea to have 8 ohm Cornwalls as fronts with 4 ohm speakers as surrounds? Does mismatching ohms cause problems? Just to be on the safe side I am no longer running my old Shackers (and I do love the way they sound because they bleed less signal from the Cornwalls and leave those membrany bass and mids intact) but am using, instead, a couple of Synergys for surrounds that I got at Best Buy. I'm not as happy with the Synergys as I was with the Shackers but I don't want to blow out this RV-4200, if that is what I was doing. Thanks for any help! Mike Gallery

Thanks for the info, guys. I did some more digging today. I called an HK rep. Those guys are always very nice and helpful. I think they really care about their customers. I asked the guy what was up with my 2nd attempt at a repair of my AVR-7200 and he seemed somewhat astonished that I'm in round #2 of a repair adventure. I'm disappointed that HK doesn't do factory repair of their units. Everything has to go out to their "service centers". We also discussed what's going on with their product line. They're going for the mass market by selling everything through Best Buy. Well, Best Buy is about the last place I'd go for audio equipment. <-: The rep said that more and more people are wanting the video upconvert features now (DVD to HDTV) rather than the high quality audio their former flagship units provided. I guess Klipsch's, especially Cornwalls, aren't in "vogue" much in the mass market. <-: In other words people want "home theater" kits rather than more serious configurations. I suggested to him that HK should still provide high end units for those of us willing to pay for higher quality and he agreed. Without a doubt they make great high end receivers but there's something missing in the HK equation. I don't know if it's a lack of understanding of their equipment on the service center side or a lack of their willingness to make high ended lines, but something's gone awry. Mike Gallery

In a previous post I mentioned I'm having a devil of a time getting my AVR-7200 repaired. I use it with my Cornwalls. I might be able to get a new HK AVR-7300. Has anyone here used the AVR-7300? Would you know if it produces the same sound as the AVR-7200? The 7200 works very very well with my Cornwalls. I guess the 7300 does some kind of upconverting on video signals which is not a big deal to me. Mostly I just want the sound of a 7200. (There isn't a 7400, is there?) Thanks much! Mike Gallery

Thanks for the info, everybody! The Craigslist listing just expired but I'll keep an eye out for that. Those of you with 7200's know what I'm talking about. I've heard that the HK 7200 and the Cornwalls are a very very good match and I can see it for myself. At loud volumes the 7200 pushes out the full spectrum and the Cornwalls happily deliver. REX Service did not find the problem on go-round #1. This is not encouraging. I will sure think about a HK 7XX model. I'm not sure that a 7XX will push out the power like the 7200 does. HK has apparently abandoned the manufacture of higher ended amps in favor of the lower cost models which is too bad, for sure. I've got an older $800 Yamaha that works fine with my setup but it doesn't deliver the depth of warm sound like the 7200. The fellow who said the 7200 delivers a "clean" sound is right on target. It's a shame that we have to search through Ebay and Craig's list listings to find an older product that works better than the new $2,000 amps. >-: I would like to smack the guy on Ebay who sold me this. He did give me $150.00 for repair costs after I paid him $500.00 for the amp so he was honest about the whole thing. Based on what I'm seeing and hearing I think I have two choices. First, I get this existing amp fixed, which would be ideal. I'm going to call HK support. They do not offer factory repair >-: which is too bad. REX has already promised me that they'd waive return shipping costs on their second repair attempt. Or, I can try and find a good used one. Thank you for discussing this with me! Mike Gallery

I swear the AVR 7200 and Cornwalls are a marriage made in heaven. I bought my HK AVR 7200 used on Ebay. Well, it has a power problem. It turns on, stays on for 15 minutes, goes off, and then I have to click it on/off on/off on/off until it stays on again, hopefully. I've sent it to REX Service in Worth, Illinois, they sent it back 'fixed' and the problem continues. They "ADJUSTED OFFSET AND REBIAS ALL CHANNELS", whatever that means. I have a 90 day warranty from REX on the repair so back it goes again. Tonight I went to a Barretts' Home Theater shop by me and bought a Rotel RSX-1067 for $2,000 thinking that I could solve this problem by throwing money at it. I hooked up the Rotel and it was, well, awful. With these Cornwalls the Rotel says goodbye to the consistent bass that the HK gives, the mids are there, and the highs are ear-shattering. Like my buddy said, "It's tinny". After 20 minutes we both had ear fatigue. Next Saturday the Rotel is going back for a refund. If I can't get this AVR 7200 fixed I'm going to sell it on Ebay 'as-is'. I paid $500.00 for it so if I can get $250.00 that will be fine. You guys who have Cornwalls and HK's know what I'm talking about. There's such a sweet full sound when you put an HK AVR 7200 with the Cornwalls. My question is this. If I can't get my HK working and can't find another one what amp would give the same type of wonderful rich full spectrum sound that I enjoy now with the AVR 7200(when my amp works)? Any recommendations or suggestions? Is there perhaps an HK person out here who could suggest why my existing AVR 7200 has the power problems I describe? Thanks to anyone and everyone! Mike Gallery

Hi, guys. May I ask a question about surrounds? A couple of weeks ago I got a pair of Cornwalls in. I followed that up with another Ebay purchase of a Harman Kardon AVR 7200. http://tinyurl.com/2ravtu I'm about 14 light years ahead of where I was a month ago. [] My two rear surrounds are a couple of Radio Shackers that are about 10 years old. If you get the picture I'm putting this together piece by piece. Tonight I played "Chronos", a superb DVD, on the system. It about blew me away it was so good. The Cornwalls kept right up with everything and were sweet as you please. The cheapie Shackers hung in there, too. I can't complain too much. As an experiment I ran my surrounds from the Pre-Out on the Harman Kardon to the input on my 9 year old $800.00 Yamaha. The first thing that happened is that the Cornwalls required less power to give that full, sweet sound. The second thing that happened is that the surrounds sounded 'ugh'. It was like they were pulled out of the system and placed into another phase warp. They were 'dis-integrated' from the whole mix. I put the Shackers back on the Harman Kardon and everything came back together again. It seems to me that these old Shackers suck a lot of power. I'd like to add two more surrounds for 'backs' since this amp will support 7.1. I suspect that the other two inefficient Shackers I have will suck more power and maybe even diminish the quality I get from the Cornwalls if I use them for surround backs. I see what people mean when they talk about the efficiency of Klipsch. I'm wondering if I could find some Klipsch surrounds on Ebay. I have my Shackers on Atlantic Universal stands and they are up about 40" off the floor. I'm hoping I could find a pair of Klipsch speakers that would fit on these 'bookshelf' size stands. If not, I could lose the stands and start over. It's just that the surrounds have to go on stands in my configuration. What would you guys suggest for surrounds? Did Klipsch make smaller efficient surrounds that I might find on Ebay? Even though my Harman Kardon has the stones to pump out the juice I'd like to put only efficient speakers in the mix. I want to jealously guard every watt of juice to keep my Cornwalls fed, fat and happy. Thanks for your comments! Mike Gallery

Thanks, guys. I appreciate the links. [] Mike Gallery

Are you 100% sure this isn't part of an impromptu Pink Floyd concert? These pixs are way surrealistic and way cool! Mike Gallery

Hi, guys. I posted a while back about getting an Ebay seller to ship his Cornwalls from Florida to Illinois and everyone here was very helpful. Thank you. [] They were shipped via UPS and even though UPS gave them their "special" fragile handling both crossovers had come loose. However, my buddy and I reattached them and the speaker wires that had disattached and they sound just great. I'm powering them with a circa 1998(?) Yamaha R-V1105 and have found that the Yamaha doesn't have the oomph to give me solid resilient bass and the kind of tonal separation my buddy has going with his Cornwalls. In fact, at louder levels my amp will shut itself down due to a bass overload generated during a Lord of the Rings explosion. So, I took the next step and bought a used Harman Kardon AVR 7200 on Ebay (http://tinyurl.com/2vprxc) because that's what my buddy has. I'm twinning my system to match his because his sounds just great. The amp I bought weighs about 60 pounds. I'm thinking of using my Yamaha to power my rears because it's still a good ole' amp and will use the Harman Kardon for the Cornwalls. My problem is where to put the Harman Kardon receiver. I would like put it on top of my DVD player on one of the Cornwalls but I am afraid that 60+ pounds of weight is too much to rest on a DVD player. I was thinking that if I could find some kind of metal wire 'stand' that would hold a DVD player on the bottom and the Harman Kardon on top that would work. I need to run an optical cable and S-video cable from the DVD to the Harman so I would like them to be close together. Does anyone know of such a 'stand'? Or, is it ill-advised to do this for some reason such as speaker vibration? Thanks for any and all comments! Mike Gallery Crystal Lake, Illinois