HK 630 - "twin powered" - thanks Spaaz!

[DrWho]

So here's a HUGE thank you to Spaaz for giving me one of these fine beasts

I think it was Tuesday that I swung by his place where he had the 630

tucked away in a plastic bag on his porch. It felt a bit wierd just

pulling something off a person's porch so I rang the doorbell - nobody

home. Well he did say to just swing by and pick it up. I would have

very much liked to thank him personally for the generous offer.

Just after picking it up, off I headed back south to my grandpa's house

to help him with a few computer issues. I was of course dying to play

with the new amp so it felt like forever spending 2 days on his issues.

I finally get back into town Wednesday evening and realized I needed

another pair of audio cables to plug it in. So I went to bed thinking

I'd spend all day Thursday getting her hooked up. Thursday rolled

around and off I headed to the local Radio Shack where I dropped $40 in

cables (12 foot s-video, two 12 foot RCA cables, and three 6 foot RCA

cables). I got side tracked with other shopping and before I knew it it

was time for Kuk Sool Won where I passed a belt test. Argh, when am I

ever going to hear the amp? After practice I got suckered into helping

a friend set up the HT in his new apartment and I was too tired when I

got home to do anything else and just crashed.

So finally, this morning I woke up at 11am and quickly got to work. I

had already realized that I couldn't fit both the amp and the reciever

on my desk, which meant an entire redesign of the room and speaker

layout to facilitate the cableage with which I am in possession. It

turns out the 12 foot cables I had purchased were just long enough - I

have about 1/2" of slack [H]

3 hours later I finally got to a point where I could finally give

things a listen. No sound. Yikes, what did I do wrong? I can hear the

subwoofer playing so I know there is sound going to the reciever. I

flip the function jack from aux over to the radio - HOLY CRAP that was

loud - and my ear was maybe a foot from the speaker and the volume knob

was standing straight up. You guys with these recievers should know how

loud the radio is with Klipsch when straight up...man that really woke

me up. It turns out the aux channel is bad and when I realized that I

think I remember Spaaz mentioning that to me. Looking at the back it

seems like a simple resolder is needed on the input terminal (easy

fix). So instead I hooked into the tape loop in - a trick Colter showed

me for his office setup. A little configuring later and I realized I

could bypass the cheesy microphone mixer I was using for boosting the

subwoofer volume. And since I had move the subs around I needed to

reconfigure them as well.

So by 3:00 I got everything configured and roughly dialed in. I put in my new favorite song:

"Cirque Du Soleil - Extrait De Dralion - Stella Errans (4:36)" (track

10 of Cirque du Soleil's "Le Best Of"). It's the same song I played for

you guys in Hope. A little more tweaking and holy freaken crap. I think

you guys would get a kick out of this place because I've got cables and

trash and just stuff all over the place and there I am with my eyes

closed in my favorite chair just soaking it all in. At first I was

trying real hard to learn the sonic characterstics of the amp and

without knowing it I got "distracted" by the music.

Before I got everything dialed in I was sitting there thinking "oh

great, how am I gonna break it to the forum that I dont' dig that old

archaic 70's amplifier sound". But once dialed in everything just

clicked and it sounded wonderful - kinda hard to describe really. It

reminded me of my first listening sessions at Spaaz's place: the

sound-stage is a mile deep yet so forward in its presentation. The

highs are definetly more natural sounding - at first I thought it was a

product of a lacking high frequency response until I heard some good

passages of flute and triangle being played.

Ok, so now it was time to crank her a bit and see how she opens up.

I've got annoying neighbors in my apartment complex so these sessions

are always short lived. You can tell a piece of equipment is good when

you don't want to stop cranking it. I was up to over 110dB and it was

still clean - heck, in some ways it was cleaner than at the lower

levels. For the last half hour I've had it playing at around 50dB and

it still has that full sound (unlike the reciever).

But ya, I could probably go on for hours about the new sound, but to

sum it up I am very pleased. And again, major thanks to Spaaz for his

most generous offer. It's guys like him that make this place so much

fun. And I know I'm not the only one benefiting from the generosity of

others. I look forward to the day when I'll be able to give back too.

Sadly I would like to do more listening, but I've gotta help two more

people set up their HT's. Seems everyone is getting a new place this

time of year. I need to start charging for my services one of these

days []

Thanks again Mr. Spaaz dude! [H]

[Daddy Dee]

Thanks for the review. Glad you like the little sweetheart.

[SilverSport]

..."so I go out to my porch and...yeah, I know...it's stupid to leave your HK 630 out on your porch but I had it wrapped in a plastic bag and I thought...who would take it...anyway...I get home from work and go out to my front porch and it's gone...GONE!!!...someone swiped my like new HK 630 Twin Powered Receiver...and I never even got to hear it...

Enjoy that receiver, Doc...! [] []

Bill

[DrWho]

lol Bill...I was kinda wondering what the neighbors might be thinking too. Some punk kid drives by and takes some trash off a dude's porch []

[lwhaples]

Mike, Congrats on your new FIND. Always neat to hear when members help members.

Larry

[colterphoto1]

Spaaaz wins the 'cool guy of the week' award[H]

Doc, what you're hearing is affectionately known as 'balls'. Big power transformer is the culprit.

Does your's hum or make any slight noise on startup? My 430 does, so I follow Andy HDBR's advice to switch speakers off every time. Give it 30 seconds to come up to power, the switch speakers in and advance the volume.

Nice FM circuit in those too. I haven't hooked up a phone to one of mine, bet it's top notch as well!

Congrats on the new beauty.

M