theplummer Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 Here's the deal. A good friend of mine gave me an old Harman Kardon HK775 Mono amp that was not working. I always wanted to get it repaired to make a nice subwoofer amp. Time passes, amp gets stored on a shelf in the basement. Last Wednesday, I got word that my old friend had just passed away from a two year long battle of cancer. Damn, I only got to see him twice in the last ten years or so. Man, I miss him already. This last Saturday, I happened on the old Harman Kardon amp in a box in numerous pieces. I damn near cried. Would anyone be able to help me repair this old amp so I can get it in my rack in his memory? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 http://www.electronicsrepair.net/rec25.shtml first step...you need a service manual...cost is 10 bucks from the above site. What do we know about what went wrong with it...why is it in peices now...ie did someone try to fix and could not, etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theplummer Posted March 17, 2007 Author Share Posted March 17, 2007 Thanks for the quick response Speakerfritz. To answer your quesitons, I don't really remember what was wrong with the amp, only to say that I took it apart as at that time in my life, I managed to repair a television (by pure luck, I later found out that I could have killed myself with what I had done to repair it, but that's another story.), so I fancied myself as quite the electronics repair genious(kind of like Jeff Spickholie ?spelling?) I figured that one of the capacitors mounted to the heatsinks was out of spec and causing the circuit breaker to pop. If I purchased the service manual, I'd like to send it to someone else, as I'm not having much luck getting PDF files out of the internet with this ancient dialupasaurous. Also, I'm having to use my daughters laptop, as last week, my Dell 8300 developed a Kernel error (whatever that is, although it must be serious, as the damn thing won't work at all now.) and she has five different SIMS games loaded on this thing and it is extremely SLOW. I was not able to repair the amp, as I don't have any test equipment. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
33klfan Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 Check out Echowars from audiokarma. He's in kansas city, mo, last i knew. I know there was something with him taking up a job in idaho, so i don't know if is still doing repairs or not, but he is the guy to go to. Highly recommended by me and everyone at audiokarma who had work done by him. Most people compare him as Craig to tubes as he is to SS. Shoot him an email. He'll get back to you, but i don't know if he's busy or not, but he'll let you know. I'll email you or pm you his email address. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 17, 2007 Share Posted March 17, 2007 theplummer Dial up can be problematic. No service manual No current condition pic's. Are you inclined to use one of these name brand guys or are you looking for help to do it yourself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theplummer Posted March 18, 2007 Author Share Posted March 18, 2007 KL33fan Thanks for the input. Speakerfritz I'd love to fix it myself, but, I also realize I neither have the time nor the talant to complete this task. I can't take pictures of the project, as My 6 year old got ahold of my digital camera and dropped it, now it won't power up. Seems like I need a live in electronics genious don't I, Computer on the fritz, broken camera, bad amp, what else could go wrong lately. I really miss the camera, I've been chompin at the bit to post a pic of the new HT in the new home, no luck though. I'm still bummin from the loss of my bud, 44 years old is too young to be riddled with cancer. When I disassembled the amp, I did not take it too far apart, If I remember correctly, I only removed the covers and one heat sink. I wouldn't think it'd take too much to reassemble it to test it, I think I could manage that prior to taking it anywhere. Incidentally, I just remembered that my mother works for Harman/Becker, parent company to Harman Kardon, I think I'll call her tomorrow and give her the model number of the unit, maybe she can get a service manual through her employment. Who knows maybe one of the local engineers would want to tinker with it, or are you gaining info to possibly repair it yourself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 theplummer I would need to see the service schematic to see if it uses off the shelf parts or intelectual property componets. I used to repair SS equipment in one of my previous lives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theplummer Posted March 18, 2007 Author Share Posted March 18, 2007 Speakerfritz, I just did an internet search and found this: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=86584&highlight= It has a link to a Acrobat pdf of the service manual and a photo of the internal workings of the amp, I've tried to download the file, and it won't download all 15 pages, damn dialup, maybe you could pull it up. There's some interesting reading there too (WISH I UNDERSTOOD IT MORE). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 schematic HK775%20sm.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 inside view Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 caps board Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Ok, so what happend...it wasn't working and he gave it to you in parts? How do the fuses look? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Plummer, Sorry to hear of the loss of your Friend. i realize that the receiver has brings fond memories of you and your friend,but................. As far as the receiver goes, wilth the cost for labor being what it is, I'd suggest you just junk the receiver and buy a current /updated model. You can purchase a good HK Model 345 for around 300.00 easily...............JMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedball Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 i was about to say that is some serious looking guts........maybe not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theplummer Posted March 18, 2007 Author Share Posted March 18, 2007 Ok, so what happend...it wasn't working and he gave it to you in parts? How do the fuses look? Actually, he gave it to me, not working, and I thought I was some expert tv repairman and took it apart myself. The two fuses on top, near the capacitors are fine. I also tried re-loading the PDF file you linked, no luck there either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theplummer Posted March 18, 2007 Author Share Posted March 18, 2007 Plummer, Sorry to hear of the loss of your Friend. i realize that the receiver has brings fond memories of you and your friend,but................. As far as the receiver goes, wilth the cost for labor being what it is, I'd suggest you just junk the receiver and buy a current /updated model. You can purchase a good HK Model 345 for around 300.00 easily...............JMHO. Bill, I've been doing a little research on this particular amp. IMHO, this was a pretty serious piece in its day, I'm sure it doesn't compare with my Sunfire 400wpc, but I think sometimes a little nostalgia is a good thing. Heck, I still have an old Ariston Icon turntable that I break out once in a while and listen to some ancient vinyl that I've collected over the years (Most of my vinyl finds came from when I was a police officer, and I happened to be walking by the evidence locker when the evidence tech was disposing of old cases, I got a whole milk crate full of goodies out of that one.) If I can get this old mono amp working, I'd dedicate it to Subwoofer duties on my homade sub. My buddy Norman would approve, we used to make speakers in his basement shop. I didn't think to show him the homeade sub the last time I saw him, He looked terrible. He did get to fullfil one of his lifes dreams though, he was a soundman for Neil McCoy, prior to him getting sick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Plummer, I fully understand now your reasons to fix this...............I wish you the best.............Let us know when you get this done, and how you like it! Regards Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest " " Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 "As far as the receiver goes, wilth the cost for labor being what it is, I'd suggest you just junk the receiver and buy a current /updated model" Maybe buying a used one to serve as a source of donor parts would be a low cost option. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
33klfan Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 Yeah, your welcome. I am completely sorry about your friend, and i would be doing the same thing you are doing. I hope all turns out well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PositivAttitude Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 If you wanted... you can go to the Harmon Kardon USA site and find local shops that will fix the unit. Surely more expensive than a Forum user but still an option with no other hassles. Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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