H.k. is in the house

hotwheelman

I carried the avr 525 home with me today, still have not made my mind up if I want it or the oink thx unit so they are holding it until tomorrow evening. I am going to take the h.k. and put it through the paces tomorrow to see how I like it, initial fist impressions when put up against the denon are a wider sound stage and much cleaner mids and highs. The bottom end is not as strong as the denon but is more refined, clean and tight. The denon did sometimes come across as being a tad bit muddy on occasion.

Hooked up the optical connection from the phillips dvd with a rat shack optical cable that I got on sale for 9.98, was 29.98 and not a bad price at all. I also picked up a coax for the same price to do a shoot out with to see which I prefer. I will post a further review after I have had a chance to do a good burn in, and that depends on if I keep it or move up to the thx onkyo model.

I read somwhere that these tend to run hot and that they have issues with shutdown, anybody else have any info about this issue? I am also runnig the adcom 545 on the front mains and would tend to think that this would help with that issue if it is one.I was also not aware that this unit had an auto cal. mode until I was reading about it in the manual that I downloaded from h.k., pretty cool feature eh?


Cheers,
Mike

Early B.

The HK 525 is an awesome receiver. I recently tested it against a Denon 3803 and the HK came out on top. My findings were the same as yours -- the Denon had more bass, but it was muddy. In fact, I thought the Denon 1803 sounded better. I also noticed that both the 3803 and the 525 have similar power, despite the specs.

Go for the HK, especially if you'll be using it for music.

kingtut

I also have the 525. It runs pretty hot but no shut down issue.

hamzahsh

I've read lot of complains about HK 525's fan noise. Have you noticed the fan noise yet. I think fan only clicks when 525 gets too hot. Many people went with HK 7200 just because of 525's fan issue. BTW did you check the price of 7200. I know they came down a lot. 7200 has a better power supply which is a Torroidal Transformer.

Enjoy your new toy!

kingtut

The fan has not come on on my 525.

ascienzo

Hi there:

My H/K525 sits in a wooden cabinet--runs hot but has never shut down and I've run it for 8-10 hours at a time with no problems...

Only quirk--I don't like the plug in power cord in the back of the unit...I have lots of connections as you can imagine and sometimes it wiggles out when I'm checking connections or making adjustments, of course I can't see it, so I don't realize it at the time...

Nice unit IMO, good luck with it

HBombToo

I have had a 520 for the past few years and it runs flawlessly to date. I have the Outlaw 770 so the 520 is prepro only and sounds terrific. I have noticed that if your not carefull with the LFE gain settings it will clip and bottom out my subs. I typically run the LFE gain between -10 and -5 which has eliminated this issue.

I really like the Logic 7 DAC and actually prrefer it over the Dolby processor. The DTS dac is on par with my Denon 2900 when properly settup but I use the DTS out of the Denon"when my remote works;) "

HBomb

hotwheelman

Hey, thanks for the replys guys.

Hamzahsh, have not heard the fan as of yet but have noticed that it is running extremly hot even with the door off of the cabinet and the back wide open behind it. Have any of you ever noticed this? I mean it feels like you could fry an egg on it and thats listening at a fairly low volume level, should I be considering taking it back and upgrading? Only issue with that would be having enough funds to kick it up to the next level.

Another question I have for you guys that I cannot find the answer to in the man. is how to cut off the internal amp for the front mains so that I can use the adcom, of does it know when the preouts are in use and auto kicks out the internal? Also is there a bass attenuation feature ( loudness )? I have noticed a much better bottom end when in dsp in the hall mode, in two channel the bass is weak even with the bass att. at max.

I love being able to do my video switching through the receiver, sure has made it much more simplified.Also which do you guys prefer the tosslink or the dig, coax? The osd is an added plus too.



Mike

HBombToo

On the back of the 525 you should see little u type connectors that connect the preamp out to the internal amp in. Remove the jumper and connect the preamp out to your adcom in with a good rca analog cable.

With the OSD funtion roll through your menu and ensure nite mode is not on. after that set all your speakers to small and sub on crossed at 80 then set your channel gains accordingly at your listening position. You can use the "test", on the remote, noise feature in conjuntion with the remote for channel balancing but an SPL meter is more accurate.

I never use the hall modes for 2 channel but will use Logic 7 and DTS NEO which both sound better than the doly pro to me. Its just a preference thing I guess.

HBomb

ascienzo

Hi HBomb:

Are you saying to set the speakers to all "small" even if you are connecting through the back of the receiver and not the sub??

I have FL and FR set to "large" and my Center set to "small" on my set up--my sub is connected to the "LFE" --will my sound be "better" or "different" if I follow your set up?

Thanks

HBombToo

ascienzo by setting the speakers to small any bass below your crossover point(80Hz) will be routed through the lfe.

The greatest reason for setting the speakers to small is the amp for your mains won't be swamped by the low frequency thus providing more headroom for mid/high dynamic passages and greater definition.

What type sub are you using?

HBomb

hotwheelman

My 525 has no jumpers anywhere, or anywhere for there to be any jumpers. The preouts are just straight out with nothing more, hence my question about being able to go into sysem settings somewhere and cut out the internal amp for the mains. My denon had the ability to cut the internal amps with the push of a button on the mo. I am also currently not using a sub and have the left, right mains and center set to large and it sounds great in dolby dig.

Still cannot figure out why I have good bass response in dsp with it set to hall 1 or any of the other settings, but next to none with it set to straight two channel or 5 channel stereo. Surely there is some sort of attenuation?


Mike

HBombToo

I just pulled the manual and am very surprised. The 525 is very differennt than the 520... go figure!

Page 8 in the manual shows preamp outs so now you know how to hoo up your amp.

Live and Learn!

Twin

http://manuals.harman.com/hk/Owner%27s%20Manual/AVR%20525%20OM%20(REV%209-4-02)%20FINAL.pdf

hotwheelman

I guess that I should clarify that my issue is not how to hook up the adcom to the preouts, but rather how to turn off the internal amplification for the front mains so as not to burn the outputs up on the h.k. as there will not be a load on them. Also I am still getting better bass response in the dsp hall mode than I am in 2 or 5 channel stereo, is there not a bass att. on this receiver for 2 channel low level listining? I have found nothing about either in the manual, maybe I am overlooking it?

Another issue I am having that kind of has me concerned is how hot this beast runs at low volume levels, I mean it gets hot enough to just about burn you before the friggin fan even kicks in. Is this normal or do I need to have a little chit chat with the boys at c.c.? I mean how long can I expect the outputs to last on this thing if it's going to run that hot? What would you do? Other than that I really like it alot.


Cheers,
Mike

kingtut

Hotwheel, I believe that the H/K is designed to run hot (even at low volume). My brother-in-law has an older H/K (+6 yr old?) that runs just as hot as the 525, and it is still working fine.

I believe that the power is not directed to the L&R channels, if you're running it w/an external amp. There is a review from Mark Fleischer (not sure of the spelling) from HT Magazine, who did a review on the 325. Mark Fleischer indicated that by using 5.1 instead of 7.1, the volume of the 5.1 can be turned louder w/out distortion. I could be wrong, but I interpret it as the power is not being directed to the unused channels. You can find this article on the H/K website.

kingtut

By the way, selecting the hall dsp is similar to turning the bass boost all the way up and hooking the amp to an echo amplifier. It usually boosts the bass and makes the sound very "boingy".

hotwheelman

H.k. is about to leave the house...I am just not satisfied with the two channel bass response. Also this thing is running so hot all the time that the top is starting to bow in. I just cannot see how in the hell the outputs can survive that amount of heat all the time.

Mike

hamzahsh

Get Yamaha RX-V1400 you'll love it!

hotwheelman

Think I am just going to revert back to the denon I have until I can find what I want, I'm not going to just jump in head first this time without some serious research.

hotwheelman

Got an email reply back from h.k., there is no way to defeat the internal amps for the front mains so they are always on even when they have no load on them, there is not a way to attenuate the bass response at low level listening other than the bass adjustment on the front panel and I am not happy with that, and it has been getting so hot before the fan kicks in that the top on the unit is bowing inward.

It is going to go back tomorrow and I am hoping that they will have something around the same dollar amount that I paid for this one that I can get to replace it. If the oink thx unit is still there I may try and talk them into it as long as it is not much more than I gave for the h.k. If not and I get my money back I have scouted a couple on ebay that peaked my interest and would like to know what you all think.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39799&item=5705529896&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39799&item=5705065791&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39799&item=5705529896&rd=1

Found this one and has the jumpers to cut out the middle man:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39794&item=5705408715&rd=1

F1nut

Mike,

Sorry bro, I can't help you with this one other than to say good luck.



Ascienzo,

About your pc problem, check out a PS Audio pc, they have alligator jaws at the IEC end that'll hold onto that sucker for dear life. It'll improve the sound too!

http://www.psaudio.com/

hotwheelman

Thanks jesse, I would probably just keep it if I was not so worried about the internal amp/heat related issue. I found a few tidbits around on the net about some of these having heat related breakdowns from running so hot.

F1nut

Yeah, on that concern I agree with you 100%, taking it back is the right thing to do.

hotwheelman

Well the h.k. is history and I am suffering from withdrawal now, I never realized just how strained and muted sounding the center channel dialogue is with the denon....but it is. I am trying to cut a deal on the onkyo sr800 thx unit they have been sitting on for over a month but have not been able to....yet. I am going to go by there every couple of days until I have bugged him enough that he will just give it to me to get me out of the store.:D



Mike