I recently received my refurbished Harman Kardon 3480 receiver.

First impressions: the remote doesn't work, and it keeps going into protect.

They sent batteries that were dead. I replaced them after pondering the companies's incompetance.

Then I go to use it. I have a 12 year old tape player/radio thing I use.. mainly to test amps on. I use the speaker - it plays, for a while. Then it shuts down after what seems like current limiting or some self protection mode(I'm assuming this since it said protect before it shut down).

The receiver can be playing at -75 dB(extremely low), and it will go into that mode and shut down.

Right about now I feel like I bought it out of a white van next to sears.

I thought I'd unplug the speakers completely and just play something. It went into protect mode again - with no speakers attached. It doesn't even get warm, so I can't believe that the amps are being overloaded by forcing this pair of speakers to 20-40 dB @ 1 meter.

Then I tried disconnecting everything from it, even the jumpers from the preamp out-main in. It goes into protect with nothing plugged in a few seconds after I turn it on now.

Any ideas? I ordered my speakers before finding out this receiver was a useless brick. If I could do something to make it work without sending it back, that would be great. If not, unless HK offers me a new one that takes less than a week and a half to ship like this one did(did I call them morons already? ), I'm going for a refurbished dra-395.

I thought refurbished stuff was looked through to make sure it worked? The 5 lbs kmart tape player/radio that came with the speakers can drive them.

I apologize for the bitter tone - however, this kind of stuff happens to me very often. Yet when I spend close to $200 on something that was said to be looked through by a technician to ensure proper performance, I become extremely angry when they can't even send me a working amp, much less working batteries.

Look at the back of the receiver under a REALLY bright light for any wire strands shorting the speaker terminals. My first thought is that this sounds like a strand short...

If you are using the "A" outs try moving the speakers to B, turn on the "B" outs, turn off the "A" outs, then see what happens.

Try not to think about the batteries.

I checked and can't see anything.

It won't stay on long enough for me to hit any buttons, and for the short while that it stays on no buttons work, wheather on the receiver or the remote.

It seems like there are others with the same problems and in the same relative timeframe too. Guess HK's QA/QC just sucks lately.

That sucks. Send it back, I guess. HKs do seem to have pretty high "out of box" mortality (not like I have bought a lot of receivers but...) but once past that they seem to run forever.

Very sorry to hear about your continued problems!!!!!!!

This is the same sort of BS that has me "turned off" against refurbs. While something could have happened to it in transit, it sure sounds like it WAS NOT completely repaired at the factory. It doesn't sound like you can do much more.

The only other thing that I would do if you can open the cover without violating your warranty, I would open the case and look at everything very carefully. There may be a loose wire or something that it obvious. Other than that, I suspect that it would get very complicated, very quick.

It may be time to "drop back 20 and punt,"

I feel for you. Your situation just sucks!!!!!!

If it makes you feel any better...I bought a AVR7300 which arrived at my home damaged and inoperable. I called HK and they sent me a replacement which was like new. The trend would seem to dictate that the first time is not the best with them.

I agree on the DEAD batteries...they pulled that on me too! HK remanufactured Quality Standards are definitely not up to par in my book. I will definitely think again before buying refurb from them.

GOOD LUCK!

The more googling I do, the more I wonder what percentage of refurbs actually get refurbed.

However, the denon with 40 watts/2 lbs less costs over $30 more, and finding an integrated amp with a subwoofer out seems impossible.

The MSRP prices on lots of gear as advertized on their site makes me laugh.. then becomes depressing, ditto for Denon's site, so I suppose I'll stick to refurbs for a while.

http://www.etronics.com/product.asp?stk_code=harhk3480&store=&catid=4118

Here is one for $268 new from etronics.com, I dont know if they are an authorized dealer or not. No shipping or taxes though.