...The hk560: ...The build quality is not the best; it feels like there was not alot of care that went into its design and execution. For example, the case has shims that are inserted to keep the top flush with the chassis; the tuner flywheel often has issues because a pulley inside comes loose and gets blocked by a circuit board; the bass knob doesn't point exactly upward when its at neutral by feel. Cool feature: it has a tone defeat button for purists (like me).
Build issues aside, I think it has a great sound. Very accurate, maybe a bit anemic...
I spent much of last night exploring an HK560 that I bought at a thrift some years ago, stuffed under a bed and forgot for years. Plan was to Deox and lube all pots and switches and survey burnt-out light bulbs. As it turned out, no Deoxing was actually required--which is a good thing, as *only* the volume pot is actually accessible without *MAJOR* disassembly--disassembly that is altogether tedious as the HK560 chassis design is probably the *worst* I've ever encountered in a piece of audio gear, in terms of serviceability. RE: "it feels like there was not alot of care that went into its design and execution"--you can trust your feeling as my eyeballs and experience with other makes tell me with great certainty that yes indeedy there was not a lot of care in either design or execution (surprisingly little, actually). I found myself wondering if HK was even still in business and estimating that such "design" must surely have made them toast.
I, too, noticed that the bass knob pointer is off by about half a shaft tooth. Obviously attention to detail wasn't HK's strong suite.
Among the bulbs, only *one* actually work(ed), past tense, as when I went to move it to a center slot to get *some* illumination across the dial (it'd been furthest left), it, too, gave up.
So sometime when I'm near Rat Shack, I'll be buying a herd of those tuner dial bulbs. Those little lights inside the buttons, however, *NONE* of which work, will *never* get replaced, as the logisitics of disassembly to get to them make it altogether simply NOT worth the effort.
BUT, I have to say, it's a really, really nice sounding receiver, and in the case of this one, I'd *never* say "anemic". The tuner section sounds exceptional. Though, yes, as stated, that little pulley that comes loose *IS* an issue on this one, too, having NO designed-in method of preventing it!
I'm happy enough with the thing for the $5.00 or so I likely paid for it, but having seen how the chassis goes together and how inaccessible many things are for service, I'd NEVER be happy with the thing if I'd bought it new for good money.
After reassembly, I decided if I ever get desparate for audio gear, after the backups for the backups of the backups go bye-bye, this will be a nice little unit, soundwise, anyway, and I'll just keep a good flashlight handy to see what all those damnable bulbs used to illuminate, if and when I ever need the thing (doubtful).
Just to prove HK isn't the only poor designer, I opened up a Crown tonight, too. Stupid engineering there, too.
