Harmon Kardon hk680i help........

[LCruiser122]

I pulled out my hk680i from the 80s(my first real receiver). I believe only one channel plays. (left or right) Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[hammr7]

You should check out the recent HK 690i thread:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=202127

 

[LCruiser122]

You should check out the recent HK 690i thread:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=202127

Thanks SOOOOOOOOO much ! I messed with the switches (pressed them) and it appears the subsonic filter button was the main problem. The receiver sprang to life ! I still have static on the balance and trble pots, so I'll take the thing apart and clean them all i guess.
I can't tell you how HAPPY I am right now. My grandmother bought me the 680i back in '81 or so. I used it all thru high school and college. This was my first "real" receiver. Had it hooked up to Polk 10As which I still use everyday. Have an HK cassette deck and a HK T60 turntable too. The turntable is sweet, I use it all the time. Now, it will go back to the 680i.... where it belongs !

I am glad I kept it too. Back around 1990 when the left channel went out, my local Harmon Kardon DEALER told me my left channel went out and it wasn't worth fixing...no parts available. Thank goodness I didn't have faith in them. I was convinced SOME DAY I'd fix it somehow.

THANK YOU again..... you made my YEAR !

 

[Hokieman]

I PM'ed you with a lengthy response this morning regarding this very solution. So glad to hear your unit is back on line. Please take a bit of time to do a thorough cleaning of all the pots and switches and I'm sure she'll give you many more years of dedicated service.

My advice is to work all these buttons on these units at least once month to keep them "exercised".

 

[shimniok]

I pulled out my hk680i from the 80s(my first real receiver). I believe only one channel plays. (left or right) Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

I have one too... got it free as the owner said it was broken ... I'm sure a dozen people said to deoxit the controls in this thread. That is the issue with mine altho just working the controls back and forth a few times solved it. The mute and other buttons were sticking too and causing it not to play. Finally got it without deoxit but that is the plan along with a recap to see how it performs.

Michael

 

[LCruiser122]

I have one too... got it free as the owner said it was broken ... I'm sure a dozen people said to deoxit the controls in this thread. That is the issue with mine altho just working the controls back and forth a few times solved it. The mute and other buttons were sticking too and causing it not to play. Finally got it without deoxit but that is the plan along with a recap to see how it performs.

Michael

is it a good idea to recap? You mean the six or eight large caps, right?

 

[shimniok]

If you search for recap here there are probably hundreds of posts on the topic. The idea is that electrolytic caps tend to go bad -- usually going out of spec -- with age... so one wants to replace all the power supply and preamp caps... that's my plan...

 

[MRX37]

Another HK saved... How about that.

My 690i is still working fine. Not a hint of switch problems now.

 

[Hokieman]

Why the rush to recap so quickly? My advice is listen to the units for a while, see if they sound deficient, then decide if you want to tackle something of this magnitude on these complicated receivers. By all means do a thorough visual inspection for obvious problems, and fix any that show up. But once you open these beasts up, you'll have a much better appreciation of the magnitude of a significant recap on these HK680i/690i receivers.

If you think the unit sounds a bit thin, I'm willing to bet it's because of interference from those hard-to-access pushbuttons that were never properly cleaned rather than a bad cap situation. But hey, that's just my opinion.