Receiver cutting off, HELP

[Mr Peabody]

One other thing, when I was doing a search for the receiver I saw other forums who had a dedicated thread for the 673 and you might also check reviews at Amazon or Crutchfield to see how people felt about the power or compared it to any other receivers.

[Hyfi]

The HK I replaced with the Integra weighed about 3X as much. That should tell ya something right off the bat. I had to get a new unit because the HK died on me and I got gunshy to purchase another one so I went with the Integra.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I am curious about two things here. To the OP, and you putting your receiver into the standby mode when not watching it? Second thing, are you running your towers as full range?

If you are putting your receiver into the standby mode when not watching movies or listening to music, I would suggest you turn the receiver all the way off. If you are running your towers full range, and listening to a movie like Saving Private Ryan beach scene at high levels, then expect your receiver to shut down during the loud passages - as this scene is challenging for any system when played back at high levels. If you are going to play this movie at high volume, I would suggest putting the towers and all of the other speakers on small as well, it will reduce the load on the main channels, and can prevent the receiver from shutting itself off. Does this receiver run hot before shutting itself off?

[PaBowHunter340]

Mr. Terrible,

The receiver is probably in standby mode when not in use. And if "full range" is the same as "large", then yes.

The receiver will shut itself off even if I turn it on and immediately crank up the power. Heat so far hasn't been a problem.

I spoke to Yamaha tech support today and they told me that there does appear that there is a problem with the receiver. And the tech told me a simple solution to check and see if it's the receiver or the speakers. Disconnect all of the speakers and then place a movie into the PS3 which I use as a Blu Ray player and then crank it up to max volume. If the unit shuts itself off then there is a problem with the unit and not the rest of the system. So at least I see light at the end of the tunnel.

I purchased the receiver from a company called Gear4less.com. We will see if the company does the honorable thing and replaces the unit if I test the unit and it fails.

Mr. Terrible, while you are certainly more knowledgeable than I, and I'm not being condescending, I must disagree that this is challenging. My ten year old HK AVR 325 kicks ass during the beach scene of Saving Private Ryan. I can turn the volume up to max and it functions flawlessly. No distortion. I can turn music up loud enough so that you cannot hear the person next to you speak. Never cut out once. Granted this may not be the smartest thing to do, but when the Maker's is flowing, occasionally the volume knob becomes easier to turn. All joking aside, the Yamaha has much less power and volume. And not by design. I believe it is defective. If you were here and heard it I'm sure you would agree and probably would know the answer to my problem.

Nevertheless I will test it and send it back to Yamaha for repair. If it is too expensive then I'll be looking for suggestions on a new receiver. So far I'm leaning towards another Harmon Kardon or maybe digging deep for a Marantz. But suggestions would be appreciated. I'd like to stay under $1,200.00.

By the way fellas, I have a very basic system. I have 10 year old Infinity Primus 360 tower speakers. An Infinity C25 center channel. The rears are Infinity Primus 160's. Not very expensive gear, but it's served my purpose for a decade. I had a M&K 75 MKII, but the amp went. Trying to get it repaired. In the mean time I bought a Bic America PL-200 to hold down the fort. Let me know what you think of my bargain basement movie sound system.

[StevenSurprenant]

By the way fellas, I have a very basic system. I have 10 year old Infinity Primus 360 tower speakers. An Infinity C25 center channel. The rears are Infinity Primus 160's. Not very expensive gear, but it's served my purpose for a decade. I had a M&K 75 MKII, but the amp went. Trying to get it repaired. In the mean time I bought a Bic America PL-200 to hold down the fort. Let me know what you think of my bargain basement movie sound system.

I've owned M&K, Paradigm, Yamaha, and HSU subs. The M&K was sealed and while it didn't play as loud as the Paradigm, it sounded much better. That was many years ago. I like my HSU the best at only about $500. They were all around $500 on sale. There are much better subs, but dollar for dollar the M&K and the HSU were the two best I've owned.

It's been a while since I've heard Inifinty speakers, but what I liked about them was that the bass was tight and dynamic. I was reading about your Infinity's on Stereophile and I see that the impedance drops below 4 ohms at certain points. That could explain why your Yamaha had problems driving them. I also noticed that they are 93db sensitive. You could drive these with a very small amp and still get them to play very loud. You should read their report, they really liked these in that price range.

Infinity Primus 360 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com

Anyway, it looks like a very nice system. All that really matters is what you think.

BTW, we all don't have megabuck systems. I know I don't. Nor do we all have the same tastes. I play music at about 75db peak and movies at about 90db peak. You seem to like it much louder. That seems to be what's important to you and there is nothing wrong with either way.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Mr. Terrible, while you are certainly more knowledgeable than I, and I'm not being condescending, I must disagree that this is challenging. My ten year old HK AVR 325 kicks ass during the beach scene of Saving Private Ryan. I can turn the volume up to max and it functions flawlessly. No distortion. I can turn music up loud enough so that you cannot hear the person next to you speak.

So you understand what I mean by challenging. For twenty minutes straight you have full power gunshots, deep loud bass in the main channels to 30hz, loud bass to 40hz in the surrounds, and bass to 17hz in the LFE. This is what I saw from the RTA's on each channel in my system while watching the movie last night. There were quite a few occasions where the power meters jumped to 100+ watts coming from the L/R mains, hence why I knew you were running your mains on large. Based on what I saw last night, you are running your system well past the what the power supply can deliver in this receiver, hence why it shuts down during peak volumes. I do not recommend any speaker being put to large when using receivers. The demands it places on the amps is far to high for most receivers to handle. Receivers are really designed to handle 80hz and above, and leave the heavy bass lifting to the subwoofer. When you combine a low impedance speaker(4 ohms) along with deep bass, then you have a problem with a receiver.

The beach scene is the only scene that has ever tripped a breaker on Widescreen Review's reference system, and it has almost the same amount of power as the system in my signature.

I used to have the same problem you did with an old Sony receiver I had many years ago. I used to put that receiver in the standby mode while not watching it, and as soon as a peak hit, it would shut down. Turning the receiver fully off cured the problem.

I may be wrong, but this sounds like a "over current" situation which is triggering the safety circuit so the amps won't melt down.

HK receivers have always been modestly spec when it comes to their power amps in their receivers. They are high current designs that probably could play well past their conservative power rating. However, there is a missing piece here you are overlooking. The 325 can only play the lossy tracks on Bluray, not the lossless tracks. The lossless tracks are a bit more dynamic(especially in the LFE) than the lossy tracks, and that may be why the 325 can hum right through them.

My last question is how do you hook up your PS3 to the HK? It does not have HDMI inputs, and the PS3 does not have 7.1 outputs. How could you test Saving Private Ryan with the HK in this case?

If you are going to compare the HK to the Yamaha, the comparison has to be 1 to 1, apples to apples. I cannot see how a fair comparison can be made of these two receivers.

[BadAssJazz]

My last question is how do you hook up your PS3 to the HK? It does not have HDMI inputs, and the PS3 does not have 7.1 outputs. How could you test Saving Private Ryan with the HK in this case?

My guess would be that he/she used digital optical out from the PS3 to the HK AVR635. :shrug:

[PaBowHunter340]

[QUOTE=Sir Terrence the Terrible

My last question is how do you hook up your PS3 to the HK? It does not have HDMI inputs, and the PS3 does not have 7.1 outputs. How could you test Saving Private Ryan with the HK in this case?

If you are going to compare the HK to the Yamaha, the comparison has to be 1 to 1, apples to apples. I cannot see how a fair comparison can be made of these two receivers.[/QUOTE]


I ran the HDMI cable from my DirectTV box and my PS3 straight to my TV. Then I ran a digital optical cable from the TV's digital optical out down to the HK AVR 325. So I suppose I wasn't comparing apples to apples because the system set up was different, but I just received the Yamaha back. Now I will remove the HK and replace with the Yamaha and will test it again with the exact same set up.

First I will try the Yamaha tech's suggestion of disconnecting all speakers and turning the unit all the way up with a movie playing in the PS3. If the problem still exists and the unit again cuts off, I will try your suggestions of setting my two front tower speakers to small. Then I will change my power cords around so that I can turn off the power completely when not in use.

Can you explain what you meant by this: "The 325 can only play the lossy tracks on Bluray, not the lossless tracks. The lossless tracks are a bit more dynamic(especially in the LFE) than the lossy tracks, and that may be why the 325 can hum right through them."
I don't know what "lossless tracks" or "lossy tracks" are. And I do use the LFE.

Also, what affect if any is there on a 7.2 receiver if you configure your speakers in 5.1? And what happens to the power that is designated for those unused channels?

Thanks again. You've been very helpful.

UPDATE:
Okay, I plugged in the Yamaha and simply connected the digital optical cable from the OUT on the TV to the IN on the Yamaha as I was instructed by the Yamaha Tech. Insert one Saving Private Ryan DVD, scan to the beach landing, turn the volume ALL the way up as the tech advised and th unit turned itself off within 5 seconds.
I immediately contacted Yamaha customer support and explained the situation to ANOTHER tech who agreed that the unit is defective. So now I battle with the retailer who I now found out is NOT an authorized Yamaha dealer thus voiding any warranty. Even though the ad stated otherwise. I have been duped and I am a fool.
This now leads me to a new but somewhat exciting problem. What should I buy to replace my mistake?
I really need some ideas. I mostly use the unit for Home Theatre movie watching, but I do listen to the occasional classic rock station. Denon? Onkyo? Marantz? Harmon Kardon? I know earlier I said I'd like to stay under $1,200.00, but I've decided I'd like to stay under $800.00. Thanks again.......

[PaBowHunter340]

So you understand what I mean by challenging. For twenty minutes straight you have full power gunshots, deep loud bass in the main channels to 30hz, loud bass to 40hz in the surrounds, and bass to 17hz in the LFE. This is what I saw from the RTA's on each channel in my system while watching the movie last night. There were quite a few occasions where the power meters jumped to 100+ watts coming from the L/R mains, hence why I knew you were running your mains on large.

Mr. T:
After re-connecting the HK AVR325 I determined that my TV has enough HDMI inputs that I can actually use the HK AVR325 if I choose to do so. I only connect a PS3 and DirectTV receiver to the TV (or AVR if I could). So I may just leave the HK AVR325 in place. Heck, it sounds great. I don't get to play with all of the new technology such as the connectivity to the www and such, but I also have a spare $500 in my pocket. More than likely I'll conduct a slow search for the replacement for the HK. I do like gadgets.
In addtition to all of the other great information I've learned from the responses in this thread, your suggestion to change my front main speakers to SMALL has really made a difference in the sound quality for both music and movies. I literally had to turn the power down on my sub to about 10-20%. I have a BIC-America Acoustech PL200. Not a very expensive sub, but it's getting the job done. Prior to switching my mains to small, I was forced to turn the power on my sub up to about 45%.
I think the only negative (and I'm not sure it's a negative yet) I can see is that the sub is delivering so much of the low frequencies that it's almost difficult to finely tune the correct amount of power to the sub via the power knob on the rear of the sub. Adjusting the power knob on the rear of the sub has become much more precise. I suppose that's a good problem to have. I like it this way so far. Thanks........