I'm bumming

M

Mr Peabody

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 19, 2013
Messages
3,317
Location
St. Louis, MO, USA
My 532h began not powering up. The issue was intermittent at first. Then I couldn't get it to come on at all. I tried other outlets, switched the power cord nothing. At this point I feel it's ready for the shop. The amp is only 18 months old. I contact Harmon on how to proceed and if knew what could be wrong. They eventually sent me a form to fill out with the warranty repair shops addresses etc. but in the email the guy tells me to try the factory reset first to see if it cures the issue. Come to find out this also wipes out the performance history. Why Harmon would tell me to do this is beyond me. So now it is at the shop and supposedly working fine. So no history for them to go on they have to wait until the amp acts up, which I would have thought should have happened already the way it was acting for me. So I could be without my system for a long time.

I love the sound of the 532h, my system has great synergy to my taste. Now I'm wondering if it's time to move on to something else. This is the sound I like so there's the thought, what if I don't find something I like as much. On the other hand this is the first "high end" amp I had go bad on me. Then to have the company advise me to do something foolish, I'm not happy with them.

So am I over reacting, and this type of situation is par for the course? I've had perfect performance from Krell, same CJ amps for years with out a hitch, the prior Pass was in the same outlet etc. for a couple years. Unfortunately, my budget isn't large so I have to sell to get something else, what I'd do for one of those old amps to be here now.
 
Sorry to hear that. Sometimes things just break. Nothing we can do about that. What I have done is build my HT with stereo system hand-me-downs, so I will always have one operational stereo if something should break.

Stay positive. Things will soon be back to normal.
 
Mr Peabody said:
My 532h began not powering up. The issue was intermittent at first. Then I couldn't get it to come on at all. I tried other outlets, switched the power cord nothing. At this point I feel it's ready for the shop. The amp is only 18 months old. I contact Harmon on how to proceed and if knew what could be wrong. They eventually sent me a form to fill out with the warranty repair shops addresses etc. but in the email the guy tells me to try the factory reset first to see if it cures the issue. Come to find out this also wipes out the performance history. Why Harmon would tell me to do this is beyond me. So now it is at the shop and supposedly working fine. So no history for them to go on they have to wait until the amp acts up, which I would have thought should have happened already the way it was acting for me. So I could be without my system for a long time.

I love the sound of the 532h, my system has great synergy to my taste. Now I'm wondering if it's time to move on to something else. This is the sound I like so there's the thought, what if I don't find something I like as much. On the other hand this is the first "high end" amp I had go bad on me. Then to have the company advise me to do something foolish, I'm not happy with them.

So am I over reacting, and this type of situation is par for the course? I've had perfect performance from Krell, same CJ amps for years with out a hitch, the prior Pass was in the same outlet etc. for a couple years. Unfortunately, my budget isn't large so I have to sell to get something else, what I'd do for one of those old amps to be here now.
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Yes. Things happen. You love the sound of this amp in your system. It's fixed and coming back to you. Hook it up and enjoy your system again. If it happens again in the near term, then you can be rightfully pissed and sell it and move on.
 
I bought a krell demo and it 'fixed my speakers' who knew? that amp failed 3 times under warranty and then again shortly after the warranty expired! I have a B&K 4420 the same thing happened, but has worked without issue serving ht duties for the last 10-15 years. I appreciate the satisfaction when you finally get your system to sing and the frustration of having to wait for service. I'm more than a little confident heat was the cause of all my amp failures tho' I was never told so. My current unit has built in thermal protection that I found by activating it! I'm trying to save $$$ to buy a 2nd amp to bi-amp my speakers in hope of lessening the load presented to it, alternatively or intermediately i'm considering a small computer type fan I can run off batteries to keep the internal heat sinks cool. In fact all 3 high powered amps I had trouble with had internal heat sinks while the 1, a parasound a21 with external heatsinks never gave me trouble... Good luck with your 532H.
 
Sorry for not ever coming back. I did get the 532h back and it has been working well. The story I got it was working but they would replace the control board just in case. I think these places are told to keep the customer in the dark. I know for a fact certain amps from Harmon have had issues yet you can't find anything about it on the internet.

I would not recommend the Harmon repair shop in Austin I used. My amp came back with a piece of wire in one of the speaker terminals like they just yanked it and the wire broke and they did not pack the amp well on the return trip, completely left the plastic wrap off the amp..

The 532h is in my 2nd system right now. This Coda seems to sound better with using the Hegel DAC.
 
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