For anyone looking or thinking about the hk 3480 on ebay :scratch2:

I just got mine in after looking and looking...but not listening to any...boy the internet has made me lazy.
For a background, I have owned lots of midfi stuff from monster toshibas, pioneer, yamaha, marantz, akai and more pioneer receivers from the '70s to early '80s...never had anything "new" (after '83)

I mainly use my BA a70's and older polks in 4 way setup...after going through jbl's and other higher dollar speakers as they are "worry free" and happen to fit their space just right ( i know, not a great reason to listen to certain speakers, but I am "tuned" into this set)...but meandering here, just letting you know I am perhaps average? in my gear. So, my yamaha r2000 bit it and...was not going the vint. route again as my pioneer a8 and onkyo 4017 fit the bill nicely.

I ended up putting the above gear in boxes with my other pioneer vintage rcvrs. when the HK came.

After offering $150 to the "make an offer" ebay deal, I got it delvd. for $172 total.
Never owned an HK. It is very nice looking, though i dont particularly care for the plastic face, i do prefer metal!
Not as heavy as my A8 or yammie but definitely not a lightweight...this made me feel good:yes:
A NOTE TO ALL WHO READ OTHER REVIEWS...THE REMOTE HAS A THIN PROTECTIVE COVER...TAKE IT OFF! Its impossible to see and makes the too-small print even more toosmall and blurry-ish blue-ish! It takes a razor but c'mon peeps...question your gear!

SOunds rather good. I use the lil radio shack thingy for converting video ch. sound and plug it into the tape out...like my vint. stuff...works great, i dont use the video ins so take that for what its worth.

Now, my vint. stuff sounds better all the way around...but really, not so much better? What lacks most is bass performance, but i give it an 8.5 whereas my other stuff is 10. If you understand my grading here.
Seperation is 9, treble as well.
My spkrs are all 8 ohm and i have no prob.s...though 4 would prob. be a strain.>??

I LIKE IT! For the money I have something that really sounds good, has billions of inputs (no mc coil phono though) and Im diggin the remote.

Tuner...pretty darn good, better than the onkyo but not as good as the yammie...which is pretty good!

SO:
LIKES:
1. volume has infinite adjustment control for all those "in between" levels
2. LOTs of tuner presets
3. Jazz cds sound A, Rock A-, Classical A....really impressed with sound for $
4. Plenty of power for me, but I think overall its rating is too optimistic (120wpc)
5. Though hard to read, the remote functions from all over the house, havent had prob. with the slide panel on it, but i dont care for this feature.
6. Not one for aesthitics (hey, I owned lots of mcs and jvc questionabledesigns), but i really like the dimmer functions and overall beefy look.
7. Like the 75 ohm direct hookup to my coax! on the back plus am ant. incld.

DISLIKES:
1. Of course, the remote letters are too small, but maybe im too old?
2. No radio station reception strength meters...this SUCKS!
3. No loudness button! Though have found i dont really need it when its not there...just used to'em.
4. No mc option for phono, though i may have missed something?
5. That plastic front just seems to beg for dust and then someone(wifey) to eventually wipe it with the wrong cleaner and ruin it 4ever...but i dunno as i hope to not experience it...BUT IT LOOKS GOOD NOW!
6. That Vmax surround is kinda whick whick wack...but dont really care...shoulda put in a signal strength meter! dammit!

Am i crazy or does plastic just seem to attract more dust than metal?

For $172 refurb. (can't find ANY faults on it) to have a no-worry rcvr that runs cool with all the power i need, a 6 mo. warranty, remote and can set it up to come on/off automatically (when your away, the stereo will play, and keep the theives away? maybay?)
I give it a thumbs up for bang for bucks NEW/refurb...not used.

It would be great for any non-audiophiles or in an audiophiles garage ... maybe?

Better than my friends new sony, heavier too, prettier too...and the best part..ITS SILVER!...on the metal part anyway.

my 2 cents anyway.

purists need not apply, thou shall get a boombox.

Yep, plastic does attract more dust than metal. It has a built in static electricity charge. Thanks for the review!

Bought two of them. Both from Harmanaudio on the bay. Wife got one with some infinity rs 5b. Brother got one with original large advents (nice setup.) I don't mind running vintage ( carver 900, nad 3400, concept 7.5D) but don't want these destroyed by silly mistakes. Yes I know how that sounds. The vmax is useless, but otherwise fairly solid performer. Also another High Current Capability amp. Decent quality for as low as $127.

I've been using one as my main receiver for 4 years now. Bought it new in 2004 for $300 total. It's been pretty good to me. I've even had it push just over 1ohm at 3/4 volume for a few minutes; no trouble at all! 120 watts definitely seems too much to be true; I have a 45watt Concept, and I think that in a head to head match that they would be pretty damned equal. The Plastic on the front is certainly a finger print magnet, and the silver is especially hard to clean.... it's as if the oils soak into the aluminum(?).

http://tgunner.com/media/basement/center.jpg

Been using a 3480 for my downstairs system for a couple of years. Plenty of clean power to make my NHT 1.3's sing. A lot of receiver for the money.

I have purchased 4 of these HK refab units. One crapped out on me and goes into "protect" mode then shuts down when you try to turn it on. Not sure how expensive to fix--suspect an output capacitor is blown. Others work fine w/o problems and w/ggod sound. Would be nice to know what the problems were that generated the returns for refab in the first place. I purchased due to price and the thinking that a refab´d unit probably would have "fixed" the weakness so it would not come back for warranty repair. The one that crapped out was after low hours too. I have heard these were now being made in China and there were some quality issues. In all fairness, the bad unit was in my sons room and he has been known to run more than one speaker off a given set of terminals. If he hooked up 3 pairs and presented a 2 ohm load that´s probably what shot her down. Anyone know what initial weakness was and what the "protect" advisor is telling us??

Erik

I have an HK as well pushing Martin Logan Montage speakers. Very clean sound for the money. Seperate components from NAD are on my shopping list to run the ML's, but for the money the HK is hard to beat for stereo listening,