May be late to the party, but I've purchased a refurbed HK receiver straight from Harman Audio previously and it was in brand new shape and performed very well. In fact, I sold it to one of the mods here (Matt34) and to my knowledge, he's had a very good experience w/it as well.
If it's from a reputable distributor, I would strongly recommend a refurb from a price for performance standpoint as well as some of the reasons Seth pointed out as well earlier.
There is a bit of risk w/it as a refurb, but I've personally had great success w/refurbs and from my viewpoint, the risk is worth the reward...
-TD