Harman Kardon has no audio

B

Bob in St Louis

Audiophyte
Hi fella's,

I come with my head hung low. I'm sorry my first post is asking for something but it is. I've been lurking for a while, but now I've got a BIG problem...

My Harman Kardon AVR - 525 has no audio output.

Here's the story, my 2 year old daughter got ahold of the remote (while everything was powered up) and now my receiver has no audio. All of the front panel lights and displays work, all of the remote funtions work (as far as the display is concerned) but no sound. The unit will switch surround modes (op the display), Nothing from the speakers on any input; Am, Fm, DVD, DirecTv. Nothing. Not even the little thud I get from the subwoofer when the receiver is powered up after the sub amp.
Nothing.

I tried to turn it off for awhile.
Nothing.

I unplugged it for twice the lenth of time the manual says to.
Nothing.

The next step (as far as the manual is concerned) is to perform a factory reset.
Now this erases EVERYTHING, ie... all programed inputs, outputs, radio stations, channel delay settings, channel output level, ect..ect...
I paced around for quite awhile before I actually did it..

NOTHING.

The unit is not under warranty anymore.
On the 'off-chance' that every audio input feed into the receiver happened to fall out at the same time, I checked that. Ditto for the eight output speaker wires. Obviously that doesn't/didn't happen.
No electrical storms in the area. No power failures. (surges unknown, but every other electronic device in the house functions)

I listened to it less than hour before I left, and it worked fine. A few hours later (son was playing xbox) daughter grabbed remote and pushed some buttons. No audio, my son INSTANTLY yelled at mom, HEY, where'd the sound go to??

I don't see how pushing a button could do this, but that's one helluva coincedence [sp].

Any help/suggestions would be great.

Bob
 
M

MDS

Audioholic Spartan
Have you checked that the correct set of speakers is selected to play? Many receivers have two sets - A and B - and you can press a button to select A or B or NEITHER. If this problem occurred after you daughter was messing with the remote, that would be the first thing I would check. Normally the A speakers should be selected.

If it isn't something simple like that then it is possible that she changed some of the setup options inadvertently. I don't know all the features of that receiver but you should check the setup menus and see that the speakers are set to On or Yes for all that exist; if there is a 'power-on' volume setting make sure it is not set too low; if there is a 'max volume' setting make sure it is not set too low, etc. You should be able to do it from the front panel of the receiver.

I doubt that receiver has a tape monitor loop as not many do these days, but another common problem is engaging the tape monitor.
 
T2T

T2T

Senior Audioholic
Taking MDS' suggestion a bit further, do you have a pair of headphones which you could plug in and see if there's any sound?
 
B

Bob in St Louis

Audiophyte
MDS, thank you for the quick reply. (VERY MUCH)

However this receiver has no A/B channel select like some do. The remote has several 'modes', but all modes will have audio output through the speakers.
The surround modes, and various acustic 'themes' can be selected but once again, all have content coming out of the drivers.

As far as the tape monitor goes, I've checked input/output on the only 'settings' that I've ever used; "DVD" (which is the DVD player and an XBox360), "FM", and "Vid 3" (DirecTv). No audio through any speakers.
Just for grins, I did try each and every source input from the remote. ie.. Vid 1, Vid 2, Vid 4, ect..ect..

I've never found any remote button (other than mute) that will kill all audio from all sources.

I would have thought that the 'factory reset' feature would have 'killed' any funky button combo a person (child) could have done.

I'm still not convinced it was a "button press" that did it.
My wife feels guilty/responsible since she was the one 'in charge' of the kids when it happened. Between her being on the PC and the kids playing it happened. No one is sure when it occured.

Ironically, at the time, I was at a friends house helping him fix a car, AND his HT room....

Thanks again MDS
Bob
 
B

Bob in St Louis

Audiophyte
T2T, thanks for the suggestion.
That's actually a very good one.
However, No I don't have any headphones. But I wish I did now.

Hmmm

I really wish I had some now......

Bob
(You have some? --- Live close to me??? LOL)

p.s. Does a receiver's amp power the mains and headphones both?
 
B

bpape

Audioholic Chief
Did you check to see if the input with the DVD selected has it set up to use correctly the digital or analog input? Also, may want to check the setup on the DVD player to make sure that the correct output is selected.

One way to find out if these are even potential issues is:

Switch things up. If you have been using digital connection from DVD to receiver, try an analog connection and run to a different input on the receiver. Go through the setup on both and verify that it's correct in and out and mode set up. If this works, then it's likely purely a config issue - just a matter of finding where.

The other option is that in the speaker config - the fron speakers could simply be turned off. While there may be no A/B selector, there is certainly an individual speaker level setting and potentially the ability to disable each speaker.

Bryan
 
B

Bob in St Louis

Audiophyte
Thanks Bryan for the ideas. Actually tried those last night after performing the factory reset. Man, you really loose EVERYTHING after the reset. So ya, all inputs reconfigured, outputs reconfigured ect..ect... Still not even so much as static on AM/FM... I figured radio would be the "least configureable" input/output. The individual channel setting will go as low as -10db to as high as +10db, but in the very least you would only have 2 channel.


**new information - The wife and kids had walked away from the equipment for about 10 minutes, and audio was gone when they came back.
So it looks like it may be a hardware problem instead of a config problem.

I'm just desperate enough to 'pop the hood' hoping to find a broken solder joint.

Bob
 
K

Km7111

Audiophyte
Jump to 2022. Yes I had still been using my loved avr525. Saw this post which is right in line with what happened to me. Child grab remote and everything went silent. All lights /controls working but no sound. Reset and went to basic radio output and nothing. Long shot here but was there eve a resolution to the above that someone knows about.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Blown fuse?
Could be, if the power amp section of the power supply is fused separately.

I suspect that the unit was switched on and off repeatedly, and surged the power supply. If it is not a fuse then the power supply is likely damaged.

The other possibility, is that the circuit that operates the speaker relays, to prevent turn on thumps is damaged by what occurred.

I had a quick look at the schematic and all sections are fused individually. So the case should be opened and all the fuses tested with a multimeter.
 

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