REFURBISHED Receivers

[df4801]

Anyone have an opinion on "refurbished" receivers.
I was looking at a 2nd stereo reciever (the HK 3480). About $275 new online.
Ebay has a new HK 3480 refurbished unit almost every day. They are direct fron the HK ebay store and carry a 1 yr. factory warranty.
But why so many HK's refurbished?

I was thinking its probably only worth a shot if over $125 cheaper.
Anyone have experience with these units.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

HK is probably the best company out there for customer service. So if you're going to buy B stock or refurbished, I recommend HK or Denon.

HK's have been known to have overheating issues, but I've never heard of an unhappy HK customer getting the cold shoulder with service. A refurb HK is one that's been gone over 2x, so if the deal is good, and the warranty is there, buy with confidence.

Don't forget to check www.jr.com. Sometimes they have good deals on new HK receivers.

 

[df4801]

Yea, I was going to get a new one at J&R.
Then saw the refurb's at ebay.
It just seemed strange that they have so many refurb's.
But I quess you are right, if anything is to go wrong, it probably should do so within the warranty time.

 

[Leprkon]

Ebay has a new HK 3480 refurbished unit almost every day. But why so many HK's refurbished?

I was thinking its probably only worth a shot if over $125 cheaper.
Anyone have experience with these units.

one refurb every day out of something that sells probably a couple hundred units every 24 hours is not really a bad average. you should generally get at least 30% off the lowest new street price for a refurb.

I would personally feel alot better about grabbing a refurb HK than a refurb LG or Namsung product. I've had succes with refurbed Phillips TV's and not so much success with Kenwood receivers (back in my cheap days I was stupid enough to buy 2 at the same time... ).

refurbs also tend to come from three places... messed up pieces, messed up design, and people messing them up...

You are protected from category 1 if you do get a full year warranty. Most refurbs are only 90 days while the manufacturer hopes the replaced piece will last that long. if it's a 1 year warranty, the odds are he got a bad lot of transistors or someting from a source.. hopefully the piece he puts in is from a new lot and will last a lot longer.

category 2 is harder to predict. if you don't use it 100% flat-out all the time, you might not see the problem. bad design generally shows up over time, so 1 year is an iffy proposition. your only protection is to read every forum you can get your paws on and see if there is a recurring theme of the system running hot, or buzzing, or something.

category 3 is generally not a problem. the manufacturer fixes what Eminem did to the receiver and you're off on your way (hopefully not for more Eminem)

so you have a two in three shot of getting a solid product and a one in three shot of a turkey.

the question you have to ask yourself is "Do I feel lucky ?"

well, do ya ?