Not that I have any love for Harman, but to be fair, what manufacturers make
their own outputs? Most manufacturers, even the best, outsource most parts
and much assembly. I don't consider this to make them an illegitimate
manufacturer. The fact that they build mediocre equipment and have weak
support makes it a less than desirable product, IMO.

I replaced some outputs in a Denon a while back that looked flaky as well.
Tested the gain on the other pair and found it to be much lower than the
spec for the part and the replacements. I don't have the experience with
identifying them that you do so I am not sure, but my gut said to change the
other pair, too. I did not because I could not identify any problem, even
at full power. The unit came back with the other channel blown a couple of
months later. I don't think the problem is exclusive to Harman.

No excuse for them to buy from crap distributors rather than direct from
Sanken or authorized didstributors. The same goes for the distributors that
supply us replacement parts.

Thanks for the heads up, Mark.

Leonard

"Mark D. Zacharias" wrote in message
m...
A new low.

Harman Kardon HK-3370, original output transistors (never been previously
changed) were Chinese fakes. They didn't even bother to make the
lettering, logo, etc look the same or show the same hFe group. Busted them
open, the NPN's and PNP's even had different internals, die size was
different, one had RTV over the die, the other not. The numbers were
2SC3856 and 2SA1492. I've dealt with many original Sanken devices - these
weren't.

Good job as usual, Harman. Of course if Harman were a legitimate
manufacturer, instead of outsourcing everything for more than the past 25
years, things like this might not happen, eh?


Mark Z.