I lived in a tiny cinder block dorm room during my freshman year at Boston University. I was an audio buff and decided to spend the bulk of my Bar Mitzvah money on new audio gear for the room. A completely irrational decision, to be sure, but one that I still benefit from to this day.
Back in the day I picked up a Denon turntable (made of rosewood), a pair of Ohm Wash 2 speakers (sorry I sold those), an Aiwa tape deck, followed by a Luxman CD player, and finally the engine - a champagne faceplate Harmon Kardon HK 550i receiver.
The HK served me well in college and served as the cornerstone for a number of systems. Eventually it was sidelined in lieu of Dolby Digital receivers, ones with digital audio input, and ones with remote controls! The HK was shifted to the garage to power the outdoor system when we moved up here to Bellevue. The moisture out there wasn't a good match.
I recently posted about my kitchen A/V upgrade. After installing those awesome SpeakerCraft CS3 I needed a solid amp to power them. After poking around eBay I thought about the old HK in the garage. I brought it in and wired it up. The balance pot was dirty and noisy but after a bunch of turns it sounded clear. I lined in my Zune and sure enough the HK cranked up and sounded superb. I gave it a good cleaning and it's now glowing comfortably in the kitchen.
Welcome back HK.
Wow, that brought back memories. I had the exact same HK receiver when I was in college. In fact, for awhile it was the only component that I owned, since I planned to buy new pieces as I could afford them. I ultimately ended up with the HK receiver, a Bang & Olufsen turntable, Teac tape deck, and Bose speakers. Thanks for the trip back to Champaign-Urbana circa 1985!
Posted by: Michael | June 13, 2008 at 07:11 AM