How long a delay are you experiencing? More than 10 seconds? I recently had a very long delay -time issue with an NAD receiver that finally stopped kicking in altogether. After a little snooping I replaced a small capacitor that was located right next to the relay, thinking that it set the time constant for the relay to kick-in. On Power-up, the receiver stays in protect mode for about 4 seconds and then latches on as it was designed to. I would look for a similar situation in the HK. In the case of the NAD it was a 1uf at 50v electrolyitic capacitor. If you can find the service manual for the amp, it will show you the components around the relay for possible clues. Also, there is a thread at Audiokarma that tells how to check the dc offset values at the output of the amp. DC offsetthat is out of spec can cause an amp to go into protect mode, and is worth having a look at either way (if you're interested in a more hands-on appproach to maintaining your gear).
