I have an AV receiver I am no longer using and hence have disconnected all speaker and AV connections from. I would however like to connect it to a display (1 HDMI cable from receiver output) just to try to access the receiver set up menu and wanted to check if it is ok to do this? or could this damage the receiver i.e. if it is expecting a minimum impedance to be present on the speaker terminals?

To add some detail, the receiver is a Onkyo TX-SR607, which has given me a LOT of trouble recently, namely with regard to HDMI display problems, I have another thread on the subject, feel free to take a look.

Anyway, I have downsized to a cheap Goodmans sound bar and sub and actually not regretting it at all so far. I have tried my best with getting the Onkyo serviced via the Onkyo customer care programme and have contacted Genserve, Babber and Onkyo themselves none of whom seem to have any interest in helping restore it for a reasonable price.

So am appraising the receiver for sale and though what I could get would be limited if I could access the OSD to at least allow settings to be changed, that would add back a little value. I have heard of a reset command I want to try too to factory default the receiver hence my wanting to power it up, but ideally without having to reconnect all my speakers.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Transistor amps are fine with no load, it was valve amps that were damaged by no load.

So you're perfectly fine to use it with no speakers.

It would be a very very very very poorly designed amplifier that was damaged by a total lack of any load on it. Generally too little impedance is bad, especially short circuiting the terminals. Open circuit (ie nothing connected) should not cause any issues at all.

If it does then you really will be better off shot of the thing!

Well that summarises the TX-SR607 to a tee.

Nah, it was nice while it lasted, though I still feel it should have been longer...

Any valve amplifier

So not 'badly designed', simply a product of the technology.

The whole myth about no speakers causing problems comes from valve amplifiers, and NEVER applied to transistor ones.

Not any valve amplifier though maybe most. It depends on the design, components and if any protection is built in such as an MOV. Of course the volume also matters because at low volume there will not be a problem.