Price Paid:  $300.00 from Switzerland

Summary:
I bought the HK 8380 more than one year ago while a was changing my whole stereo. I had several problems in this process (see my review of the HK 3370 receiver) which led me to compare the HK CD player with my former Philips cdc 751 player (8 years old). I tested the cd-players one against the other with two different receivers.

Now, I was thinking there couldn't be big differences in the sound quality produced by two multi-cd player in the same price range. I was wrong. The sound of the Philips is much much better than the one of the HK which is flat and boring. Maybe one of the reasons is that the Philips has some sort (sorry, I am an amateur) of amplification (which you can change only with the remote control) which gives more dynamics and trebles.

On the mechanical level, there is also no comparison. The Philips is faster, quieter and more reliable, even if it is already quiet old and if it was cheaper.

So, I don't understand the reviewers who say that the HK has an excellent sound and that the mecanical part is not that bad. If this is true, Philips should get the Nobel Prize in electronics for the cdc 751. Probably they don't deserve it and its just the HK which is a (pretty) poor product.

Strengths:
Looks

Weaknesses:
Sound
Mecanics
Overall impression of bad quality

Price Paid:  $148.00 from Harman Audio Outlet

Summary:
Purchased this factory refurbished from Harman Audio. Figured that whatever was faulty had now been fixed - wrong! After only 8 months of light use it has quit reading all CD's. It recognizes that a CD is present, but can't read any of the tracks. Now back to using Nakamici CDP-2A I purchased in 1988 - it still works fine. Naturally, there is no authorized service center near me, so now I have to either drive 160 miles round-trip to Erlanger, Kentucky, or go to the time and expense of packing and shipping the unit to the service center . Thankfully it is still under warranty, even though it has already been fixed once (I purchased it "refurbished"), and now needs work again.

Strengths:
Sounded great during the 8 months that it actually worked.

Weaknesses:
Lousy build quality. Quit working after 8 months of very light use. Retail price of $249.00 is a joke.

Similar Products Used:
Nakamici CDP-2A (still going strong after 15 years); Onkyo DX-C330 (still going strong after 7 years)

Price Paid:  $499.00 from Future Shop

Summary:
I picked this up (June 2001) mainly because of a $200Cnd discount I would get when I signed up for high speed Internet, then I found this great site...Perhaps a little too late.

This unit replaced my DVD player as my primary CD interface, wonderful sound. I must note that I went through a lot of upgrading within that year, when I could afford to(many trip to the Artic).

I was very happy with the FL8380 before I picked up the new speakers (Kenwood to Bose) and then shortly after, a new receiver (Kenwood to HK’s AVR7000). Now it all sounds great, good times, and a good buy. I sure there are better CD players out there, but this will do me fine for many year to come.

Overall, this is nice looking unit, just like their AVR 7k, very sharp; no excessive buttons and lights. The set-up, instruction, controls and remote are all very straightforward, this is a CD player there is no point in over doing the remote/controls (i.e. the K.I.S.S. rule). Set-up to the receiver was way too simple, connect the digital cable (Coax) and plug in the AC, all too easy.

Now weak points, it is over priced at $500 for what it is, that my biggest point, peorid.
Basically, this is a ‘simple’ CD player, with sweet DACs and HDCD, not too hard to screw up. The firm/software however...
The whole tray and disk transporting part of it is a little noisy, and slow. Also, Why does it always need to do a search on power up? That should not be required, why can’t it ‘remember’ what was in there when it was shut off. I would love it if it could remember what track I was listening to and keep track time remaining on and random on every time I powered down and up, so I can continue the album. It seems that my $100 “Discman” can do this, at 1/5 the price, although the sound quality is not there.
They need to spend some more time on the firmware; they missed the mark big time. In addition it could use an additional optical out to the existing coax, I like little a choice in life.

Recently, I have started to notice that occasionally the first second of a track doesn’t get played. So I’ll be taking it in get cleaned up.

I am very glad I picked it up for the $300 instead of the $500 with an additional cost for a 6-year extended warranty.

HAVE FUN :)

Strengths:
Looks great, simple. Idiot proof(:P)
HDCD – why can’t more CDs have this…
Burr-Brown DACs
Good times

Weaknesses:
$500
Random-All is very poor, as it 'favours' current CDs and drops out of random when tray is opened, why?
MP3… 8 hour on one CD X5.. More good times

Similar Products Used:
HK AVR 7000
Bose Acoustimass 10 Series II
Panasonic DVD
Sony VCR
Xbox
Atari 2600

Price Paid:  $239.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I purchased the HK FL 8380 in March of 02 - thinking that I would get better sound quality than from my single disc 12 year old sony cd player. The sound quality was very similar to my old sony but the time to load and scan each cd is very aggravating - not worth it! Presently, it was sent back to HK b/c I was getting an error message and the cd door will not open - so now I have 5 cd's stuck in the damn thing and circuit city is sending it back to HK to get it checkd out. So guess what - I am back to using my 12 year old sony and just dealing with not having random play and having to change after a single cd plays. I think I made a mistake in purchasing and keeping the HK

Strengths:
plays random and hold 5 cd's

Weaknesses:
takes too long to load and play. seems cheaply made - not the Harmon Kardon products that I knew as a kid.

Price Paid:  $200.00 from HH Gregg

Summary:
I bought one of these for the HDCD capability. I had read the reviews on this site many times but thought, what the hell, it can't be that bad. The first one would not turn on. I returned it for a second one which did turn on but managed to stop playing midway through discs, detect an error, and then refuse to open the tray. I returned it today for a Sony SACD player and now I am happy! The HDCD sounded very nice on the HK, particularly the upper mids and highs. The bass, through was muted. The SACD simply knocks my socks off. Don't waste your time on HDCD now that this great new medium is accessible.

Strengths:
HDCD was pretty good. Decent remote.

Weaknesses:
Lousy quality control. Crappy disc tray. Zero reliability.

Similar Products Used:
AMC CD8b, Sony 775 multidisc SACD