I'm not going to get into the build quality of the CDR which I considered to be fair to middling. None of the nice heavy faceplates that you find on high-end stuff and rickety CD trays etc. My biggest beef with this player is that, after using it for some time and then buying a pretty high-end Music Hall player, I learned to appreciate that all CD players are not equal. Frankly, I think that it must be the onboard DAC in the Harman that is just not of a very good quality. The first time that I played a CD on the Music Hall, I could tell the difference. So much for that, I gave mine away to an audio dealer friend of mine, apparently someone bought it - good luck to them.

Great sound repoduction, 4x recording, reliable, good looking! Easy remote!

Slightly noisey CD spin mechanisms for both trays, confusing control layout.

I originally purchased the CDR 30 on a complete impulse, but I am glad that the desire hit me when it did. I purchased the unit at my local HK Factory Outlet store at an incredible price and couldn't be happier. For starters, the player itself has been completely reliable with no problems encountered. Granted, the mechanism which spins the CD's in both trays could be a little less noisy, the layout of the controls on the face of the unit could have been labeled and laid out in a friendlier manner AND the manual is somewhat of a novel (READ IT!), the overall performance of the machine leaves little to be desired. The unit has options bordering on too many, and the recordings made in the 4X mode sound fantastic. Of the 40 or so CD's I've created with this unit (don't tell your friends you have one or you'll be burning CD's as a second occupation), I have had only one CD which was rejected from the burner tray for some reason. I tried that very same CD on a burner in my office and it worked fine. Strange. Anyhow, if you can get one for a good price, I would suggest buying it as you can't go wrong with this unit. But like I mentioned, read the novel enclosed with the unit. It starts to make sense after about the 3rd time through. Good job HK!

Similar Products Used:

None

Good sound on playback and recording; headphone output with volume.

Some button placement and operation a bit awkward. No mic input.

This unit sounds good, on both playback and recording, right out of the box. I expect a long-term burn into only increase quality. After reading many reviews and doing long in-store testing of all the available models, I was expecting a lot of difficluty in making mix CDs. This is was not the case. You pop in a disc, pick a track, hit ''1 track dub'' and play, and the unit does all the rest. I think the complaint that it doesn''t do everything for every operation automatically is really a lame duck. If you''re going digital to digital, you can do 1 track dubbing or whole disc dubbing quickly and easily. If you''re digitizing old bootlegs or LPs, you have to push one extra button to mark each track you want to have. This isn''t too much trouble, and it''s easy to figure out from the manual. The unit never bills itself as the end all in MP3, but simply states that it will play back MP3 discs, which is does flawlessly. The manual is clear and well written. When you buy it they supply entry-level cables so you can use it right away, along with batteries for the remote. It was actually easy to understand the 1 page warranty. My complaints are fairly minor ones given my overall favor of this unit. The buttons for each CD tray are mirror opposites (e.g. the stop button for the playback unit is all the way on the left, but for the recording tray is all the way on the left). The open tray button for each deck could have been a little further away from the tray itself, but this is a small complaint. Also, if you are recording in 2x or 4x speed it is very difficult to reliably monitor the record level and make necessary adjustments, but this is only really an issue when making compilation discs. And while not necessary, a mic input would have been nice, but the front panel digital in''s make up for this. I''d also recommend Huppin''s Hi-Fi (and their online store onecall.com for anyone near Spokane, WA. The unit was $200 off on sale, and the service folks were helpful.

Similar Products Used:

Tested all major CD recorders on market.

The availability of optical, analog, and digital inputs in the front and rear. Makes dubbing a snap! 2X and 4X times recording. HDCD plays MP3''s easy to operate

Would love to turn the SCMS off!!! no ability to use computer grade discs

I have had this product for well over a yeah and a half and have burned well over 1500 cd''s of live concerts for trading purposes. This machine has never even burped. I get one coaster out of every 200 discs and run Memorex, Maxell, Sony, Fuji, JVC, and TDK discs. No problems. The SCMS feature is frustrating at times when I want to rip in 4X but them''s the breaks. I use the machine religiously to convert concerts recorded on my Sony TCD-D8 (DAT recorder) and find it to be a joy to use. if the product died tommorrow I can say I got my 450 bucks worth!!!

Similar Products Used:

TASCAM CDRW700R HHB 850

Excellent sound quality, easy to use, great looks

small buttons, unreliable

When I first got this cd recorder I loved it. The small buttons made it look complicated, but once I read the directions I found it very user friendly. Way easier to use than the two Phillips that I used before it. I record mostly from analog sources (two turntables, I'm a dj) so I knew I'd have to program the tracks myself, which is fairly simple with the remote. Setting up for recording is easy, just press the record button to cue up. When you're ready to start recording press play. Recording from digital sources is especially easy, convenient and fast. I love the 4x speed recording.

I've heard of people who had problems with certain cd-r discs. I've been using Memorex cds and have had no problems. Make sure you don't buy the kind for computers. A lot of salespeople don't know what they're talking about when they try to sell you cds.

Six months after I bought my CDR30 it broke. The recording side starting making a nasty noise and it wouldn't read any discs. I took it to a Harmon Kardan authorized repair shop. They sent it to Harmon Kardon to get it fixed under warranty. This was in June. Now it's August and I still am without my cd recorder. I'm somewhat disgruntled now and I seriously question the quality of HK products. I even more seriously question their dedication to making their customers happy. And it's a shame because I loved the product until I had to wait for over two months to get it fixed.

Similar Products Used:

Two different Phillips cd recorders (not sure of model numbers)

Solid sound quality. Many important and usable features (HDCD, MP3, numerous connections).

Had problems with about 6 discs in a row (CD-Rs).

The sound quality of this unit is superb (both playback and recording). I also find it very convenient to use.

I did have a problem with about six CD-Rs. I recorded a track and then the unit went through its update routine, however, after the update it gave me a disk error and the disc was rendered unusable. This happened six times in a row and I was using high quality Maxell discs. I then powered down and back up and recorded onto a CD-RW and the problem went away. I have recorded a few CD-Rs since without any trouble.

I really enjoy the unit for playback using the HDCD decoder. The only thing that bothers me with HDCD is that I have to use the analog out to take advantage of the AKM 24/96 DA converters. The analog out is at a lower level so I have to turn up the volume on my receiver. This is not a problem unique to this unit, I would always have to use the analog out of any CD player to take advantage of HDCD since my receiver’s processor (DA converter) isn’t HDCD capable. The digital out connections are very clean and work wonderfully, I use them at all times with the exception of HDCD discs (I only have 4 of them).

I recorded a Journey CD for my father-in-law the other day at 4X and we couldn’t hear the difference on an A/B test. I played both the original and the recording simultaneously and toggled between receiver inputs. I could tell that he wanted to hear a difference because he told me that a copy could never be as good as the original. I know that he is right, however, we could not HEAR the difference and I have a considerably nice system.

The numerous connections and usable features make this the best recorder/player that I could find with at least 2 bays. I wanted 2 bays for convenience and for higher quality recording (no interconnects or level loss). With the exception of the minor temporary glitch that I encountered this player has lived up to my very high expectations.

Similar Products Used:

None.

sound quality, looks, 4x speed, dependability,

Like all have said, too slow when reading play disc.Cheap trays.

So far, so good. It's a blast to use when making mixed discs. Have not tried analog yet. all in all I'm quite satisfied but the output level seems lower than my old HK player requiring me to turn up my receiver higher to get the same volume.Anybody else run into this?

Similar Products Used:

HK 5 disc carousel player

Recorder and Player, plays MP3 discs, analog and digital (coax/fiber) in/out.

MP3 output, nearly useless small screen, buttons/controls.

This thing is a Joke. Crappy small screen for MP3 song names, programability, no "album/folder" names for MP3 discs and no album/folder navigation.

The BIGGEST joke about the unit is that it WILL NOT play MP3 tunes out of the digital outs, AT ALL, it will ONLY output via the analog out. What a JOKE! What were they thinking? Only the first few letters of a track will show, no scrolling. This is a SUPER joke when you try to couple the unit with an H-K AVR-110...you run out of in/outs on the AVR. I feel kind of lame for buying this.

The Aiwa car stereo blows it way, has more features (except recording) and is a PLEASURE to use. They even at least SCROLL the song/track/album name to show it all.

Similar Products Used:

Aiwa MP3 car stereo.

AWESOME SOUND.

LOUD MECHANISM.

I RECENTLY PURCHASED THE HARMAN KARDON CDR 30. IT SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. IT NOT ONLY HAS A CRISP RESPONSE TO THE HIGH END FREQ. IT IS ALSO SOMEHOW ABLE TO GIVE A WARM FEELING TO THE MUSIC PLAYED.
I MOSTLY PLAY CLASSICAL AND JAZZ MUSIC. THE FREQUENCY RESPONSE AND DYNAMIC RANGE ARE UNSURPASSED.
I STROGLY RECOMMEND THIS UNIT TO ANYONE WHO CAN GET THEIR HANDS ON IT.

HERE IS A SUMMARY OF MY SYSTEM:

DENON AVR 3600 RECIEVER.
HARMAN KARDON CDR 30 CD PLAYER/RECORDER.
CARVER 5.2 Five Speaker Home Theater System
This includes two towers with a 5.5" driver, a 1" tweeter and a 2.5" rear driver, and a 10" long throw subwoofer per tower, dipole satelite speakers, and a center channel with 2 5.5" drivers and a 1" tweeter, as well as a 300 watt Amp. located within the center channel enclosure to drive the 2 10" subwoofers.
MESSINA SATELITE SPEAKERS ( 4 SATELITE SPEAKERS RUN IN PARALLEL WITH THE CARVER SPEAKERS) FOR A TOTAL OF 11 SPEAKRS.

I DONT THINK YOU CAN GET MUCH MORE SEPARATION OF SOUND AND DISTRIBUTION TO SPEAKERS THAN I HAVE, AND STILL THIS CD PLAYER OUT PRFORMS ANYTHING ELSE ON THE MARKET.

A MUST BUY ITEM FOR ANY AUDIOPHILE

Recording/playing cd's, sound quality.

no backlighting on the direct control features of the unit, no recording level adjustment when recording digitally.

I love the unit, although it can sometimes be noisy during recording. No real complaints though. Good piece of equipment.

Concerning the Brian fella down below who is complaining. He just got the wrong piece of equipment. If you wanted an MP3 player, you should have bought an MP3 player. This is a cd recorder. Sure, it allows for MP3 playback, but it is not an MP3 player.

Similar Products Used:

Aiwa,JVC,Phillips recorders