Great sound

Terrible quality build; noisy

I bought this player hoping that the disk recognition problems that plauged earlier models had been worked out. It appears that they may have been -- my player has had no problems recognizing disks, and the sound is great for a $300 unit. But when I press play and the disk begins to spin the unit produces a very audible whirring sound that doesn't go away. On classical pieces with quiet passages I can hear the whirr clearly from my listening chair, which is more than 15 feet from the player. That degree of noise is not acceptable. I'm returning the player, and replacing it with a Marantz CD67se, which is available from Audio Advisor for the same price.

not applicable !

everything

I take back everything
positive I said about this HK "product" in my previous post. How can you discuss positive features of something
that you cannot use ?

Some of you say HK sounds better
than japanise brands for the money.
My point is that any brand can produce much better sound
quality for the money HK consts in REALITY.

Well, you pay in average $100 per
months to enjoy HKs sound quality (since the thing brakes in a couple of months). Normal $200 cdplayer works
for 10 years. For the same period, HK will cost you
$120 000 since you will
have to buy a new one every couple of months. Can you
imagine a cdplayer for $120000 ? What a great sound
should it produce !!! Much better than FL8550 does, right ?

GOD, nowadays cdplayers NEVER brake !!! whatever brand is, even soviet make , except HK !!!
How do HK manage to produce SUCH a junk !?????!!!
How do they dare to SELL it ????
How do they dare to be so SLOW in fixing it ????

HK is junk and nothing else. It became unusable in less
than couple of months. The HK customer service takes ages to fix their inherently faulty products ,
and they are constantly LYING when you try to
extract any information from them.
If you have some $$ to loose,don't buy HK, send them to
animal rights fund

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HK 7325

Sound quality & price.

For what I believed was going to be a quality cd player, the digital display was uglier than a bloated goat named Oprah! Seemed cheaply slapped together by some slave laborers in Asia. I guess $1.25/hr isn't much incentive to put out quality product?

Well folks, I've only had a few days use outta this changer but I have some issues I need to get off my chest.

First off, this is one ugly looking display! I've seen elementary school calculators with more detail. Was I the only one disappoint by this? HK needs to work on this ASAP. I wouldn't mind paying an extra $50 just to make this a little more aesthetically pleasing.

Second beef, was with the cheap plastic cd tray that looks more like a drink tray from a low budget import vehicle. I was E X T R E M E L Y disappointed to find that! There is also slack in my cd tray, and I'm wondering how long it will be before I have to send the beauty in for repairs.



Some positive aspects of this VALUE product?

Sound quality, so far it's super tight!
Ummm, oh, the price. Got this baby for $200 from the great guys at www.OneCall.com
How can they do that when I see it retailed for $500+ ???


To sum it all up, I would be a very unhappy camper if I had to pay a big buck for this component; but becase it was only 200 rocks, I'm good to go =)


Happy listening & keep them ears ringing!


I'll be back to post another review after further testing...

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Old ass Sony ES cd player.

sound quality

none

I purchased my H/K 8550 from uBid for the amazing price of $101 plus shipping. This unit sounds much better than my early 90`s vintage Sony changer. the dual burr brown chips make for a very smooth, easy to listen to sound. The tray does make a little noise as it changes discs but this doesnt take anything away from the great sound it produces. Perhaps because i purchased a refurbished unit it already has been fixed, but i have had no problems with reading discs as other people have. In nearly four months of use it has read every disc every time. I run the 8550 into my reciever with coaxial interconnects and the sound is smooth and revealing. HDCD makes all of your cd`s sound better and HCCD encoded discs sound truely amazing. If you can find one, buy it.

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Sony 5 disc changer

Fantastic sound, bargain price.

Plastic design, noisy mech.

Some have obviously had nightmares with this unit. Mine sounds fantastic (I gave it a few months to malfunction based on previous posts, but it's fine).

This is the best CD player, sound-wise, I have heard. Period. Its Pacific Microsystems HDCD processing is fantastic and truly revealing. I even put it through the torment of a professional D/A converter quality diagnostic, and it passed with flying colors and utterly ruined my Rotel in that regard.

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Pioneer CLD-M90, Hk FL8450, Rotel RCC-935

Great sound. HDCD.

No on/off remote (minor).

I'll be brief. It's ashame that other reviewers had the
problems they did. I believe this is the only 5-disc
carousel that has the dual 20-bit Burr Brown chips. The
sound produced is outstanding and never disappoints. I've
had no reliability trouble. There is no other carousel
player I would rather own.

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Sony

Give a solution to break the monotony of changing every cd played.

Poor design, below standards performance, made in china, very noisy rotation of platter, slow to read the discs, defective lens.

Since this model is almost the same with the HK8370, i opted to place my honest review here. This is the first time i own an HDCD cd changer and it so happens only that it is a Harman Kardon, model 8370. Well, i've got the unit after testing it at the store which appeared to be fine at the beginning. After one night however, it just dropped dead. It can't read and it can't play like a dead duck, born in china. Then, i got a replacement. Well, i got the same bad problem. Since, there are only two units, i had the first unit fixed by the store and they replaced the different lens. A good lens they said. Well, so far after one week it is still doin good. In fact, i left the cd player playing with 5 discs for 1 whole day without stopping and it stands up. To sum it up, this is bad unit with poor quality control though it has a good burr-brown dac.

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Denon cd player, sony cd player

I don't think HDCD is a strength. See below

Doesn't sound any better than the FL8350

I bought this unit after seeing it on several websites for approx $200.00. The main reason I bought it was to experience HDCD. I compared it's sound to the FL8350 (which so far I have had no problems with) and it does not sound any better, even with HDCD encoded discs. I am beginning to think now that HDCD is not all it's cracked up to be. I admit that the Best of Dire Straits sounds good, but it also sounds good on a regular CD player. The 8550 has the 20 bit Burr Brown DAC but the 16 bit in the 8350 sounds just as good. See my review of the FL8350 and it will describe the 8550 as well.

It's too bad Harman Kardon has been selling mediocre products. I cannot complain about a defective unit, all of
the HK products I have purchased have worked so far, but I will be returning the 8550 since there is no reason to spend the money on it.

I give the 8550 4 stars for value since you can get it for $200.00 (or less). This is about the same price as the 8350. If you're buying the 8550 and don't own any other HK CD player you will get good sound compared to some of the Japanese brands, but you may not be getting comparable reliability. Proceed with caution.

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JVC XL-115TN (5 disc changer) HK FL8350

Sounds great when it works

Horrible customer service(The kind of incompetance that makes you feel like...well...ever see Falling Down w/Michale Douglas?)
, Disc carriage sounds like it's trying to rotate 5 manhole covers,

Since i've relied heavily on feedback from others contributing to this site, figured I'd share my experiences with HK. Despite the warning signs offerd by other reviews, I went ahead not only with the HK 5cd changer but also the HK 65. As far as the CD player...below is a copy of a recent e-mail submitted on the HK web site...still have not heard back from them...

I have been trying to get in touch with customer service for about two months now via the 800-422-8027 number. Each time I am either told to call back at another time or wait on hold for up to 45 minutes before giving up. My HK CD player which I bought under a year ago was dropped off at a HK suggested service center over 4 weeks ago. I just found out that nothing has beed done with it. The problem is that the player is no longer reading CDs. Just get No Disc message. From what I understand, this is a common problem with these players. I am extremely disappointed with Harman Kardon at this point and unless my player is replaced with a newer model, I will never buy from HK again. I wish for someone to contact me as soon as possible at xxx in the evenings or during the day at xxx. I would like to know that there is someone working at HK that cares the slightest bit about customer loyalty. It's getting to the point where I'll have no choice but to go to the better business beaurea...

Sounds good, due to 20 bit performance.

Ergonomics,build quality,noisy,horrible customer service, so bad that I will never buy another product from these losers!

I bought this product about a year ago, It would not read disks so I brought it in for repairs. HK screwed up and it sat at the repair shop for 2 mos-when HK finally received it they sent me another non-working cd player! I cannot get the rep (who told he would refund my money) to call me back despite 3 phone calls in the last 2 weeks! If you are going to buy this cd player, remember it is very cheaply made and HK does not stand behind this product, so buyer beware!

I suggest you buy a cheap transport with ok anti jitter and buy a outboard processor, this sounds much better for the extra 2 hundred dollars.!!!!!!-stil

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Philips-925 cd player-still working after 15 years!