As a casual listener, tried tp put in Christmas cd's for the holidays, all 5 the changer would not close without manual help. Secondly, it wouldn't play any of the cd's and kept coming up with an "error" code". After some time trying to figure out why, and switching the cd's around I tried playing them one at a time and had success playing disc 5, the next day, error code again. When I first bought the thing it worked fine, but now.... I'm ready to throw it out even though it has hardly been used and is part of my HK sound system.

Hey, Bob Corey, if you're still around, what is that tray modification you made? I bought mine in 1998 from Circuit City for $265 and it's still a wonderful CD player. The tray jerks a tadd coming out, a CD will jostle out of its place on occasion and it will read "no CD' on occasion. Yes, the ergonomics should be better. Everything else works fine and the sound is great through my Yamaha CR-820 55 watt receiver and Dahlquist DQM-5 speakers with factory rebuilt woofers and new upgraded poly caps soldered in. It's in the shop now getting new load belts, cleaned, lubed and aligned; only the second general service in 16 yrs.

nice sound

Poor placement of controls & display. Horribly unreliable tray & loading mechanisms

I don't remember the price paid. I won't bother repeating what the other reviewers have said, so suffice it to say that the sound is great, nice features for the price, the ergonomics are poor, but the death nail lies in the poor... or rather piece of cr*p... mechanical reliability of the tray & loading mechanisms. I plan on gutting it tonight in a last ditch effort at repair to keep it going another 6 months, so I have sufficient time to select a replacement free of such anguish. (Why do I do this to myself?) Oh... and for those of you experiencing power problems, if you see the way the face attaches to the internal circuitry, you'd know why... junk, junk, junk, and quite a challenge disassemble for repair purposes, hence the wait times for those of you dissapointed with the aftermarket service...

WITHOUT COMPARING/CONTRASTING TO OTHER CD PLAYERS, IT SUITS MY NEEDS. I RECENTLY UPGRADED MY SYSTEM, BUYING A BRYSTON ST 4B POWER AMP AND A PAIR OF DEF. TECH. BP30 LOUDSPEAKERS. SOUNDS GOOD. DOES NOT SKIP UNLESS I JUMP AROUND NEAR THE UNIT WHICH DOES NOT OCCUR.

THAT HORSE SH*T DISC SKIP BUTTON PLACEMENT. MY UNIT IS BELOW EYE-LEVEL, SO I HAVE TO FEEL FOR THE BUTTON.

WITHOUT READING THE REVIEWS, I FOUND THE FOLLOWING PROBLEMS WITH MINE. FIRST, OCCASIONALLY, THE UNIT WILL NOT RECOGNIZE A DISC, USUALLY DISC 3. SECOND, THAT DISC SKIP BUTTON IS IN A HORSE SH*T SPOT. THIRD, I THINK THE SPINNING OF THE CAROUSAL OCCURS WHEN YOU PRESS THE DISC SKIP BUTTON MORE THAN 1 TIME. FOURTH, I THINK THE UNIT SKIPS TRACKS ON THE CD THAT I AM PLAYING, EVEN THOUGH I DO NOT PROGRAM IT (UNLESS I AM ACCIDENTALLY PROGRAMMING IT). FINALLY, I BOUGHT IT IN JUNE OF 1997, AS A "DEMO",AND IT HAS PERFORMED RELATIVELY WELL, GIVEN THE IRRITATING PROBLEMS LISTED ABOVE.

Similar Products Used:

NONE. I WILL PROBABLY PURCHASE I HIGH-END CD PLAYER AND STOP FOOLING WITH THESE CHEAP PRODUCTS, ALTHOUGH, AT TIME OF PURCHASE, I THOUGHT THAT THE H/K WAS A HIGH QUALITY UNIT.

I have had this for over 4 years and never any problems. It has been moved around so many times and yet it seems to be in good condition. The crystal clear sound that comes out of this baby is worth every dollar I paid for it. It is so easy to make out the difference between the sound of this player and that of other players. I feel terrible about the bad review this has got from some people, but it sure seems like a Quality Control problem at HK. Some are good, some are bad. That does make me nervous about buying another HK product but on the other hand, for $150, this beats the c*** out of any other CD player

Good sound, change four CDs while listening to one, looks good with the rest of my HK system.

Rarely does a "no disk" error, forces me to do a disk skip "by feel" when the tray is open (Big deal!).

I've just read most of the prior reviews. My condolences go to those that got the crap machines. Mine has been great. I have been using it for 3 years now virtually without problem. It is connected to a AVR 20 MKII, and a TD 420 cassette deck. The speakers are an old pair from
Jamo. Everything works well together and sounds great. Yes, you can hear it change disks, but I still don't have major complaints for speed of change on the double random play. One of the reviews said that you could do a quick double tap on the open/close button to effect a disk skip. I wish I had known of that earlier. Based solely on my experiences, I would definitely recommend the product.

The price was a guess, I can't remember that far back. OneCall.com was still cheaper than buying in Canada even with exchange and shipping fees.

I am considering adding or maybe substituting a Mega CD changer. I miss having all the groups and doing random play from 20 or so disks that might suit my mood. I am leaning towards the Technics SL-MC7 because I thought the old 60+1 was great, I liked being able to pop in one disk easily and the changeover was fast, even in random. If you have feedback regarding random play in other changers, I'd love to hear it. I have read the Sony reviews.

Similar Products Used:

Technics 60+1

I recently purchased this CD player for $220. I am pleased with its overall performance, but have one major complaint. During continuous play of a CD, there is a spike in between tracks. Although this is not a huge problem, it can be somewhat annoying (especially at high volumes).
I am currently using the HK AVR25mkii receiver, and B&W DM602 speakers.

Excellent sound quality. No problems with skipping or having problems playing any music CD.

After one year, chronic operational and reliability problems.

Sound quality was excellent. CD player was capable of playing all CDs, even some junk CD's a friend brought from China. After one year, starting having chronic problems with the tray not being able to close, followed by a "DISK ERROR" message on the display. Unit was repaired by Circuit City four times over 18 months. Returned the unit to Circuit City two weeks ago and asked for a new replacement (I had a five year extended warranty). I received a full store credit for the original price of the unit and the unused portion of the warranty. I was very pleased with that. I purchased a new HK FL8380. It played three songs and started skipping, so took it back. I still have my store credit; not sure what I will try next.

Similar Products Used:

My first CD player.

Great sound

Unreliable, design flukes, and overheating

Found the reviews on this lemon AFTER I bought it. Hoping and trusting I'd gotten a good unit (seems to very few) but alas, after 7 months, it skipped track 8 on a disc and immediately went to "NO DISC" error message. Took it back to Circuit City who denied ever having any service problems with the unit (hard to believe) and told me it only needed to be cleaned and realigned--a procedure they recommend be done every 3 months. Yeah, right. Will see what happens when I get it back but am already browsing for its replacement. Tried contacting HK direct but after you wallow through the phone menu system, no one ever answers. This piece is a disappointment and a rip-off. It's the Pinto of CD players. Bye bye HK.

Excellent Sound

Runs warm, loses the occasional disc, plasticky

Transport and tray seem cheap. Don't like that it runs so hot. Only 'problem' I have had in the 3+ years I have owned it is that it occasionally will 'no disc' a cd, usually opening the tray shows the cd has slipped out of alignment. No other problems to date. Will skip when jostled.

I don't expect I will ever buy another Harmon Kardon product unless they really reevalute their quality and overall product lines. I also own an AVR 55 a/v reciever which is underpowered.

IMO H/K can really make some excellent sounding equipment, (I hate Sony's sound) but they have been getting gimicky and build quality has suffered.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Kenwood