Good sound, Good looking.

Problems to recognize discs.

I bought it two months ago as a sale, two weeks later it began to not recognized discs "NO DISC". After three weeks of serviced it played fine for two weeks more and again the unit began with the same problem. Yesterday I returned it and got a new FL8350. I had to paid the differences in prices, but well I hope this new unit do a better job.

Great sound.....

The "Button" thing...in all the wrong places. Dies....

It is hard for me to believe that H/K has gotten away with this. I am on my second and last H/K product. The first FL 8300 I had died within 3 months, and I was able to get my dealer to give me another. That has lasted two years and it has now died. (Power button goes on but no power to display or open button or anything else.) I was searching for Harmon Kardon on the web to send unit to them for fixing and ran into you folks. After reading the comments I don't think I will have it fixed. This unit has not been used hard....perhaps only 100 hours total. I am greatly disappointed, and I feel that H/K should have made good their bad units. Perhaps their later units have been improved, but I am not one to waste my money on a "Maybe" when it comes to my stereo equipment! If I had stock in this company, I would sell it!

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Panasonic

Sound is good (for the price)

This is mechanical garbage!

I posted a review a few years back and indicated that my 8300 had failed and HK had sent me a new unit without any problems. My 8300 was in warranty when it failed and HK had replaced it with an 8350. Well, within 9 months the new CD player was skipping, not reading, and giving messages of "no-disc" when I had 5 in the tray. I did not want to deal with HK service or any other service technicians anymore so I took the player apart and figured out what was wrong. Within an hour I had it operating again. It acted up about 1 month after I had fixed it and I decided to go ahead and permanently modify it. I had nothing to lose, it would not read a disc at all. I made a very small modification to the player's tray and it's been operating for over 4 months now without any trouble. I am a mechanical design engineer and can tell you that the HK tray is one major screwed up design. If you have problems with the player reading discs and spinning around without finding a CD, e-mail me and I will tell you exactly how I fixed mine. It is a very simple modification to your plastic tray that may solve your problems (modification to the slot that the player uses to determine if there is a disc in the tray).

Similar Products Used:

Older HK Equipment

Great sound, sleek looks

Disc Skip button in wrong place

GADZOOKS! You guys are scaring me. I have had the unit for 3 years now and havent had anything but great listening with it. Well, to be honest, the first unit I got had a grindy tray, and would make a loud KER-CHUNK upon closing. Thank Allah I changed that sucker. Very satisfied with this one, and havent noticed any over heating, though I must point out I dont spend my time checking for that...Good Buy!

Have had absolutely no problems at all. Quite surprised by all the bad reviews to be honest. I have had this unit for over 2.5 years now and love it.

It's a Harman/Kardon... Nice and smooth sound, well priced

A LOT OF COMPLAINTS HERE!!!!!!!

I've bought a new unit two weeks ago for about $220.00 (not sale) from a dealer here in Mexico City. I've been using the unit 2-4 hours/day since then and had no problems at all, well... that "disk skip" button is hard to press when the drawer is open... I read all the reviews posted here (all of them!) and I'm very disapointed of the "well-known" H/K products and the reliability of the FL8300. I'm looking for a little fan for cooling it from behind...

This is the first H/K product I've bought and maybe I'll be selling my unit before it starts with problems and "melting" it down... -starting now before anyone want's it!!!!-

Sorry Harman/Kardon, all the reviews here seems to be real, so I'll be buying a Denon or Nad unit (it doesn't matter those extra bucks for reliability...) as soon as I sell this one.

I GIVE A 5 STAR RATING!!!!
...for a two-weeks use model, see you next week...

great sound

flakey quality - questionable construction

OK, this is my third review about this product. I'll skip through all of the "the product sounds great when it works" mumbo-jumbo, and explain how I fixed mine when it started with the "no disc" error.
Actually, all I did was opened up the case, cleaned the laser with rubbing alcohol, and made sure that everything was working while the case was off.
That was about 3 months ago, no problem since then(knock on electronic wood.)

Hope this helps.

Clean sound (compared to a Sony), simple operation, digital output, still working after a year (cross my fingers)

Mechanics and design, reliability!!!!, too much noise when loading discs

This is my first (and last) H/K product, I read the reviews here after I bought so there was late for regrets...

It's very annoying that every time I turn ON the power and press PLAY I cross my fingers for this unit to work again!!!

The loading tray mechanism is c***, sometimes it gets stuck open, when I press the open/close button I have to unstuck it with my hands to let it close.

Why don't H/K buy the mechanism from another make??? Sony, Aiwa, Kenwood or any other "boombox" make in the market is definitely more reliable than this.

Ok, the sound is worth every dollar spent but everything else (including a new pair of fingers to cross) is not.

Don't buy this model, your fingers will thank you.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, pioneer, fisher, panasonic

sound

anything else

Actually, I don't have FL 8300, I bought recent FL 8550 which
uses same gear and mechanics as FL 8300
This is just a message for those who thinks that
HK was indeed ashamed by all these complaints about FL 8300 and
fixed all the problems (disk skipping etc ) in their later
products. NO AT ALL. They don't care. They cynically keep
producing garbage hoping that publicity and brand's name will do
the job. I bought FL 8550 namely because I though that it is just impossible
that they did not correct previously reported problems with FL8300 and other
changers. NO NO NO !
My FL 8550 bought for $450 worked 3 months only
until it finished exactly in the same way as most of the FL 8300s
mentioned here. Look at FL 8550 reviews (I had to do that before !!!)
Don't buy from HK, nowadays it has nothing common
with what it used to be several years ago. I have spent $2000 on the
HK equipment in the 2 past years - EVERYTHING failed by now :
HK 660 amplifier, FL 8550 cd changer, AVR 300 receiver.
The amount of complaints on the HK quality grows like a snowball but they just don't care.
No surprise that the units bought 2-3 years ago may still work and
those bought several months ago crash all the time.
I think we are witnessing last years of this brand. Buy Rotel or NAD, they care

Similar Products Used:

HK 7325

Because of its discrete output stage, the 8300 has a natural and warm sound.Not sweet like tube, but warm and smooth. Completely free of harshness.
Sound stage and depth is quite good. It lacks the final degree of
transparency because of its warmth. Sometimes it skips on the first
track of some CDs. The 'tick' between tracks actually is not that
annoying: it kind of reminds me of an analog turntable!
Actually it sounds more analog like then most other digital
players. I've heard Audio Alchemy v1.0, Adcom DA converter (older model),
Denon 1520 (older model): the 8300 is the best.
Also the digital output is of good sound quality. Highly recommended.