I grabbed the cd player at circuit city for 179.00...It was great for the first hour. The player got hot man, i mean hot. it started to smoke and suddenly my whole damn stereo was on fire! i tried to contact harman kardon, good luck doing that. when i finally got through to a live person at hk - they didn't give a shit and told me basically to go to hell!i currently have a lawsuit pending with hk. need i say more?

Warm analog style sound, digital output, detail

Weird control layout, slow disc transfer, occasional track pop, "plasticky", runs warm.

I picked up this unit from Cambridge Soundworks a little over a year ago, shortly before HK started rethinking its retail strategy. It was a demo item and I paid $199. I purchased it because I heard HK was good brand and it had a digital output, so I figured if it didn't sound as good as I figured it would I could upgrade. I am not familiar with other HK products and am currently shopping around for higher-end equipment such as Rotel or NAD. I currently use this player with a Marantz SR-48/II receiver and a CSW Ensemble II sub/sat speaker setup.

While I have not had any of the more drastic problems listed in the other reviews, I can see where they came from when I think about the idiosyncracies of my player. It has a tendency to get very warm (but not often hot) and also:

*disc transfer is slow and rather noisy compared to some other players. Switching adjacent discs takes about a second, while switching from 5 to 3 takes more than 1.5 seconds. Because you can hear the plastic machinery working, the time seems even longer. This can be very annoying.

*There is sometimes, but not always, a slight pop when the player moves to a subsequent track on the same disc. This phenomenon seems to coincide with the heat.

*The player has failed to recognize a disc probably about 3 times in the whole time I've had it, and this has always been rectified by opening and closing the tray. This player has never "eaten" any of my discs.

*Obviously HK intended this player to be a convenience player as you can change up to 4 discs during play. As a result the tray extends out further when open than on other upper-end mass market players. This aspect of the design may be responsible for the many mechanical problems that other reviewers describe, as well as for why the heat sink is located so closely under the tray (Perhaps the "pop" is the sound of our CDs cooking?).

*On the other hand, the control layout can be most inconvenient when loading. The Disk Skip button is under the tray and in order to load a full tray you must use the button by feel. The button is part of an array of rocker switches that are arranged 1-4, 2-5, 3-Disc Skip, and it's easy to hit the wrong button and thus inadvertently close and start the player. Additionally, although you can select and skip tracks on a disc, and you can select discs, you cannot skip discs from the remote. Conversely, you can use the passage repeat mode from the remote, but there is no control for this feature on the front plate. There is a headphones jack, but no level control.

All of these foibles aside, the player sounds very good, and has a good combination of detail and warmth. It can be a little harsh with high strings however, and I am still looking around for a budget DAC. First, however, I intend to replace my sats with NHT SuperZeros, which I suspect will really put the unit to the test. The concerns raised by other reviewers here are making me lean toward buying another player instead upgrading with a DAC, but I am not entirely dissatisfied with the unit.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Yamaha, Marantz

With this CD player, you have to get lucky. Some people have reported having no problems with it, and some say the thing is a lemon. I owned one for 4 months, and it worked great for the first month. Then it got pickey about when and what CD's it would play, and then after a while, it wouldn't play anything. I took it back to circuit city to get fixed, and after the second time I took it in, they gave me a new CD player. Thank god the FL8300 was discontinued so I didn't have to get stuck with it again. The sound quality was amazing when it did work. If you can get with that gives you no troubles, then more power to ya!!!! If the reliablity was high on this model, it would probably be one of the best CD players one could own, for the money.

Excellent sound!

Designed by a retarded designer, unreliable

Since the very first day I connected my HK FL8300 to my sound system (that was 5 years ago), I realized how much HK did not pay attention to their designer's aptitudes. The "disk skip" button is located UNDER the disc caroussel which makes it quite unreacheable when the caroussel is opened. It's just as stupid as putting the ignition switch of a car in the trunk! But appart from that, I was quite satisfied...for 5 years.

I paid 650.00 CAD (~400 USD) for this unit. The main reason I bouth it is that I needed the "A-B Repeat" feature on a 5-disc caroussel CD player. The only one I found was HK's FL8300. I didn't care about the price since I knew Harman Kardon was a good name (wrong!!!).

Last Saturday, I opened the tray, put in a new CD, closed the tray and the unit simply died. The power button still lights up but it's the only sign of life it is giving. I opened the unit to get my CDs, checked the fuse and it is not blown.

My father has a Sony caroussel changer for about ten years now...ok, the sound quality is not the same but at least, it still works! I think it is not acceptable that a 400 USD sound unit lasts only 5 years! Reading the other reviews, it looks like though I was lucky it lasted so long!!!

I will not even bother having it repaired...I'll simply buy another cd changer from another maker. Goodbye HK!

Similar Products Used:

Sony!

Sounds Good

Does not recognize the disks. Takes long time to load a disk.

I did not have any problems for first 4-6 months. After the first few months had problems playing all the tracks in the disk. After playing the first track the next track keeps blinking but does not play. Got it replaced during the warranty period but same problems with the exchanged player. Disk skip button is not easy to use.

Sound,

quality. Control Button location.

I used this CD player for 4 months with no problems. It sounded great. Then the ERROR message started to appear. The disk tray would just spin around as if it couldn't find a CD, (even with 5 CD's in it). I got fed up and brought it to the repair shop, the machine wouldn't fail there. Just when I was getting ready to pick it up they called to tell me that it failed. It was a hard bug to find. Just got it back, and the ERROR message appeared as soon as I powered it up. The service guy was really good, it is this piece of junk that is the headache. The authorized repair shop is going to see if HK will replace the unit. They better. I have been without a CD player for 6 months now.

great sound

carousel does not allow you to remove a single CD after it's done playing without pushing the disc skip. Most controls are mounted under the carousel tray.

The sound of this unit is great. The weaknesses listed above are minor ones, the sound is what counts. Some people may think that all CD players sound the same, but I am now convinced this is not true. The FL8300 sounds much better than the JVC unit it replaced. I need to mention though that the JVC is a 1996 model and still works great, I just hope that the FL8300 does not encounter any of the transport or sensing problems that earlier reviewers have mentioned. If you can get any of the HK CD players from uBid for under $100.00 (that includes s/h)you can't go wrong really. I would probably pay a little more for the FL8550.

The sound of the 8300 is warm, but not too warm. Bass is tight and well defined, not muddy. Midrange is smooth and
accurate. The unit has sort of an analog sound to it. I also
bought the HK FL8350 (both units from uBid, refurbed) to compare the sound of the 16 bit DAC to the 1 bit and don't know yet which one I like better. I'll probably just keep listening to them both, but my wife thinks I'm weird.

Since transport and/or sensing problems have plagued these units in the past I will post another review in 6 months or so, less if I start having trouble. Hopefully HK has resolved the problems, which will determine whether I purchase the FL8550 in the future.

I give this unit a 5 star rating for value since I got it for under $100.00 and it looks and sounds great so far. Overall rating is also a 5 for sound quality.

Similar Products Used:

JVC XL115-TN (or something like that)

Matches my AVR II

I does not track well.Contols in awkward place when the door is open.

I feel that I got duped into buying a name.I take very good care of my audio and video equipment and I feel that it should not start breaking after a year and a half.I have had this cd player cleaned and it still does not track well.

Similar Products Used:

Sony,Yamaha