excellent sound quality, whether used as a transport or analog out. Quieter than a Denon DCM-370

I have not had any problems with this player.

After reading all the positive reviews for the Denon DCM-370 I decided to buy one (could not audition one close to home). The Denon was going to replace a Harman Kardon FL8350, but to be honest with you I am not sure why I bought the Denon. I have had no problems with the FL8350. The sound is smooth, detailed, and bass is tight and well defined. I replaced the FL8350 in my system with the DCM-370 but during that time there was something missing. The music seemed to lack the smoothness, the detail, and bass was muddy. Whether I used the analog out or used the player as a transport, same problem. After a month of listening to the DCM-370 I put the FL8350 back into my system. Ahhh, the sound I loved was back! Whenever I get an email from one of those lawyers who advise there is a lawsuit pending against HK for this player I just delete it. It's too bad people have had mechanical problems with this player, but it does appear that HK is willing to help resolve it. This is one beautiful sounding player, and it weighs a ton! Much quieter disc tray and transport system than the Denon.

Similar Products Used:

older JVC model, Denon DCM-370

Sound quality, simple design

Mechanism, noisy when changing the CDs

Sound came out with detail, sweet and warm compared with other similar CD changer in this price. Digital coxial output is simple but works great. The mechanism really to improve because the sound when I change th CD is pretty lound like a cheap unit. I used to use with H/K AVR40 before I bought the Denon AVR3300. So far, I used it with Denon AVR3300 and the result ws that I need to upgrade the CD changer a bit better than this unit. In summary the FL-8350 is worth the money and quality at this price.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DCM-270

Plays all disks well. Sounds are smooth and detailed. Contrary to my weakness below and all others. Ihave not a a problem with this unit at all.

It has a bad rap in the review section. If I were to read these revies noe I would not spend a dime. No power off button on the remote.

Be cautious were you buy your products. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck than it is probably a DUCK!

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Denon

Desigh, robust, the right buttons and functions on the right places

Poor sound quality

The HK 8350 was for sale for a very attractive price and I decided to buy it. After connecting I checked the sound quality with some very well known favorite CD's and I was immediately plagued by the POOR SOUND. It is unbelievable for me that most of the HK consumers seems to be satisfied with the sound quality of the player, I can really not imagine that! The basses are very undifferentiated (it is almost impossible to distinguish between an electric bass guitar and a real bass of an orchestra). The high tones are really cold and too pronounced which results in the well-known sharp "digital CD sound". The overall sound is too clear and sterile.
I returned the player and bought a Technics SL-PS50 and a real new world was opened! Even my reference CD's (very often played and very well known) revealed details, which I hadn’t noticed before. Even more pleasantly surprised I was about the "quietness" in the overall sound palette! GREAT!
I am very curious for the comments of other users of the Technics SL-PS50, please send me a note.

Similar Products Used:

Technics SL-PS50

** THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE H/K 8370 **
- Good sound quality
- Decent construction
- Plays CD-R's great

- No on/off remote (the new 8380 does)
- Issue I have with certain disks... (see review)
- Coax digital only, no optical.

Bought this unit about a year ago... I've heard all kinds of bad things about the 8350, especially the problem with disk mechanics and disks not being recognized. For the most part I have not had such problems with this 8370 unit. Unfortunately, I have also experienced a problem on the odd disk with the player not being able to jump to a track. For example, it will play track 1 but when I request a jump to say track 15, it just seems to hang for awhile, then the carousel will turn and move on to the next disk indicating some kind of error with the seek. Interestingly, this seems to be remedied with a hard reset (ie. power off/on) and then try the disk again. Not a huge problem since it doesn't happen all the time but I'm a bit obsessive about this stuff.

Other than this sore spot, this player has been quite nice to have. It does sound good. HDCD's can sound quite fabulous (especially those Reference Recording classics like the Firebird and Copeland disks). Sound output is quite warm and an improvement over my previous Kenwood CD changer and a TEAC I tried awhile back (sorry, not really into the expensive brands since I've never noticed huge differences at the local hi-fi boutique).

If anyone has one of these or have any ideas about what I describe, I would love to hear from you about the disk recognition problem above. I have a 2 year warranty and if this is clearly a defect, I'll certainly bring it back for exchange / upgrade... My email: drjoe@canoemail.com

Thanks...

Similar Products Used:

Teac PD-D2700 5-disk changer
Kenwood CD-203 5-disk changer
old 1980's Sony player

A follow up to the review below: Last night I replaced one of the CDs that the HK FL8350 would not play (Acoustic Alchemy's "The Beautiful Game") and guess what? The player played it flawlessly. I suspect that this unit is a bit more sensitive to flaws in CDs. People are probably giving it a bad rap because of this.

D/A converter seems to be of good quality, heavy.

started to skip

Bought this unit back in June 2000 and it is starting to skip. The same discs that skip when played on this unit work fine on a Toshiba DVD player and a Technics SL-PD5. Boxed up this CD player and it now sits in the garage. The Technics player is now my main player. Can't believe the new HK players have the same problem. AVOID!!

Similar Products Used:

JVC XL115TN, Technics SL-PD5

Very, very good with regard to sound quality. However, after 6 or 7 months it began having trouble reading discs. I brought it into an authorized shop where they merely improved it, but did not eliminate the problem. I contacted H/K and they advised me to return it to them for exchange. They state that "this problem has been fixed and is no longer occurring". I am still awaiting the new model (it has only been a few days). My advice would be to wait on this product until it is determined if the disc-reading problem has really been eliminated.For sound, I give it a 4. Reliability gets a 1.

Sound, design

disk changes are a bit noisy.. could be better

The sound is great (connected digital to AVR 2000 - thtats AVR 210 or 110 in the US) and it perfectly fits designwise. Besides of the brand name the price was a major reason to chose it (I have a DVD from Afreey player which I could use as a CD player too, but I wanted a seperate unit). It has made only some very few problems while reading some CDs, but when I checked the CDs there were either spots or scratches on the CD - so the H/K 8350 was not to blame so far.
When I bought it, it automatically came with a 2 year warranty. So I feel pretty safe with my player - at least so far...

sound is very good

unreliable, as most of the other reviews have noted
player has started to skip

Well, it's been almost 3 months since I've had this unit and it's starting to skip. Too bad, because it sounds great.
Guess I'll have to pull the old JVC unit out of it's box and use it again until I get a DVD player.

Similar Products Used:

JVC 5 disc player (no problems with it for 3 years)