From the look of things, a whole lot.

I'm perplexed at the stuff being posted here. Some claim that this is a good buy and the only HDCD player in this price range. The poor french guy learned the hard way.

Before giving this one another thought, go mosey on over to the Denon DCM-370 HDCD Player listing.

I'll give this one 3 stars so as not to make the current rating any worse.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DCM-370 HDCD Player...price: $220-275.

I listened to a lot of CD players in my quest to replace my dear, dying Adcom. This new HK was at the bottom of the price spectrum, but delivered jaw-dropping sound! there aren't a lot of "bargains" out there in audiophile land. you usually get what you pay for. in this case, you get much, much more. The player especially excells in imaging, transparency and sheer detail. as a result, it may sound a little cold at times, but it's not much of a trade off. There are better players out there, but you'd have to spend 5-6 times as much to hear any real improvement. No question, the best CD player in its price range, and on of the better players (especially changers) i've heard, period. This 400-dollar dynamo rests comfortably infront of 6,000+ dollar of electronics, and that should say smething for it.

First off I want to say that this unit is built like a tank. Yes, the lights flash and it is a bit noisy when changing disks but I don't care. It is simple to use and it sounds very good. To me that is all that matters. The bass is tight and fast. The music seems to be cleaned up over the entire range. It creates a good soundstage. It plays even better with HDCD's. There is a very noticable improvement with clarity and much faster responces. I almost don't want to play anything but my HDCD's. With all the no frills fetures and great sound quality, this unit delivers what really matters. I believe that this is one of, if not the best unit in this price range.

I recently purchased a HK8550 for about 25% off the list price... I spent a lot oftime researching cd players and I bought it from a mail order N.Y. service. It is not easy to use, the controls are poorly placed, you can only remove 1 cd at a time when unloading, but you can add or remove two when 1 cd is playing ???
It is hard to find the very small PLAY or STOP button or the RANDOM button-my Philips 925 is much easier to use. HOWEVER- I do not care! Because it sounds so much better, most CD's especially newer ones sound noticeably better, due to the 20 bit - burr browns, the HDCD which I found I had 4 of sound absolutely fantastic- the sound is warm and rich-the low's are lower-and it simply sounds a lot better, although my Philips was 8 years old. For the delivered price of 350 dollars, I am very happy with this cd/player, also it has a digital out if you want to upgrade down the road!

Carver 55x
Carver CT-23
Bose-901-V1-if these are so bad, how come the music sounds so good.
Cables-I pretend they are expensive, so now my sound is much improved!

Very good sound when you use a HDCD...

Sounds like a Harley-Davison when it switch discs, can change only one disc at time while it's playing, worked for only 1 month !

I read all the know problems before buying... i also made sure that the serial number of the unit i was buying was correct according to the posts.

I have it for less than 3 months and it is skipping on almost one quarter of my cd collection(i have more than 200 cd's). It's going worse by day, it recognize all the discs tough, and it did not have the "no disc" problem yet... All these cd's are working fine in any player i test them in...

I'm pissed off, i just replace my Onkyo with this player because the other was skipping (was 6 years old only)! Now i returned it for repair today and hope they will do something, they don't want to exchange it. I wish i still haven't bought it... because i'd definetely buy something else.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo C311 6 discs changer

Several months ago, i purchased the 8550 from a local Circuit City. While the sound was phenomenal, i too had noticed some of the problems that others had faced, primarily not reading any of the cds. It got to a point where it wouldn't read any of them. Apparently, they have had some laser allignment issues w/ this model, and after a certain serial number, this appears to be fixed. They were offering an exchange program on it, so i was happy to own a new, and working, 8550. Rest assure, this is one great sounding cd player, and it still amazes me to this day. Bar none this is one great player. The changin mechanism is a bit noisey, and the fact that their Quality Control sucks, but because of the sound and friendly service i recieved, i'll give 'em a 4 star..

I've owned an FL8550 since January, 1999, and like others who've posted responses here, purchased the unit at a good discount from a mail order outlet. Yes, the unit seems to sound great for the price (with HDCD as a nice bonus), as it simply blew away the Rotel RCD955 it replaced. However, my FL8550 also skips annoyingly on anything but perfect discs, and recently, failed to recognize two brand new discs which work fine in two other CD players I own. To top it off, a CD jammed in the changer mechanism the last time I attempted to use the player, and I'm now faced with the uncertain prospect of repairing getting it repaired. In summary, the FL8550 offers great sound for the price, but HK seems to have missed some major problems in the transport when they designed the unit. Five stars for sound, but only one star since it doesn't work.

I purchased this unit a little over a month ago for the very reasonable price of $324. Those first few days of listening were incredible. I went around telling all of my friends how gret this player sounded. I hadn't even realized that I had any HDCD discs until I noticed that red indicator light up one day. Wow! I loved it, I was in heaven.
That was then, this is now.

Three days ago I noticed that my player was playing the same two discs over and over again. When I went over to take a look the front panel display shoed that there were only two discs loaded. but when I opened the drawer there were five discs. Oh, no. I had heard of this happening on the FL8300 but it couldn't be happening to me, not on my brnad new FL8550! But it was happening to me, i would rearrange the discs or put in all new discs but it never agin recognized all five. Yesterday it stopped recognizing any discs, period.

So far I haven't been able to get through to H/K's customer service number. As of now, taking into account H/K's spotty record with the FL8300 and a previous poster's comments regarding the FL8550, I can not recommend this product.

Five stars for one month of fantastic sound. One star for only living one month.

The sound is AWESOME!

Layout of the control buttons

I didn't think that one component could elevate my sound, but I was wrong! The dual DACs really make for extreme clarity. I don't notice any tray noise, because it's much quieter than my Denon was. The only trouble I've had with it reading discs were ones that skipped on my Denon. I listen to a wide variety of musical styles(metal, prog, alt & classic rock, plus jazz, blues, reggae, world and classical) and it seems like the bands are in the room. Even my wife hears the difference.
I bought the unit refurbished from ubid for $89 and thought it was a steal, then I was informed that I was entitled to a $20 rebate!
I don't like the control button layout (too small and awkward) but for the sound, I got used to it real fast. It's been over 4 months and I'm floored every time I use the unit which is daily.

Similar Products Used:

Denon-DCM 340

not applicable (does not work)

everything

I come back to my previous reviews.
The first FL8550 failed 3 months after the purchase.
The HK customer service replaced it with another one,
which took another 3 months to fail.
Now I have to bring it back to get another one.

It looks like there is a standard algorithm that everybody
will have to get through if he is crazy enough
to buy a new HK product.
(HK calls their new product line “digital revolution”.
Now you will get why: they were inspired by endless loops you can so easily get in the computer codes):

If(“crazy enough”) then
{ Begin ( buy it )

Do while(«warranty is still valid».or.«still have tempers»)
{ 1. The thing fails after first 3 months
2. After painful discussions
with HK customer service, which will spoil another 3
months of your life, the faulty unit will be replaced
with a « new one », which « will resolve your problem
once and for all » , as HK representative will
proudly tell you.

3. go to 1.
} }

no stop
no return
no end

Similar Products Used:

HK 7325; another FL8550