Excellent Sound Quality

Glitches

Follow up to a review in October. The glitches have returned though not severely. An occasional problem with stopping when i hit the return button. No longer gives a disk full warning when programing tracks to record as result I have ruined a couple of blank cd's due to running out of space. How ever the sound quality remains stellar. Easily comparable the $1000-$2000 market.

Similar Products Used:

Philips

EVERYTHING!!!!

No high speed dub on single tracks

This is an awesome machine. I have had the Phillips for about 1 year and really like it, but this HK blows it away. 4x dub speed, remote control ALL functions, and incredible analog dubbing. I HIGHLY recommend this machine.

Similar Products Used:

Phillips CDR765
Pioneer 3cd-1cdr

4X Recording

See below

I purchased the CDR2 about 3 weeks ago. At first I was really happy with my choice. But after few weeks I began experiencing all sorts of problems, which led me to return the player.
One of the problems was disk recognition, it even had difficulty recognizing the CD-R disk, which was supplied by Harman Kardon. The sound quality was good, however I found that my Denon DVD-2000 sounded better. But the biggest problem I had with it was that after two weeks it failed to play anything that it had recoded, in either play or record deck. The weirdest thing was that the originals where playing fine, and I could listen to the recorded disks through the headphones (on CDR-2) but nothing was going to my Amp. Those same disks played fine in other CD players.
I’d like to say that I got a lemon, but after reading reviews of other people I found that others had similar problems. I would probably keep the CDR2 if it continued to perform like it did during the firs week.

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None

great sound quality

who wrote the manual?

Ten years ago, I owned a H/K receiver and enjoyed it very much. It's the brand name (and a good review in Sound & Vision) that made me choose this CD recorder. So far i have been impressed with the sound quality. It even sounded better that the original CD's I've copied.

Unlike the experience of others with Maxell CD-RW's, I've only used Maxell and Fuji brands (these are the only brands available where I live) and they have been great- no problem in disc recognition.

My Alero's CD player experiences difficulty recognizing CD copies from time to time, but my Altima's has no problem recognizing them at all. So I guess, the units we play copies on have something to do with it.

Who ever wrote the manual should be fired! I thought perhaps it was me because English is not my first language, but many of those who have submitted reviews likewise found the manual lacking in clarity.

The machine is not perfect, but for the sound quality, I give it a 4.5 stars rating.

Similar Products Used:

Computer CD-R's/CD-rW's

See below

See below

harmon/kardon CDR-2
I originally bought the Philips CDR765 which I liked mostly, except it
turned out to be defective within the first week. I returned the unit.
I shopped around and decided to get the h-k CDR-2. It has almost
identical functions and features to the Philips, except: the H-K has
the 4x speed copy. Unfortunately multi speed copy only works when you
want to copy an entire disk. Also has "audiophile grade A to D
converters." (I couldn't tell any difference)
Pluses: 2x and 4x dubbing. Excellent sound quality. Good looks. (Gotta
love that snazzy looking front!) Feels very sturdy, and well built.
Connectivity is MUCH more versatile than the Philips. More ins & outs
of all varieties Even has a digital coax on the front of the unit.
Handy! You can listen to the CDR or the CDP while copying by using your
tape monitor switch. The Philips will "howl" if you're not careful.
(Had it happen) This won't happen in the H-K.
Minuses: high speed dubb only works for copying entire CD. Buttons are
very small. Play & record decks not marked. Manual is terrible. (The
Philips manual is great in comparison.) However, since they work so
much alike function wise, once you learn it, it hardly matters. Biggest
gripe: Has a 20 track limit! At first I thought this wasn't a big deal
until I needed more than 20 tracks. Bummer.
Unit is very large, especially compared the the Philips 765. Very much
deeper, and a little higher. (Almost wouldn't fit in my work area,
whereas the Philips fit great.) The display is small. Track number and
time appear as one big number. Ie: 0100:12 (track 1, 0 minutes, 12
seconds.) One weird thing is the level meters. They start at the center
of the display and left goes to the left, right to the right. Makes it
a little difficult to tell if the channels are even, but since there's
no balance control, I guess it doesn't matter. Unfinalized CDRW will
NOT play in the play deck, but it will in the Philips.
So all in all, I'd say the Philips is more consumer oriented, as it's
labeled well and more intuitive, but the h-k is more sophisticated.
Final rating: value 5, overall 4.

Similar Products Used:

Philips CDR765

Flawless Recordings, 4x Recordings

Manual, Tiny Front Buttons

In the nine months that I have owned this unit, I have only experienced one failed transfer from disc to disc. Not bad out of 100+ copies made. I suggest using a CD-RW to record from tape or LP and then transfer to CD-R's as I then have the chance to edit any missed track inserts or other errors.
What a joy this unit has been.
I rate it 6 Stars if possible

Similar Products Used:

Phillips, Computer CDR's

1)Records CDs and copies CD very simple
2)Offers dual(2)deck mode. Act as 2 separate players with each having it's own analog and digital connection.(Has some great downfalls. See in weaknesses).

1)Will not allow monitoring the source, when using the CD-R connections only.
2)Sound isn't that great.
3)Doesn't offer skip ID. With a CD-R disc, it allow tracks recorded with errors to be skipped automatically. Doesn't erase track, just acts like it doesn't exist.
4)Very expense
5)Build quality very poor. Faceplate and drawers are very flimsy, requiring caution with use.

As I stated above, the unit doesn't allow monitoring when copying/cloning CDs at "any" speed, while haveing only the CD-R deck connections hooked up. This was the main cause to take it back for a refund. Who ever heard of a dubbing deck that doesn't allow monitoring, just nuts!

The features useful for recording are a bit lacking compared to other units.

The sound is acceptable for a cheaper unit, but not for what the HK CDR2 goes for. I was lucky enough to get it for $599. Even at that price, it was not worth it in my opinion.

I compared it to a $250 Yamaha CD changer, using the DACs of both players naturally. The HK just could not compete with the Yamaha in sound quality. The HK advertises AKM 96Khz DACs. Doesn't seem like that means squat, when the sound can't compete.

Compared to the Yamaha, the sound lacked soundstage presence and clearity. It wasn't immediately noticable but after about 6 sounds, you can really start to point out the differences.

I cloned a CD for the comparison. Matched the level outputs closely. Did some listening. I then lowered the output on the Yamaha to make sure if there was any volume differences, it wasn't contributing to the clearity difference. It wasn't. Even with the Yamaha lower in level/volume, it still sounded clearer with a better soundstage. The imaging between the 2 sound very close though.

I just wasn't impressed at all with this unit. I read some CD-R recorder reviews at etown. When I read the reviewer didn't care for the CDR2's sound, I thought that's just his opinion and it couldn't be worse than a standard CD player. He actually preferred the Philips CD-R decks sound to this HK. I have to agree on the HK's sound not being that great, now that I did my own listening test.

Although, I gave a very poor rating due to the broken out of the box Pioneer 739, my new one does work for now. I haven't hooked it for sound yet, just mechanical auditioning. I'm crossing my fingers since I haven't read any good reviews on it, being only 2 + my own. We'll see. If it turns out to be good, I'll submit another review to counter my previous poor review.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer PDR-W739

4x dub

terrible external record with MD

Okay, lets make this short and ugly. This is my second post.

My first unit refused to do any CD Synching or external recording with a digital input at all. It took me forever to get it replaced with a new unit, which was supposed to take care of the problem. I finally got a new unit with a huge dent in the top. It worked with the CD Synch fine, but using an MD player, via analog, it just quit in the middle of a song and ruined a disc.

If anyone from Harman Kardon is reading this, shame on you. Your customer service has been among the worst I have ever experienced and your product does not deliver what it advertised.

Similar Products Used:

computer burners

1)Records CDs and copies CD very simple
2)Offers dual(2)deck mode. Act as 2 separate players with each having it's own analog and digital connection.(Has some great downfalls. See in weaknesses).

1)Will not allow monitoring the source, when using the CD-R connections only.
2)Sound isn't that great.
3)Doesn't offer skip ID. With a CD-R disc, it allow tracks recorded with errors to be skipped automatically. Doesn't erase track, just acts like it doesn't exist.
4)Very expense
5)Build quality very poor. Faceplate and drawers are very flimsy, requiring caution with use.

This is my second review. I've talked to HK. He said the monitoring problem durring internal dubbing was the design.

He told me of a work around. Use the CDP deck's outputs and use the CD-R decks inputs if only one input is to be used(being most receivers/preamps only have a limited number of inputs. No reason why this deck should use 2 inputs on the receiver, when a correctly designed CD-R recorder would only need 1(Philips 775, but their reliability and lack of an optical output gives me no desire to purchase).

In single mode the CD-R deck's sound will output through all the outputs. So this hookup seemed logical. Until I tried to record normally, or recording from an external device, as my minidisc player. I have the minidisc player's coaxial output directly to the HK CDR2 CD-R deck's coaxial input. The minidisc player is hooked directly to the CDR2 and bypasses my audio receiver. Now I can't hear anything while recording from the minidisc player. For some reason, the dual mode is activated and forced in whenever the record function is used.

So now that I can hear the CD that I'm internally dubbing(recording), I can't hear any other source that's external that I want to record. The same would be using the front panel coaxial digital input.

Yeh, the guy gave me a work around that caused another problem. They should just redesign a new recorder and "Recall" the CDR2!

On top of the design flaws, the darn thing started giving a screeching through the analog output(CD-R deck I heard it on)when turning the unit off by the FRONT PANEL switch. I was lucky enough to have my receiver's volume down when I discovered this. If the volume would had been up to the 2 out of 10 mark, it would had surely blown my speakers.

A model with a design flaw plus reliability that lasted about a week. I wish there was a way to rate this below 1 !

P.S. this unit was operating correctly except for the screeching durring shut off. I confirmed the recording flaws on the stores demo unit, so they weren't caused by a defective unit.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer PDR-W739

Makes top quality copies

I chose to write this review after reading others on this site. I have owned this unit for 8 months. I have always used it to record from itself. I think that I have made about 400 CD's, and I have not had a single failure. Copies always sound at least equal to the source, often they seem to sound better. A few months ago I listened to the deck. It sounded much better than my Marantz 67se and sent me on a search for a better player. During my search, I purchased many different units, including a HK FLA-8350, an Onkyo Integra, a Denon 465... each time I a/b'ed these, the CDR-2 sounded better. I finally ended-up with an Adcom GCD-750 as it was the first dedicated CD player that I thought sounded better(much, much better). It sounds like many people have had trouble with this unit, I have not. I did have trouble with the Philips and returned it twice for the same problem, but it was never fixed. I was able to return many of the CD players I purchased, but kept a few too long and sold them at 1/2 price. Thanks for reading this.

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I owned the Philips dual-deck for 4 months