HDCD etc.

RELIABILITY! Watch out - the recording "well" may stop responding within 1 year. Awkward, counterintuitive controls. Really tacky, outright weird styling.

Search for "Billy" below, and read about his very similar experience: About six months old, my unit has begun to randomly reject discs on the record side (in the record "well"). I mean, flawless factory-recorded CD's which play fine in all other players. Sounds exactly like what Billy's unit did. The CDR-20 had terrible reliability problems, so HK should have super-tested the CDR-30 before release. By the way, at half the price the Aiwa XC-RW700 (yes, I own two burners -- don't ask!) has been preferable in every way (except no HDCD): Nicely styled, large, logically-laid-out buttons, much quieter mechanism, intuitive remote and controls, equally good sound to my ears, and 30% smaller chassis so it complements most other audio components.

Similar Products Used:

Aiwa XC-RW700

Ease of use, outstanding audio quality

Slightly non-intuitive operation, weak remote

I have had this unit about three weeks, and so far I love it. It is easy and quick to use when copying whole disks (not the main thing I plan to use it for, but the only thing I have had time for since I bought it). It also does a truly outstanding job of playing CD's. I have been using my DVD player to play CD's for a while, and playing them on this deck is clearly superior, particularly when playing HDCD disks. (Why aren't more music companies recording in HDCD? They play on regular CD players, and there are more and more HDCD-decoding players and player-recorders on the market every day!)

Anyhow, I was a bit worried about the lack of standby mode so that you could turn it on and off using a remote, but my unit does, in fact, have a standby mode; it must have been added since the other reviews that complained about this problem. You can turn it on, control its operation, and turn it off (into standby) using nothing but the remote.

I agreed with some of the complaints regarding the remote, but I have been using a universal learning remote (the HK TC1000) for about a year, so I just taught it all the commands and buttons, and the remote that came with the unit is now languishing inside my coffee table. I highly recommend universal learning remotes that are as versatile as the TC1000, by the way. I understand that the Phillips Pronto and the more recent models that have followed it are at least as good as the HK TC1000, but the only one I could buy wholesale was the TC1000, and I am very happy with it. Macros make many basic activities much easier, particularly for the technologically challenged people in your household.

My only real complaint about the unit is that, in order to cause many of the actions to occur that are initiated by a particular button, you need to hit that button and then the "Play" button. Frankly, it would make more sense if all you needed to do to finalize a newly recorded disk would be to push the button called "Finalize". However, you first have to push "Finalize", then you have to push "Play" within so many seconds thereafter. If they want to make sure you don't do things by accident, there must be other ways of doing it - perhaps by telling you to push the same button again if you "really" want to do whatever it is you are doing.

Overall, so far, I am very happy with this unit. If I encounter any problems when I start making "compilation" disks, which is really the reason I bought it, I will come back and do an update of this review. JLP

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CD-RW burner on computer

4x speed; ease of use; looks; quality of recordings; lots of features

TOC reading is slow; CDP deck has some problems

I have burned about 18 CDs in the 3 weeks I've owned this, and overall I love it.

It looks great, has a lot of features (MP3, HDCD, 4x dubbing, easy one-track dubbing, high-quality tape-to-CD transfers), and the price was great, considering it lists for $700 on the HK website.

I recently had trouble with the CDP deck. On one CD, when I got ready to record a track from it, it started spinning and wobbling and the deck physically vibrated. I tried re-seating the CD many times to no avail. It did play the disk fine. Another CD it tried to read the TOC but never got past that stage.

Since its under warranty for 1 year, and the problem only occurred briefly, I will wait a little while before trying to deal w/HK to get it fixed, assuming the problem comes back.

I recommend this to anyone who wants to start burning CDs but hasn't done it yet. It is a quality component.

look, easy to operate, sound

funky remote, no fastfoward when playing mp3 but oh well..

this product is very exciting! look at the front panel and you will know what i mean. it looks like a million dollar piece of equipment to me. well not quite but anyway... however, i dont really like the remote control because the batteries are at the top of the remote (instead of the bottom, where your hand is). i guess im used to my sony remote controls.
when you want to record your cd, you have to use the front panel buttons because you cannot do this through the remote! it could be a bit inconvenient at times (sony minidisc recorder lets you record without being right next to the recorder).
other than the couple of things mentioned above, i would recommend this product. great buy.

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na

record capability speed x4 (full cd only)
sound quality

on-off switch different than other matching HK equipment (see details below)

This is my first CD recorder and so far I'm satisfied with the CDR 30. I have burned about 30 CD's at x4 speed without any problem. Track copying is also pretty easy once you get used to the programming. No difference can be heard between original and copy. Copied also from tape (Revox, full frame tapes of live recording of music band). Amazing quality, no extra noise level can be noticed.

Takes more time for initiallising the CD than on other players (TOC reading). Does anybody know why??

Player looks "sophisticated" and expensive, but CD tray loading mechanism is not more rigid than sheaper players. However, it works fine without problem.

One thing that anoys me is the fact that it has no stand-by swith on the front panel.You either switch it on or off. But the remote has a stand-by power switch and so does all my other matching HK equipment (receiver, DVD,). This looks like an unforgivable error from HK. Can't be so expensive or difficult to add a stand-by switch HK-guys ???

HDCD is really adding an extra dimension to the music and I wonder why they are so few HDCD CD's on the market. They're hard to find.

The CDR plays MP3 file's recorded on my PC. So, one can put up to 10hours of music on 1 CD with reasonable good quality sound for background music or parties. Not for real audiophile off course. The single/dual possibility to link both player as one (or not) is great. You can set them as 2 separate players (to compare sound quality, multi zone use,) or as a 2-disk cd-changer (with separate loading mechanism).

As with all other HK equipment of latest models, buttons are very small and sometimes difficult to press. On the other hand, most of the time the remote is used, so I don't care that much. By the way, the remote is good and easy to handle with logical spread of buttons. However, since there are 2 player decks, don't forget to select first the one you want to command (CDP or CDR) before using the play, reverse, forward buttons. If both decks are playing, this can be tricky!

Overall, the sound is excellent for both playing and recording. It is fast (X4) for full CD-copying and makes full bit-by-bit copies. Do not know of any other equipment on the market with this feature.


If you're looking for a high quality CD-player with fast speed coping capabilities and if you like the looks: buy it, you love it!

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none

Great duplication,playback sounds great,lots of inputs and outputs,easy to use remote.

none yet, other than, i wasnt able to program this to my other remote, because the remote has an on and off, and my universal only has one button(power)

I have only had it a couple of
weeks. I have not had any problems
recording from cd to cd. Have not done
any other recording as of yet. Will be
trying to copy cassettes very soon. Using
the coaxial output makes a world of difference
for playing a cd. The cdr30 seems very solid
and the instructions make it easy to use. I am
very satisfied with it, as of now.I will submit
another review, after using it more.

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none

after using the product for awhile, i found out some more things that made me like this product more and also made me wish they could have improved it.
the good: the product produces much nicer sound compared to my old sony 5 cd changer. analog recording is awesome depends on the original source, of course.
the bad: analog recording can be a pain in the neck sometimes because you will have to watch out for what you are doing. it is easy to forget to stop between tracks (with md recording, you can easily devide the track if you ever forget to stop when the track ends). but then, like someone has mentioned it earlier, we should use rewritable cd to record analog source.
to answer mike's question, i don't have any problem with the volume. it sounds the way it should be on my system.

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n/a

excellent sound and fast 4X recording plus versatility

slow to read table of contents; automatic numbering of
tracks has not worked.

The Harman/Kardon CD30 recorder is a joy to use. Sound is
excellent in both commercial and home-recorded disc playback. Copying entire discs is simple and fast. This
machine is so versatile that you must read the clearly
written instructions carefully. First machine I ever had
that is more complex than a VCR! Only problem I have encountered is that, when recording from analog sources
(open reel, cassette, or lp records), the automatic track
numbering doesn't seem to work. I have to advance the track
numbers via the remote. A call to the factory revealed that
the track numbering should work if there is a full 3 second
pause between selections. It was also suggested that CD-RWs
should be used for recordings since you can correct any
errors and then use them as the master for copying.(This
would not be necessary in simply copying CDs.) I haven't
been involved with MP3 so can't comment on that. It takes
between 6 and 12 seconds to read the disc table of contents
so one has to be patient for disc playback. Overall, it's a
very versatile and fine sounding machine that should bring
pleasure to anyone interested in CD recording.

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HP and Phillips CD computer recorders

Excellent sound quality, ease of use, HD and MP3 capabilities.

Problems with recording from external CD changer

I really love the quality of this player, however have run into a couple problems when recording from an external CD player.
When I create a programmed list of CD's from my external Harmon Kardon CD changer, the CDR-30 does not always sense the change of track from the source. The result is multiple tracks recorded onto one track on the recorded CD.
Also, the product states that if a 3 second silence is detected from external source, it will go in wait state, and wait for the next track to play, and will begin recording again (this would apply to a CD changing from 1 disk to another). However, the CDR stays in "BUSY" state and does not automatically begin recording again. I have to start the source track over again, and manually begin the recording on the CDR.

I love the product, and hope that the manufacturer will have a resolution to my problem, I COULD be doing something wrong, but don't think so.