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Harman Kardon CDR 20   CD Player/Recorder

Harman Kardon CDR 20 CD Player/Recorder

List Price: $549.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY
Review: Do not buy this product. I have had mine for just over a year and not only is it noisy when I turn it on, but the cds are not burning properly. Last night I tried to burn a cd on 2x the speed and when I played it back on my Sony ES 5 disc changer it wouldn't play. In addition, I thought I would be able to burn lps from this machine, but I've never been able to figure out how to even get it hooked up. From what people tell me, its just not possible. I just purchased a CDRW drive for my laptop, and this is what I should have done in the beginning.

I have a business associate that has this machine and he also had major troubles with it after one year of use.

I do not recommend this machine.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: software bug ate my music
Review: I bought my unit about 3-4 years ago, and it worked fine for the first 6 months, although not all cdrs would play in other cd players. Then, when recording LPs, it began to encode static-like noise onto the cdrs, and finally even direct copies of cds were unlistenable. It was sent to the HK CA repair shop, where it languished for nearly 2 months before the software was reloaded. I finally got it back, and it seemed to work fine, but I have recently noticed older cdrs I recorded now have a similar static noise. Too much money and trouble to be worth a postive recommendation.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: CD- Recorder at it's best
Review: I found this product extremly easy to use and the quality of the recording is what you expect from a Harman-Kardon product. I also used the customer support from HK and they did answer my questions in less than 24 hours.
The CD's are compatible with most CD players.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Recorded CD's stop working.
Review: I have had this unit for 6 months and it is really easy to use. My only problems are that there is static on some recorded discs. It sometimes refuses to read it's own recorded cd's. CD's wear out (I record them and play them for a month or two, then all of a sudden, the CD ceases to play on all CD players.) This Recorder is a total piece of junk. I suggest you look elsewhere! If they can't get CD-R's going, what makes them think they can get DVD-R's to work???

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Recorded CD's stop working.
Review: I have had this unit for 6 months and it is really easy to use. My only problems are that there is static on some recorded discs. It sometimes refuses to read it's own recorded cd's. CD's wear out (I record them and play them for a month or two, then all of a sudden, the CD ceases to play on all CD players.) This Recorder is a total piece of junk. I suggest you look elsewhere! If they can't get CD-R's going, what makes them think they can get DVD-R's to work???

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Love this machine!
Review: I purchased this product to create my own CD mixes from my vast collection. Every day I used to pack 6 to 10 CD's to listen in my car to work. Then I had to change CD's in my player and look for a particular song to listen to. Now I can record up to 20 songs on one CD in the sequence I desire. I love this product because it works each and every time. I use music quality CD's and have never had a problem. The quality is fantastic. The Harman Kardon CDR20 has analog inputs in the back so I can feed in my cassette tape output as well as the turntable into it to create CD's from old LP's and tape collection.
Among the 8 computers I use every day between work and home, 3 of them have the CD writers built in them, but I still use my Harman Kardon when I want to create another audio CD mix. The output sound quality for playing is incredibly clean too. I use it as a player more than my Sony 5 CD changer.
Aside from being a very high quality digital unit, it is a very good looking piece of equipment as well.
I recommend this to anyone looking to buy a CD recorder. This is one heck of a machine. Harman Kardon has done it again!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "I'M VERY WELL PLEASED"
Review: I'd purchased this CDR-20 on June 2002 and ever since then I never had any problems with it knock on wood. Unlike the last CDR that I've used to have from Philips, I like the way this product operates. What more can I say? Other then "I'm Very Well Pleased".

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: High-Quality CD Recorder - Recommended
Review: I've had this unit for about six weeks now and have been on a binge of copying, dubbing, editing CD-Rs from LPs, CDs & CD-Rs in my collection and on loan from friends: compilations & copies for myself and gifts for friends. I figure I've burned about a hundred CDs at this point & this unit has performed well. I've used most of the features this component offers & I find it works reliably. I'm very impressed with the sound and overall efficiency. Compared with the Harman Kardon 5-CD changer (model FL8380, I believe - I bought one of those at the same time & it died on me after a month & had to be replaced by the dealer I bought it from) - it lives up to the Harman Kardon reputation. I don't know if this unit will wear out a year or two down the line, but right now I'd recommend it to anyone...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: High-Quality CD Recorder - Recommended
Review: I've had this unit for about six weeks now and have been on a binge of copying, dubbing, editing CD-Rs from LPs, CDs & CD-Rs in my collection and on loan from friends: compilations & copies for myself and gifts for friends. I figure I've burned about a hundred CDs at this point & this unit has performed well. I've used most of the features this component offers & I find it works reliably. I'm very impressed with the sound and overall efficiency. Compared with the Harman Kardon 5-CD changer (model FL8380, I believe - I bought one of those at the same time & it died on me after a month & had to be replaced by the dealer I bought it from) - it lives up to the Harman Kardon reputation. I don't know if this unit will wear out a year or two down the line, but right now I'd recommend it to anyone...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good unit, depending on your recording needs
Review: I've had this unit for over a year now (it arrived at my door the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001), and I've recorded probably 700+ CDs and several dozen LPs on it since. I purchased it with the HK 3470 receiver and use Magnepan MMG speakers with a Polk subwoofer. This is my first CD burner. The sound quality is excellent, and I enjoy the ability to preserve my scratchy old records and deteriorating Dead bootlegs onto a more versatile format.
For a person who likes to make mix CDs - rather than just recording one entire disc onto another - the steps required make this machine a bit tedious. You have to use a remote control to program each song, and repeat a series of steps every time you insert another source disc. Same with analog inputs. So if you're planning on doing a lot of mixes, a computer model might be more convenient ... Also, this unit will only record onto certain "Audio" CDRs, which are more expensive than the computer CDRs ... but I can hardly complain about having to pay 60 or 70 cents per disc to round out my jazz/world music collection.
Of my 700+ burns, I've had to throw out less than 10 discs due to recording errors. There is this one weird glitch: every time I've gone to burn a CD with two tracks (such as Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way"), for some reason the thing only burns the first track. So I have to go back and manually program the second track. And recently, the player seems to be taking more time to register the discs; maybe the laser's getting dusty or something. I suppose, with such a fine-tuned instrument, some sort of yearly maintenance is to be expected. One word of advice: while this unit allows you to push the tray in with your finger manually, I recommend using the buttons alongside the trays; it seems like pushing on the unit causes strain and may eventually effect the alignment of the laser.
I've taken good care of this machine, and hope it will last at least another five years. It's an attractive unit, and all in all, I feel it is worth the [money] I spent, and I'm glad to be a member of the digital revolution!


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