A good manufacturer goes bad
Written: Aug 14 '07
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Pros: Dewar Audio in Ottawa stood by us
Cons: Poor build quality, exceptionally unreliable
The Bottom Line: I was disappointed by this product. Don't get caught the same way.
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| pauljoynes's Full Review: harman/kardon FL8385 5-Disc CD Changer |
We purchased this player because we have been exceptionally happy with the Harman/Kardon receiver that we own. When we were shopping around, I was surprised that it was very difficult to find a true CD changer anymore, most places were trying to sell you a DVD player that was capable of playing CD's as well. Working under the assumption that a product made solely for playing CD's would give better audio quality than a DVD player, and confident that Harman would only sell good quality equipment, I purchased this player in early 2006.
Initially, the player worked quite well but after a few months it started to not recognize discs and later would skip while playing the discs that it did recognize. We returned this player to the shop where we had bought it and were given a loaner DVD player while ours was sent back to H/K for repair.
After 5 months H/K was unable to repair the player and a new one was given to us by the store where we had purchased it originally. We brought this new player home and plugged it in and enjoyed a nice evening of music without event. The next morning the new player would not recognize discs and locked up.
We returned this player to the store and asked for a refund, which we were granted.
This whole experience has left me with a bad taste in my mouth about purchasing H/K products. When a reputable brand puts out such junk, you have to wonder whether there is any point in purchasing name brand product anymore.
After further consideration, my wife and I have decided that we will not replace this component, instead we are going to have our music streamed off of our Mac and rip our CD collection to AAC format. While there will be many out there that will say that this is sacrilege, the convenience cannot be beat.
One word of advice to people who still choose to purchase a CD player, buy from a reputable audio store! Most big box stores would have hung their customers out to dry when the hardware that they sold to them started to fail. Dewar Audio in Ottawa ensured that we always had a piece of equipment that would allow us to listen to our disc collection and when we said that we had lost confidence in the product line, they refunded our money, 18 months after our original purchase.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 400
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Epinions.com ID:
pauljoynes
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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