harman/kardon FL8550

Pros: Dual 20-bit Burr Brown D/A converters
Cons: CD loading mechanism a little loud

Let us face it, there are a lot of choices out there when it comes to CD players. Which one do you choose? Do you purchase just a cheap basic CD player or do you purchase a good quality CD player. Well, the Harman Kardon FL 8550 CD changer is the best...

Pros: HDCD
Cons: Loud, front panel display dim on powerup

We bought our FL-8550 in Jan/98, and have been somewhat pleased with it. We bought it for $200 or so, and especially with the features included, we felt it was a good deal. Aesthetics being important to us, another deciding factor was that it matched our...

Pros: Very high quality of sound
Cons: Loud loading mechanism, cheap quality of materials and remote, and can't turn on/off w/ remote

This is the newest item in my audio stable. I bought this from Ubid.com for $120, as a refurbished item. I should also mention that harmon/kardon actually replaced this model with something newer, so it may be hard to find this specific model....

Pros: Cost and sound quality.
Cons: Useless if you like to program classical music with continuous music on several tracks.

The sound quality is fine, and in general this player has good features. The startup is slow, as mentioned in other reviews, because it wants to check each tray slot before letting you do anything. It also feels flimsy, as if it's not going to last...

Pros: H/K quality, sound, looks, HDCD.
Cons: Loud drawer mech.

I recently purchased this via an H/K outlet store for about $200. I didnt really expect much for that little money, even with H/Ks name. But the sound from this thing blew me away. Being harder to now find an audiophile quality CD player (More...