Home > Consumer Reviews > Harman Kardon CDR 20 CD Player/Recorder

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...

Well, I had the unit about a year before one of the decks started glitching out - So I replaced it with a great Sony combo 5-disc changer / dual deck recorder RCD W-500C - The Sony outperforms the HK in features, functioning, and just about every area except looks - Harman Kardon makes great receivers, but you can forget about their CD players & recorders...

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.

The Harman kardon CDR 20 is a great burner, except the fact that when you dub cd's, various tracks have a distortion and a static error on them.

The CDR20 is easy to use and the quality of sound CAN be beautiful. I bought the unit and immediately noticed low level static when I made a mix but thought it had to do with my connections. Then, I made an exact duplicate of a CD and experienced no problem. For a number of reasons, I did not make any recordings for several months, using the unit daily as a CD player. I recently bought a new receiver and connections and have repeatedly had problems with static something like a "scratched record" sound. Harman Kardon's internet service has been great. I learned thay have had a "few" similar complaints that were fixed by upgrading the software. So, the unit is on the way to a service center to be repaired. We'll see. I hope it gets fixed, because I do see the potential for easy use and enjoyment of the unit.

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???