Home > Consumer Reviews > Harman Kardon CDR 26 CD Recorder

I highly recommend avoiding this product. The first unit I had would not play properly, and when I exchanged it for another unit, that unit would also not play properly! I had never purchased a Harmon Kardon product before, but I knew of their good reputation, and I actually did some research on CD recorders before buying this unit and thought it to be the best choice for the money. But I am extremely disappointed, both with this unit and with Harmon Kardon. I returned the second unit and got my money back. Read on...

From the moment I took the first unit out of the box, the lefthand CD player would not work correctly. When a track began playing, the player would skip ahead twenty seconds or so.

This happened on a regular basis, with a wide variety of CDs, from old to brand new. To further rule out that it wasn't the condition of any of my CDs--all of which played fine in my old Sony player--I played the CDs in the rightside player, and they always played fine.

I was especially troubled by the fact that it was the lefthand player, since this is the one that only plays and does not record, so there didn't seem to be much excuse for it not working.

But wait, it gets worse. I actually returned this unit and received another unit. I really liked the sound of the player, and for the most part I liked the functionality of the CD recorder and the quality of the recorded CDs.

So, I got the new unit, and...I immediately had problems with the lefthand player! This one malfunctioned even more than the last one, frequently skipping ahead a few seconds on different songs, and occassionally skipping back to the end of the previous track, while still displaying the current track!

I will say this: the sound was fantastic, and I had no problems recording. The fit and finish was not really first rate, but I would have readily overlooked this if the thing would just play correctly.

I'm not too pleased with the company's response, either. When I called, a rep told me that the store I dealt with had obviously gotten a bad batch of players. A bad batch? We're not talking tomatoes here! Some people might say three strikes you're out, but for me, two was plenty.

Two brand new units, and both would not work properly, right out of the box. Shame on you, Harmon Kardon. By the way, I asked to speak to a higher-up manager at the company, and someone did call me, a week later, and he left a message. I called him back and left a message, twice, but he has yet to get back to me.

Twice bitten, forever shy. No more Harmon Kardon for me!

I bought the CDR26 mainly to back-up my DAT library from the last 15 years of work. I own a recording studio and my DAT recorder (Tascam DA-30 ) started to fail, so I needed the ability to interface digitally through coaxial input which the CDR-26 has two, one on the front and another on the rear besides the optical interfaces. I also needed the capacity to convert the sample rate on the fly because some DATs where recorded at 48 Khz instead of the CD 44.1 K standard.
I have been working with it for the last 3 months and it has done its job flawlessly. No problems at all.
It is handsome, easy to operate, the manual is well written and easy to follow. With its two trays you can make digital copies of your favorite CDs and with the ability to make dubs at 4X,, dubbing is a breeze.

And the sound quality ? well, it is outstanding and I dare to say that some burned CDs, sound better than the original DATs, with more warmth and less of a harsh sound.

The only drawback at least for my purpose is dealing with the SCMS copy protection, because some older DATs that were recorded on a non-pro DAT machine, were coded with the SCMS and therefore, making DIGITAL copies from those DATs was impossible, but the CDR-26 automatically turns on the ANALOG copying and so far, I have NOT been able to distiguish from the original.

The trays seem a little flimsy, so I prefer to close them with the front pannel buttom or the remote one instead of pushing them.

It lacks separate outs, one for each tray, so you can not listen to each one separately or make DJ's type work, but you can play continuosly the two discs and it has all the repeat and programability functions anyone expects from a machine like this.

There are no fancy functions like title writing, but I really dont use those, and besides there are fewer functions that can go wrong.

The display has all the needed information and it is legible despite having small characters and the remote is all you need to work, you wont miss anything from it.

When making ANALOG recordings, you have to be carefull with the Level Settings as it is quite easy to get digital distortion, so it is better to be somehow conservative and not run frequently on the overload mark !

The Phones jack is only good for location reference, because the sound quality is not acceptable.

I have recorded CD-Rs and CD-RW from diferent brands and lengths (74 & 80 Min.) and have never had any problems with any disc, besides you can erase and re-write a CD-RW for 99 times ( a limitation on the CD-RW format and NOT on the CDR-26 ) without any sound degradation.

All in all a terrific buy so far.

Aprroximately 1 1/2 years ago I bought a new Harmon Kardon CDR 26 (CD recorder). It worked well for the first year, recently though it has been skipping during recording and playback. This skipping problem occurs frequently and is especially annoying during the recording process. In the middle of a recording the laser will skip, basically ruining the recording.
The malfunction only occurs on the right side (record side) of the player. The only reason I bought this unit was to record. It has been a huge disappointment and not worth the hassle or the money ($150-$200) to repair.

Right side laser (record side) skips frequently during recording and playback. This problem occurred about 1 year after purchase ($400). Still skipped after cleaning laser. I am very disappointed with this unit and would not recommend it.

The CDR26 replaced a defective CDR20, which I rated very poorly. I saw the promise in the ease of operation and the Harman Kardon name and was willing to give the CDR26 a chance. I'm so glad that I did. I use the unit primarily to make compilation recordings and the difference between it and the CDR20 has been like night and day. I really do not see how I could find another CD recorder that sounded any better or was easier to operate for the money. The CDR20 was a mistake. The CDR26 is a winner!