Advantages: Best of industry digital-to-analog conversion, especially DVD-A and SACD Disadvantages: The audio interface is sub-standard for Harman Kardon
I purchased this, my first HK 3 weeks ago, being the DVD49. The internal Audio D/A of the DVD49 (analogue output) is the best I heard in any commercial playback device - but here the complements end.
Mechanical - Apart from HK's non-conformance to the industry standard 19" wide design, the design of the CD drawer is the worst I have ever seen. There is no damping whatsoever and the drawer runs into the stops at full speed on open and close - this will most definitely cause the device to fail.
Audio Digital - All three of the HDMI, Optical and Coax digital outputs render a 1 second dropout within 5 - 45 second of starting a new track on skip forward on every 3rd or 4th track. This is totally unacceptable.
All Audio outputs - a very annoying click happen every time a track is skipped or fast forwarded - this is indicative of sloppy ...
Advantages: looks fantastic, beautiful picture (depending on connection), Disadvantages: expensive, reliability problems with brand
Having owned a HarmanKardonDVD22 since June 2005 I think that I am well placed to write a review on the unit; but before I talk about the DVD22 I feel that I must give a little background and therefore must go back 1 year, when I had the DVD21 (by the same company). I bought the DVD21 as an ex-demo model in-store for £150.00, within 6 months I had returned the unit as it was making excessive noise when playing disks, the shop that I purchased from took the unit back and it went away for repair, when I received the unit back, the only thing that was left of the unit I purchased was the case, all the innards had been replaced, essentially it was an old case with a brand new interior. That unit lasted another 6 months before going wrong, this time the company swapped it out for the newer DVD22 (although I had to pay another £100).
So ...
Advantages: Rich sound, super clarity, deep base, look great, robust, high quality Disadvantages: Simply none!
My Harmon Kardon Soundsticks are plugged into the back of a Mac and have certainly livened things up. I haven't needed to upgrade soundcards or do anything technical whatsoever in my pursuit of fantastically rich sound quality.
Firstly, these sound better than anything else on the market within the price bracket. The sound is rich and deep with ample adjustment for either volume or base. The two sticks and base unit come with an instruction manual, but these really are so simple to use that you can throw the manual in the recycling bin. The speaker set simply plugs into the jack socket of your PC/Mac/laptop and have their own power supply which connects to the base unit. Seperate cabling attaches the sticks to the central base unit.
Once plugged in you get a cool blue underlit main unit which looks really stylish. The sticks ...
