Customer Reviews

Harman Kardon CDR 26 CD Recorder

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

Do not purchase any model beginning "CDR" made by harmon kardon. I manage a professional audio duplication facility and have been quite shocked at the downright poor performance of HK's CDR30 and CDR26 units.

-Brand new unit malfunctioned, unable to open tray. I sent it back RMA, and received ANOTHER BROKEN UNIT in exchange.

-After light use for two weeks, a different BRAND NEW machine also failed to open both doors.

That's three terrible machines, at a cost of $1200. Please do yourselves a favor and buy a unit from Pioneer.

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!

I purchased the Harman Kardon CDR20, and from the outset, it picked up static when doing compilation recordings. I couldn't get it repaired, so swapped for a CDR26. It is outstanding. It's easy to use and produces great results for my needs.

I've owned a CDR26 for about seven years. Only recently am I getting much use out of it. It's fairly easy to hook up- if you're still using your tape deck for recording, this is not for you - you'll want to use your receiver's "tape" hook-ups for this unit (the usual "input" and "output" hook ups go to the CDR-26's "Analog" connections on the back. Here, avoid the same mistake I made. To my mind, I've always termed the standard connection cables that come with most components as "coaxial cables." The CDR-26 has a pair of "coaxial" inputs. If you hook this up like a tape deck, you'll be using its "Analog" inputs. To record, you must select the input source on the CDR-26. It has multiple input options and scrolls through the list. I, thinking "coaxial cables," chose "coaxial-rear" as my "input" source. On attempting to record, the CDR-26 said "no signal." This stumped me for YEARS. I finally figured out my "input source" SHOULD BE "Analog-rear." EUREKA! A signal and successful recording!

This is O-L-D technology, you do not get the benefits of more modern digital recording options. The CDR-26 has an analog recording level adjust - it is automatically disabled. The unit selects its own recording level (and does a pretty good job of it). On mine, which has sat unused for six years, the track-increment function for analog recording no longer functions. It self-selects where to "increment" a track, based on signal level. In one instance of transposing a homemade mix cassette to CD, it broke one song into three "tracks." They played back seamlessly on the finished and finalized CD the CDR-26 made. I discovered this from ripping the CD to my PC (I found one "track" had about the first 5 seconds, the next, about 10 seconds, the third, the rest of the song). Fortunately, I own WAV editing software and could reconstruct these three tracks into one, continuous song with reasonable ease. In most cases, when recording from an older analog source (cassette tape or vinyl record) you'll get an "image" of each side, no discrete tracks. One "track" on the CDR-26-created CD will be "side 1," the other, "side 2." So if your hope was to get a "real" CD of an old album that you could quickly skip from song-to-song with - forget it.

I purchased a TEAC GF-350 (also sold as the Crosley "songwriter" - one of those "all-in-one" units that feature a turntable and built-in CD recorder) as I felt I would never get the CDR-26 to work. A HUGE drawback of the Chinese-made, TEAC product is that it "clips" most of the low-end sound spectrum - your recorded music comes out all high-end and very shrill sounding. The CDR-26 makes a faithful recording of the entire sound spectrum on the original source. It's not perfection by any means, but it's not awful. Durability is a valid concern. As I've said, mine has sat largely untouched, unused for years. Both of its CD trays failed to open/close when I started using it recently. Both are opened/closed by a tiny belt-driven servo-motor. Both belts had stretched out of shape over these years. Stretched enough to slip so much, they no longer do their job. Thanks to small rubber bands and endless patience, I resolved it myself.

I purchased this model new in 2005 and used it rarely. One year after I bought it,
the left tray began sticking. A little prying would free it up but the instances became more frequent. Two years after I bought it, the right tray began sticking.
Eventually both trays were stuck and no amount of prying would open them. I removed the cover to locate the jam and found that the mechanisms that drive the trays in and out had ceased to function. This is pretty poor coming from a company that is supposedly top of the line. I contacted Harman Kardon and was given the option to send it out for repairs. I sent it alright, out to the garbage can and ordered a Tascam.
Very disappointed. My advise: don't waste your money on this one.