Harman Kardon Festival 60 Mk II Home-Theater System

Rating:
Summary: Reliability and factory service are deeply substandard
Review: After giving this system as a housewarming gift, I've been deeply disappointed (and more than a little embarrassed) by the results. The sound was great, and this very full-featured system was both compact and elegant in looks - a prefect fit for the condo in which it was being used. All of that merely adds to our disappointment that the system can't be made to work at all.

Upon delivery, one channel played intermittently and then not at all. A replacement base unit arrived very quickly courtesy of Amazon.com, who helped us diagnose the problem. The replacement worked for a few months, but began to fail piece by piece and was entirely out of service in just a few months.

Harmon Kardon factory service has had the unit for at least two full months, yet they say that they still don't "have the parts" to fix it. Maybe that means they aren't building them any more - which would be good news for unsuspecting consumers.

Rating:
Summary: Reliability and factory service are deeply substandard
Review: After giving this system as a housewarming gift, I've been deeply disappointed (and more than a little embarrassed) by the results. The sound was great, and this very full-featured system was both compact and elegant in looks - a prefect fit for the condo in which it was being used. All of that merely adds to our disappointment that the system can't be made to work at all.

Upon delivery, one channel played intermittently and then not at all. A replacement base unit arrived very quickly courtesy of Amazon.com, who helped us diagnose the problem. The replacement worked for a few months, but began to fail piece by piece and was entirely out of service in just a few months.

Harmon Kardon factory service has had the unit for at least two full months, yet they say that they still don't "have the parts" to fix it. Maybe that means they aren't building them any more - which would be good news for unsuspecting consumers.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Terrific!!
Review: Christmas of 1998 I was pleasanty surprised to have received this as a gift and to date, it is one of my most valued possessions!! The sound quality is unmatched by any other, the ergonomic design is great on the eye and setting this item up is as easy as turning on your TV set.

I would recommend this to system to anyone. ...

Rating:
Summary: not all quirky
Review: I had seen this unit being sold for $1200.00 U.S when it first hit the market. I bought mine in Feb. of 2001 and I paid $399.00 (cdn) I got a very very awesome deal. I, and anybody I know that has seen it, think it is a very attractive looking system. I had read that there are units out there with quirks in the software etc...well, if that is what has brought the price of this unit down..so be it. Mine has not given me any problems. It does lack full featured cd programming etc, but that doesnt bother me. The cd sound is not tip-top, but you wont know that unless youre comparing it to cd players above the $600.00 mark. And even then, it's a matter of personal preference. The technical specs are that there is no more than a total of .09% t.h.d from 20Hz-20Khz. Each of the three pieces in the unit introducing their .03% I believe that to be true. It sounds true. It puts out large sound as well. It can fill a very large room with proper sound. Add a good subwoofer via the stereo sub line-outs. Use it as an amp via the three inputs. At the price I paid, I am happy. If I had to pay 1200.00 u.s dollars? Possibly not, definately not with any quirks. But I would consider it against other $1200 units for sure, it'd just be a matter of what I thought sounded more to my liking.

Rating:
Summary: If you can get passed the bad looks.
Review: If you can find someway around the bad look of this CD player then I'd suggest buying it. However I could not get passed the bad looks, and have returned it to the store at which I purchased it.

Rating:
Summary: If you can get passed the bad looks.
Review: If you can find someway around the bad look of this CD player then I'd suggest buying it. However I could not get passed the bad looks, and have returned it to the store at which I purchased it.