Harman Kardon DC520 Dual Cassette Deck

Rating:
Summary: HK DC520 Dual Cassette not up to Harmon Kardon reputation
Review: I had the HK DC520 in my home for about a week. I am predisposed to like Harmon Kardon products, having owned them for many years. I was disappointed with the performance of this tape deck. Playback varied greatly from tape well to tape well, and with the direction the tape was rolling. The unit was very sensitive to slight problems with my older tapes (made on a Harmon Kardon unit). Sound quality on tapes made on this unit was poor, especially when using Dolby C. I had expected more because of the name plate, but these shortcomings are typical of auto-reverse units. I have since picked up a Sony single-well non-auto-reversing deck (for less money) and am thrilled with the sound and the way it handles my old tapes. It features Dolby S in addition to B and C and sounds great no matter what you choose. It even has an automatic bias calibration that lets you optimize performance from individual tapes.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money...
Review: Like the two preceding reviewers, I had much higher expectations for this product. My previous home stereo was a Harman/Kardon, so when I decided to upgrade I sold my old system & got the HK 3370 stereo receiver (*****), FL 8380 CD changer (***), CDR 20 CD record/play deck (haven't yet thoroughly tested it out), and this cassette deck. What a disappointment. My previous HK dual cassette deck, the DC 5300, was a solid, high-quality component. (Now I'm kicking myself for selling it). But when I pulled this lightweight article out of the box and started pushing the clunky front-panel controls, I knew I'd been had. Then I put in one of my home compilation tapes (recorded on high-bias tape with Dolby C on my old DC 5300), looked at the 'cheesy' numeric display (the DC 5300 gave tape times in minutes and seconds whereas this unit gives only numerically useless 'tape counters') and heard the low muffled fidelity, and my heart sank. I tried switching the Dolby to B and 'Off' for playback, to no avail. Harman/Kardon's receivers are topnotch, and their products in general have a deservedly high reputation. But if they're not going to market a better cassette deck than this one (it's their only model tape deck), they ought not bother even addressing the dwindling demand for cassette machines among audiophiles, and leave the manufacturing of cassette decks to mass-market companies like Sony or high-end specialists such as Marantz. Cassettes are going the way of the 8-track tape, anyways, so returning this unit to amazon.com for a refund was not a difficult decision. I think if I want to continue to listen to my cassettes I'll just buy a good Walkman. (...)

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money...
Review: Like the two preceding reviewers, I had much higher expectations for this product. My previous home stereo was a Harman/Kardon, so when I decided to upgrade I sold my old system & got the HK 3370 stereo receiver (*****), FL 8380 CD changer (***), CDR 20 CD record/play deck (haven't yet thoroughly tested it out), and this cassette deck. What a disappointment. My previous HK dual cassette deck, the DC 5300, was a solid, high-quality component. (Now I'm kicking myself for selling it). But when I pulled this lightweight article out of the box and started pushing the clunky front-panel controls, I knew I'd been had. Then I put in one of my home compilation tapes (recorded on high-bias tape with Dolby C on my old DC 5300), looked at the 'cheesy' numeric display (the DC 5300 gave tape times in minutes and seconds whereas this unit gives only numerically useless 'tape counters') and heard the low muffled fidelity, and my heart sank. I tried switching the Dolby to B and 'Off' for playback, to no avail. Harman/Kardon's receivers are topnotch, and their products in general have a deservedly high reputation. But if they're not going to market a better cassette deck than this one (it's their only model tape deck), they ought not bother even addressing the dwindling demand for cassette machines among audiophiles, and leave the manufacturing of cassette decks to mass-market companies like Sony or high-end specialists such as Marantz. Cassettes are going the way of the 8-track tape, anyways, so returning this unit to amazon.com for a refund was not a difficult decision. I think if I want to continue to listen to my cassettes I'll just buy a good Walkman. (...)

Rating:
Summary: H/K Cassette Deck sub-par
Review: My first cassette deck was a JVC TDW-354. It broke about once every three months for three years, so I took it back to Best Buy and got this deck. Being a Harmon Kardon I expected great things from it. Wrong. No mic input, no song search, no headphone volume control, no Dolby S, clunky mechanisms and buttons, and a cheesy display. The deck has decent sound when used with dolby B, but using C noise reductions brings about excessively recessed mid to treble response. Seriously, I preferred the sound of my JVC, which was $150 less, and it had more features. CD to tape recording on metal tape was ok, but the deck picked up a hum from somewhere, which was extremely annoying. That may not be the deck's fault though. On the bright side, it is nicely styled, and impresses some of my friends. Thank God I only paid $50 for it (because of in-store credit and a scratch on the top). Any more and I would've felt ripped off. Still, it has been very reliable, but I hope H/K learns something from this.