Cheap Harman Kardon FL8370 5-CD Changer (Electronics) Price

You can immediately sense the FL8370's touch of class--it feels solid and looks handsome. The front panel is cleanly and intuitively arranged, and the disc drawer and transport mechanism are unusually powerful and smooth.

Harman Kardon has put its money into sound-oriented features, not the stuff that impresses the bells-and-whistles crowd. HDCD decoding, rare in this price range, is one of the best things that ever happened to the compact disc. And with so many mainstream titles now being released with HDCD encoding, having the decoding ability in a five-disc changer is most welcome. In addition, the FL8370 has a coaxial digital output, which sounds superior to the more commonly used optical digital output, plus a headphone jack with an independent volume control.

Sonically, the FL8370 does great service to the music, offering a detailed and delicate top end, an open and beautifully balanced midrange, and a bottom end that's capable of tremendous wallop and yet equally capable of great definition and harmony with the rest of the frequency spectrum. Furthermore, this CD player has the stuff that gets audiophiles so hot and bothered--a transparent soundstage (a uniform sense of right-left presentation) and pinpoint sonic imaging.

Harman Kardon's FL8370 is an exciting five-disc changer with tremendous strengths and no discernable weaknesses. Unlike most changers, the FL8370 doesn't sacrifice sound for convenience. It's a step above the pack, both price- and performance-wise, and that's what separates the best from the rest. --Wayne Garcia

Pros:

• Terrific sound
• Coaxial digital output
• Headphone jack with volume control
• Solid build

• Supplied interconnect cables are cheap