Harman Kardon HD-800 (circa 1988)
Little is documented about the Harman Kardon HD-800 outside of two magazine reviews from late 1988 and early 1989. Those reviews describe a simple, no-frills CD player that performed well above what its plain looks suggested.
High Fidelity (September 1988, p.35) called the front panel spare, even Calvinist. The design is buff-on-black lettering, a power switch, a headphone jack, and an output-level control that also worked on the rear line outputs. That level control was unusual on a CD player of the era. It let the HD-800 act as a direct preamp in a minimalist system. The reviewer found the simplicity refreshing after a parade of super-tech machines.
Audio (January 1989, p.118) measured the player and reported a frequency response of 4 Hz to 20 kHz, ±0.5 dB, with THD at 0.02% and a dynamic range of 90 dB. The listening impressions were more telling. The HD-800's low-level linearity was called among the best the reviewer had seen, and the error-correction and tracking ability went "far beyond the standards required" (p.122). Quiet musical passages benefited from that linearity (p.124).
Available records don't make clear where the HD-800 sat in Harman Kardon's lineup. From the reviews, it appears to have been a late-1980s midrange-or-better player that put musicality and straightforward operation ahead of flashy features.
Known Specifications
- Frequency response: 4 Hz – 20 kHz, ±0.5 dB
- THD: 0.02% at 1 kHz
- Dynamic range: 90 dB
- A-weighted S/N: 96.6 dB (left), measured per Audio
- Outputs: line (RCA) and headphone jack, both governed by a front-panel level control
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