 Grear device! I like it a lot! |
| Review Date: September 18, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Alex Vox, Winnetka, IL |
I really,really like this unit! It is connected to HK3490 and two JBL 890 speakers. The sound this thing produces is to be heard to be believed. The quality of convertors make a magic: the sound is warm, nice, easy and pleasant to an ear. I listen mostly to jazz and it is one nice worthy machine. The library I have on it is about 80 CDs with plenty of room to go and it is all instantly there. The menus are very well conceived, unit is super-quiet, acquires CDs very well (I set it to wav, but you can do it in mp3, if you pleased). The searching, browsing, art all are great.
Be sure that you upgrade the system to its latest version. With version it has arrived it didn't do on Internet very well, but you just download or request the update and it is perfect since. In my HK3490 remote this DMC 1000 is pre-coded on VD1 so it is very very convenient to use.
First and foremost it sound really well, the convertors are really great! I wouldn't keep it if the sound quality wouldn't be on a par, but it sounds nicer than my Denon dedicated CD player. Great unit, strikingly beautiful and logical and simple to use. I'm very happy to have it. |
Stunning, but overpriced.
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| Review Date: July 16, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Derek, |
I've owned a DMC 1000 for a couple of months now, so I feel I can give an honest review. My review is a bit lengthy, but I felt it was warranted given the cost of the item.
To start off, this unit looks stunning and feels solid. The rounded corners and gloss plexi face compliment the newer H/K lineup perfectly. The large, and bright vacuum-fluorescent display is easy to read and can be dimmed or turned off entirely. The unit features very slick touch-sensitive controls, but being on a gloss back surface makes using them somewhat impractical without leaving fingerprints. The product image is a little misleading, however - my unit has a completely black face, no gray 'band' in the center.
There is at least one fan, one of which venting at the rear panel. The fan(s) and HDD are slightly audible when in close proximity of the unit during operation. Rubber mounts are used on the HDD and fan mounts to isolate vibration.
Performance and operation is very good. The menus are intuitive and easy to navigate with the included IR remote. The high-resolution GUI features an attractive grayscale gradient with brightly colored and highlighted menu icons. Text and images are sharp and clear. A collage of your album coverart makes up the background, which should be familiar to anyone who has used Windows Media Center, but is still attractive none the less. You cannot control the unit effectively without a monitor or display on.
The remote should be familiar to anyone who has owned H/K DVD players before, the same basic shape/design was used on their models of the early 2000s and most recently the BDP 1 Blu-Ray player. It is decent overall with a nice 'soft' suede-like feel on the back. The buttons are illuminated, but the labels are not on the buttons - instead dark gray on the black remote. All but impossible to read in low-light conditions where you would actually make use of that illumination feature. The remote also keeps you from getting the full potential out of this machine, but I will get into that later along with the mult-zone operation.
CDs are first ripped to the HDD, then played back. I have the unit networked (wired only, FYI), thus far 100% of the album info has been correct. A big tip - change the default disc inserted action from "play and record" to "record only" and discs are ripped MUCH faster (on average, about 1-2 minutes vs. a painfully slow ~5min with simultaneous playback)
DVD playback is not as good as my standalone Harman Kardon DVD 48 DVD Audio/Video and SACD(tm) Player With HDMI(tm) Connectivity, mostly because there seems to be some over saturation of colors which I can't seem to tweak out just right. The up-scaling is extremely smooth though. "Out of the box" video performance, the DVD 48 wins hands down. The DMC's graphical menus are much nicer, however. It also displays the DVD title on the VFD display which is neat.
The DVD 48 boasts another feature the DMC 1000 should have featured (IMO) - SACD playback. If not recording, just playback of this format would have been nice on such an expensive piece - then an extra player could be eliminated (in my case, my `old' DVD 48)
Blu-ray playback would have also been great, in fact if you look closely at the display an always un-lit "B" is directly in front of the "DVD" label on the VFD display - I assume for a future model revision which never came about. Too bad.
The USB flash drive + memory card playback is a nice feature - once it works. I'm not sure why, but I normally have to remove and re-insert USB drives (which can be done in rapid succession) 2-3 times before being recognized. Perhaps it is just the USB drives I am using ((1) Toshiba and (2) Lexars) The memory card reading has worked well, though I've only tried the SD Card position. You can also use external UDB Hard Disc Drives, but I have yet to try this. The media information retrieval for single tracks off your USB device is very convenient, but the cover art for single track rips is rarely correct. The device will playback .mp3 and .wav audio files, but NOT .wma files. I overlooked, and was a bit aggravated over this. I really see no reason why this was not supported, ESPECIALLY for its price. My last 3 H/K DVD players, which MSRPed for 1/10 or less the price of this model, played all of the common audio formats - WMA included.
Using the analog outputs, the sound quality is better than any transport I've owned before. For surround modes / DVD playback, the unit will decode Dobly/DTS surround formats and output as PCM via HDMI or digital coaxial/optical to your receiver or in their native compressed format - pretty standard.*Or* you can use the analog 6-channel pre-outs. Being 6-channel, for the select DVDs that support 7.1 you will need to use a digital output to make use of the SBR/SBL channels.The digital output can also be used for 2 channel PCM output during music playback, but the DMC 1000's DACs appear to be better than those employed in most moderately priced A/V receivers (my H/K AVR 3600 and H/K AVR 347 receivers included)
I use the analog outputs for two channel listening, and compressed digital output over HDMI for surround/DVD playback.
Note - You MUST use the .wav lossless format to appreciate the sound quality this unit can deliver. You are limited to <250g of storage, however.
I have all 4 zones setup, and the audio streaming works flawlessly. Two go to my H/K AVR 347 receiver (which is currently set up for 2 zones), and two go to my H/K AVR 3600 receiver (which is setup for another two zones) A different source can be playing for each zone or they can be linked in any combination you want. The only issue with the multi-zone operation is the remote control is IR-only, and cannot be switched to control just ONE zone (rather you must go through the "Zones" menu on the DMC 1000 (once again, a display will be needed) to select content) - so even with an RF control (ie Harmony) you will have to physically go to the unit and go through the menus to setup the zone you want to be in or. Additionally, per H/K tech the RS-232 control interface is only compatible with Harman's proprietary (at the time) Audio Access WHEN control system. This is not specified in the manual or sales information.
Also note, this is NOT a media SERVER. The network connection is merely for gracenote song/album identification service. You cannot stream content from the unit over your home network connection. This would have been yet another nice addition to the product.
Packaging is decent, but far from what I would expect of a component in this price bracket
Some gripes;
The aforementioned USB device recognition issue is a bit annoying, but perhaps limited to the drives I have available
NO WMA playback. Very frustrating for me as I had been ripping my entire CD collection to PC in WMA format for years, which could have been transferred over all at once with a external USB HDD had it supported the format.
The door which covers the front USB and card readers can be a bit finicky to close
Initial start-up is a bit slow
Should have supported access to the audio files over network connection to stream content from PCs as well - ala a real music server.
For this unit's MSRP, it should have included the damn "Bridge" iPod dock which is an optional accessory. Unfortunately this accessory is no longer available, but apparently a "Bridge II" dock is compatible as an adapter plug to make it B-1 compatible is included.
Features I wish were incorporated;
SACD playback
Built-in WiFi
RF-based remote system to make operation while actually IN the other zones more convenient
Overall, I had to rate the DMC 1000 3/5 stars. It is gorgeous, but I do not feel its cost matches its feature set. If you will only be using this for one zone, a well-equipped PC with win 7 or vista w/ media center to be used as a 'HTPC' will cost you less than a third of the MSRP of the DMC 1000 while offering all of its features - plus being a full-featured computer.
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