Harman/kardon HD 710 specifications

General

Connections

Tech nical data

Special equipment

Although Harman/Kardon is an American company, it was manufactured in the Far East (initially in Japan)at an early stage. While the predecessors with the 4-digit HD7XXX designations were still built in Malaysia, the HD7xx series had already been built in South Korea. Even in the production time of the Harman Kardon HD 710, the transition of production to China will then take place, where it was probably even cheaper to produce. Harman is not really a brand that wants to compete primarily on price, but obviously the step was still considered necessary: until March 1997, you can only find devices that wear "Made in Korea" on the back; from November `97, this changed to "Made in China" – forever.

Unlike almost all Harman CD players of the 90s, the HD710 was not equipped with a matte plastic front, but with a matte aluminum front (including a metal drawer front). This is actually an advantage, because the matt plastic fronts had a habit of becoming shiny over time in places that were often touched, which quickly caused a worn-out impression. The display makes a rather generous impression with an area of 8.4 cm x 2.3 cm and a good contrast (usually only the illuminated digits and nothing else can be seen - not the case with many other manufacturers). The two-color of the display (blue with a turquoise tint and red) also looks attractive.

The design of the front panel follows the new pattern introduced in the middle of 1994 for amplifiers and AV receivers with a recess in the lower third of the front panel, which was often bridged by vertical, long double buttons.

If you look at the used device offer on the Internet, this player must have sold five to ten times more often than the next higher-priced model HD 730. This is not surprising, because the HD 730 did not make a higher-quality impression at all due to its flatter display, which was also only monochrome. The HD 710, on the other hand, was not at all considered its status as an entry-level model. The Harman policy of making product differentiation only with an expanded range of functionality, but not with a correspondingly more valuable presentation (like many competitors), has obviously been somewhat counterproductive here.

In 1998, the player was replaced by the HD 720 model, which, however, is not, as the numbering might suggest, a higher-quality model: the range of functions is the same, the metal front has been replaced by a plastic front, and the display has also become flatter and only monochrome.

Other models of the same series: