Hi-Fi: Harman Kardon HK990 Integrated Amplifier & HD990 CD Player – Review – 79

Anyone reviewing this Harman Kardon duo has to harden their heart because both amp and CD player are gorgeous (to put it mildly) and it’s always a bad idea to prejudge audio gear by its looks.

The jet black finish and glowing white highlights shout “statement product”, but the price tag doesn’t shout at all and I like that a lot. The amp in particular is a stunner, with features such as soft touch controls, HK’s very cool illuminated hollow volume control and a good looking remote. The cooling tunnels running clear though the chassis of the amp are a brilliant design touch. Fit and finish are excellent but I would have preferred to see more metal around the front of the amp; I’ll let the CD player off the hook at its price, especially seeing as it’s got balanced outputs.

I’ve heard Mirage’s OMD28 speakers before, so I was ready for a big sound, but I wasn’t ready to have a hazy club unfold around me in violation of the anti-smoking legislation. That’s what it felt like with Hugh Masekela’s epic live version of ‘Stimela (Ghost Train)’ from the Hope CD. In all seriousness, the soundstaging, scale and overall force of this very dynamic track were such that the first thing I did when it ended was to play it again from the start.

Wanting more of the same, I popped on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s ‘Tin Pan Alley’ from The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan. More of the same is exactly what I got: a massive soundstage filling the front of the room. Was a deceased guitar genius playing in West Auckland? It sounded so good I believed it for a while.

The amp’s power translated into even mightier bass than anticipated and the midrange and treble were crisp without a trace of brightness; there was no artifice here, this was an unembellished sound that would never have you reaching for the volume control. There was enough speed to keep up with the furious dynamics of a Rodrigo y Gabriela track and enough of an edge not to leave everything sounding too safe and warm.

An impressive level of information reaches the omni-directional drivers and that helped create the ambience; layers of atmospheric detail were revealed and sounds seemed to echo off into the corners of the room and beyond.

The HK990 is the most powerful integrated amp in Harman Kardon’s history but it’s no clumsy brute, there’s control behind the sledgehammer, while the CD990 is the latest in a long series of well-regarded CD players. Together they’ve got a combination of power, good looks, sweet price and sonic potential that is just aching for an audience. Spending around 80 percent of your $6000 component budget on the amp may be counterintuitive to adherents of the ‘source first’ philosophy, but it pays dividends. Set up properly and partnered with serious speakers like the Mirages, this kit is dynamite.

BRETT GIDEON

Tech Specs

HK990 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
AUDIO INTPUTS: 1 x balanced XLR, 7 x RCA, MM phono (RCA), MC phono (RCA), pre-in, 2 x coax digital, 2 x optical digital
AUDIO OUTPUTS: Two sets speaker, 2 x subwoofer (RCA), pre-out, headphone out, record out, coax digital out
OTHER CONNECTORS: HRS link, headphone/setup mic,
POWER OUTPUT: 150/300W (8/4 Ohm)
DIMENSIONS: 165 x 440 x 435mm (H/W/D)
WEIGHT: 19.6kg

HD990 CD PLAYER
FORMATS: CD, CD-R/RW, MP3
AUDIO OUTPUTS: Analogue RCA, analogue XLR (balanced) digital co-ax, digital optical
OTHER CONNECTORS: HRS link
DIMENSIONS: 63 x 440 x 332mm (H/W/D)
WEIGHT: 3.9kg

CONTACT
www.soundgroup.co.nz