Summary Features HD 980 and HD 990 CD Players

Purists unite. In the beginning there were stereo components, carefully chosen one at a time and lovingly assembled into sublime, high performance music systems. It’s a market Harman Kardon has served from the beginning, and continues to serve today. In fact, we number ourselves among our own best customers for these superb musical instruments.

New features, compared to previous models, are marked in blue

Real-time Linear Smoothing (RLS-III) Technology

Since its introduction in 1992, Harman Kardon RLS conversion technology has been hailed as an efficient and high performance method of transforming the digital signal from CD to high quality music. The short RLS signal path resulted in unknown clarity and detail, in combination with awesome dynamic resolution of the critical bass frequencies. RLS-II was a natural, yet radical evolution of the original RLS concept. Since then, dramatic progress has been made in Digital

Signal Processing, allowing the integration of DSP's in a standalone CD Player and the implementation of a very powerful algorithm in the digital domain: the birth of the RLS-III.

Using theoretical roots of the RLS, RLS-III has broken the limitation of the dynamic range and has pushed the noise level to an absolute non-audible frequency range (and has widened the bandwidth far beyond the audible range) with very high jitter rejection. This is achieved by an astonishing common signal format of 24 bits at a sampling frequency of 384 kHz.

The new RLS-III is using a High Precision Local Clock as reference for all audio processing. The clock ties the Audio DSP and DAC stage into one entity. This together with a high-end Class-A analog output stage, creates sonic refinement and a natural open sound stage, which demanding audiophiles dream of.

(Included in HD 990)

Dual Stereo DAC

To improve the performance of the RLS-III technology even more, Harman Kardon engineers opted for exchanging the single AD1955 DAC (operating in stereo mode) with dual AD1955

DAC’s (one per channel, operating in mono mode).

(Included in HD 990)

Output Stages

Harman Kardon's analog processing legacy has been expressed to its optimal level in the output stages of the CD players with High Definition, Wide Bandwidth and Low Feedback circuitry in a pure Class A configuration, using only high grade components.

(Included in both models)

Asynchronous Digital Processing

The incoming digital signal (8 kHz and 96 kHz) is oversampled by the RLS-III’s Asynchronous

Sample Rate Converter algorithm to 384 kHz, then scaled to 24 bits by an Adaptive Resolution

Enhancer. The 24bits/384kHz DAC output resolution allows Harman Kardon’s engineers to take a minimalist design approach to analog filtering, avoiding paying penalties through aliasing errors and artifacts. The isolation between the optical pick-up and the audio processing stage results in the highest possible jitter rejection rate.

(Included in HD 990)

Harman Kardon HD 990 and HD 980 feature and benefit descriptions ©2008 Harman International Industries,

Incorporated

All features and specifications are subject to change without notice.

Digital Output

The CD player contains a coaxial output for digital connection to amplifiers or receivers. Note that with the high grade digital-to-analog conversion in the CD player, Harman Kardon recommends using the analog audio output of the CD player instead of the digital output for better audio performance.

(Included in both models)

Digital Input Selection

The Input Selection option is a unique feature in the HD 990. It allows two source components, e.g. a TU 980 DAB tuner, to be played back using the high-grade audiophile digital-to-analog converters inside the CD player.

Especially source components using older and less powerful converters will benefit from this feature. You will be surprised by the dramatic sound quality improvement of your older source players once connected to one of the optical or coaxial inputs of the CD player.

Note that in order to hear the sound from the external source player, your amplifier or receiver should set to the HD 990’s input.

(Included in HD 990)

Balanced XLR Audio Outputs

Balanced connections in an audio system are designed to reject both external noise, from power wiring etc, and also internal crosstalk from adjacent signal cables. The basic principle of balanced interconnection is to get the signal you want by subtraction, using a three-wire connection. In many cases, one signal wire (the hot or in-phase) senses the actual output of the sending unit, while the other (the cold or phase-inverted) senses the unit's output-socket ground, and the difference between them gives the wanted signal. Any noise voltages that appear identically on both lines (ie common-mode signals) are in theory completely cancelled by the subtraction.

In addition to discriminating against noise and crosstalk, a balanced interconnect also allows 6 dB more signal level on the line.

(Included in HD 990)

High Resolution Synchronization Link (HRS Link)

It is preferable to keep a signal digital from the source to the point of processing. This prevents too much A/D and D/A conversion in the signal chain. By using a usual SP-DIF signal, one relies on the SP-DIF receiver PLL to extract the clock of the signal, which quality may vary a lot depending on the signal integrity.

In order to avoid the possible increase of such jitter related to the stream reconstruction inside the

SP-DIF receiver, Harman Kardon developed a new High Resolution Synchronization Link, offering an ultra-low jitter, digital connection between the CD player and the new HK 990 stereo integrated amplifier.

The HRS Link uses an RJ45 connector and some Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) drivers/receivers that work at high frequency. The HRS link carries both the system and data clocks of the amplifier, and the data stream from the CD player.

When the HRS link is established the CD player doesn’t use its internal clocks but locks itself to the external clocks delivered by the amplifier. The data extracted from the disc is then stored into buffers asynchronously and formatted synchronously to the amplifier clocks into 24 bits and up sampled to 96 kHz stream. The result is a jitter free connection between the 2 units, similar to having the CD playback inside the amplifier.

(Included in HD 990)

Harman Kardon HD 990 and HD 980 feature and benefit descriptions ©2008 Harman International Industries,

Incorporated

All features and specifications are subject to change without notice.

Main Information Display

The dot matrix display delivers messages and status indications to help you operate the CD player. CD Text or ID3 Tag info containing more than 12 characters will continuously scroll over the display.

The CD player’s front panel display is set at a default brightness level that is sufficient for viewing in a normally lit room. However, in some installations, you may wish to occasionally lower the brightness of the display, or turn it off completely. This can be done by the use of the dimmer button.

(Included in both models)

MP3 capability

The MP3 format used for computers and portable audio devices is perhaps the most widespread audio innovation in recent years. Normally, access to the popular MP3 format is restricted to computers and portables of limited audio fidelity. Now, the Harman Kardon HK 970 CD player is capable of playing discs recorded with MP3 files.

This means that you may enjoy the latest music through the high quality audio components in your home audio system using discs created on your computer.

The way that MP3 files are recorded on discs differs from the way conventional CD audio discs are structured. The CD player contains several smart tools like the folder up/down and +10/-10 feature to help you easily navigate on discs containing up to several hundreds of songs. The front panel display will show the elapsed time of the track being played, or, if selected, the ID3 Tag information belonging to the files.

(Included in both models)

CD-R and CD-RW readability

Harman Kardon CD players are multipurpose players, capable of playing conventional CD audio discs with the highest fidelity. Along with conventional CD audio discs, the players are also compatible with CD-R and CD-RW discs. Playback capability for CD-R and CD-RW discs may vary due to variations in the quality of the discs and the recorder used to create the disc.

(Included in both models)

Firmware Upgradeability

The “firmware” controlling the functionality of the new Harman Kardon CD players is fully upgradeable. In the event of future improvements to its operations, it will be possible to download firmware upgrades from www.harmankardon.com

. All you have to do is create a CD-R with the data and insert it in the CD player. The upgrade process will start automatically and will only take several seconds. Additional guidelines about how to format the CD-R will be shown on the internet website.

(Included in both models)

Sophisticated Programming Features

The players’ advanced programming capability enables you to select certain tracks, to preset the order in which these track are played, and to clear tracks from the programmed list. Tracks can also be played in random order and in various repeat modes.

(Included in both models)

Remote Control In/Output

Harman Kardon products can be connected through the IR in/out connections on the rear panel.

Standalone IR receivers can also be connected. This will enable the products to be operated even when the front panel remote sensors are blocked. These connectors will also allow operating the CD player from external control systems.

(Included in both models)

Harman Kardon HD 990 and HD 980 feature and benefit descriptions ©2008 Harman International Industries,

Incorporated

All features and specifications are subject to change without notice.

Time Display

The CD player's time display is capable of showing a wide range of information about a CD.

In normal operation the display will show the total running time of a CD after the disc is first put in the unit. Other time modes that can be shown are the time remaining on an individual track, the elapsed time of the disc currently playing and the total time remaining to play on the disc.

The time mode is not available when playing back discs containing compressed MP3 data.

(Included in both models)

Meta Data

The HD players are able to show CD-Text information from CD discs, as well as MP3 file’s ID3

Tag. Note that not all CD's contain CD-Text. In that case, the Display will show “NO CD-TEXT” and will return to the time mode previously selected.

If you play back a CD that contains CD-Text information, the Artist name, Track name and Album name can be made visible on the Main Information Display by pressing the Info button several consecutive times. Each press of the Info button will show the next line of information. If the text is longer than 12 characters, the text will scroll continuously from right to left in the display.

If you play back a disc with MP3 files the File name, the Data Rate (Constant Bit Rate CBR and

Variable Bit Rate VBR) and Folder/Root name can be made visible on the Display by pressing the

Info button. If ID3 Tag information is available in the MP3 file, also the Artist name, Track name and Album name can be made visible. Each press of the Info button will show the next line of information. If the text is longer than 12 characters, the text will scroll continuously from right to left in the display.

(Included in both models)

Folder

Discs containing compressed MP3 data often contain several directories and folders with data. To show the name of the current directory or folder playing, press one of the Folder +/- buttons once.

To change to the next directory or folder, press the

Folder + button again within three seconds after the first press. For the previous directory or folder, press the Folder - button.

The CD player counts each directory and folder as one folder. The player starts to count in the main directory, and pressing the Folder + button will start playback of the first sub directory (or folder) in the main directory.

Pressing the Folder + button again will start playback of the first folder in that sub directory, etc.

In the example on the side going from the main directory to Folder 4 would require 6 consecutive presses of the Folder + button.

(Included in both models)

+10/-10

Due to the compressed format of MP3 data, discs can contain several hundreds of audio tracks.

In order to find the right track within these hundreds of tracks, the CD player lets you skip through the contents of your disc in steps of 10 tracks. Press the +10 button to change to the 10th track after the track currently playing. Press the -10 button to change to the 10th track before the track currently playing.

(Included in both models)

Harman Kardon HD 990 and HD 980 feature and benefit descriptions ©2008 Harman International Industries,

Incorporated

All features and specifications are subject to change without notice.

All features and specifications are subject to change without notice.

Harman Kardon and is a registered trademark of Harman International Industries, Incorporated.

Analog Device is a registered trademark of Analog Device Corporation.

© 2008 Harman International Industries, Incorporated

Harman Kardon HD 990 and HD 980 feature and benefit descriptions ©2008 Harman International Industries,

Incorporated

All features and specifications are subject to change without notice.