More information on the Harman/Kardon DVD 30, DVD-Audio player has been forthcoming from Mark Hockey, at Harman Consumer Group U.K.
Announced in mid-February in France, the DVD-30 will be released in the U.K. at the end of May and should have a retail price of approximately £450 (subject to change). Mark explained to High Fidelity Review that the DVD 30 is just the first in what will be a complete line-up of DVD-Audio equipped players to be launched by the Harman Group this year.
From the product press release:
By combining DVD-Audio for ultimate audio quality and a progressive scan video output for extraordinary video quality, the Harman Kardon DVD 30 is a dream come true for the audio and video purist.
A host of other features such as a complete bass management system with a choice of crossover settings (a world’s first!), Wolfson 24-bit 192kHz audio D/A converters, direct RGB, component, composite and S-Video video outputs as well as an easy-to-use menu system and a headphone output with volume control make it the ideal DVD player for the most sophisticated home-entertainment systems. The DVD 30 includes built-in MP3 decoding from CD discs and can replay DVD recordable discs, both CD-R and CD-RW discs, Video CD discs as well as Windows® WMA music files and JPEG image files.
Carsten Olesen, Harman/Kardon Brand Director, comments:
“The DVD 30 is our answer to the steady growth of available DVD-Audio discs. With the addition of this player to the range of DVD 25 and DVD 21, we can now offer high quality DVD players with an elegant industrial design in most segments of the market.”
The Harman/Kardon DVD 30 is engineered for unsurpassed video and audio performance. It features true progressive scan video output for NTSC (PAL progressive scan-ready) for a stunningly detailed image, along with an almost complete absence of visible scan lines and motion artefacts. As soon as the PAL-approved version of progressive scan is officially released, the DVD 30 can be upgraded via CD-ROM.
The DVD 30 incorporates three Wolfson WM8740 24-bit 192kHz audio D/A converters for extraordinary resolution and sonic accuracy as well as compatible playback of 24-bit 96kHz audio discs. Two-channel DVD-Audio material can be reproduced in the full 192kHz bandwidth.
An extensive bass management system contains a wide range of options for speaker set-up, output level adjustment (with test tone) and time-alignment delay settings to provide the best results with your speakers and specific listening-room environment.
The DVD 30 is compatible with both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel discs. It includes coaxial and optical digital outputs, plus standard down-mixed analogue audio outputs and a down-mixed stereo headphone output for private listening.