Speakers to pair with Harmon Kardon 330C

Halcyon

New Member
Hi there - first post!
Recently, I bought a Harmon Kardon 330C as part of a vinyl system that I'm setting up for myself. I have the opportunity to buy MB Quart 280s for a little over a hundred, and am considering it. Not sure if it will work, though. The receiver outputs 20 watts per channel - and the MB Quart (from what I can tell) requires 20 watts per channel up to a max of 80 watts.

This forum is way more knowledgable that I am with this. Are the specs for the H/K receiver generally accurate? Does this sound like a good pairing?
 
You're not going to fill a large room to concert levels, but for normal listening they should be perfectly adequate. One of the nice things about HKs is their power ratings are very conservative, and they have very healthy power supplies. I'd be surprised if you have less than excellent results.

Cheers,
Larry B.
 
Do you guys think the 330c could power a set of Wharfedale W70s? My wife is enamored with them and I am, too.
 
I have a 330C and it packs a punch for sure. I have it in my basement workshop hooked to some Paradigm Titan monitors and it sounds really good. It all depends on how loud you want to listen. The W70 is an older speaker which leads me to think it's higher sensitivity. If you can grab a pair of W70's reasonable, I'd try them out.

Onebean
 
Do you guys think the 330c could power a set of Wharfedale W70s? My wife is enamored with them and I am, too.
I would imagine so. The max watt rating on those are 40Watts. Those were designed for lower powered equipment such as tubes. There's a mint set for 350.00 here in Atlanta and ive been eyeballing them for weeks now. Beautiful speakers.
 
Just got to say that I think you are approaching things backward.

In my opinion, the correct way to do things is listen to speakers and find a pair that you really like, whatever they are. Then, find the power to push them. Buying the HK first (as nice as it may be) is simply putting the cart before the horse.

I liken it to buying some fancy tires...... and then having to go out and figure out which car will work well with them. Buy the car first, then figure out the tires!

You will be living this this for perhaps a long time so making sure you like what you hear is (to me) more important than what you feed it.

Nothing is intended to be negative towards the HK unit, I've always understood them to be excellent sounding units (never heard/owned one)
 
Oh, that could very well be the case, but alas... I already have the receiver.

Hearing that the Wharfedale W70s would pair with them is really all I needed to hear..even though my co-worker has a set of large Advents that he's looking to unload for $40. They've recently been refoamed, but are missing the grill cloth.
 
Go for the wharfedale's. Most "vintage" speakers with any decent reputation will sound fantastic with that receiver. I would expect the W70's would be great!
 
The magic for me and the H/K 330c that put a smile on my face & keeps me listening for hours: Dynaco A25's
I've had these hooked up to many Amps and receivers, When I came across the 330c a few weeks back the Dynaco's were in my closet so I hooked them up to test the receiver. The synergy was obvious,stunning and they have never sounded as good as they do now. This combo will continue to be a set for awhile, A truly great paring along with my Phillips CD-204.
I also have a 330A. Very musical receivers.
This was a temporary setup and since moved into a rack sitting atop of the 330A
 

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The 330c has a dual rail power supply and a main amp design that goes up to 20 wpc before clipping. And it is a direct coupled, not cap coupled, circuit so it is more neutral to the source material when compared with the prior 330a and 330b.

I think the early Advents and the Dynaco A25s would be good matches as they will color the output a bit (since the neutral 330c is not).

My fully restored (crazy, yes, but there were reasons to replace everything with modern devices) sounds pretty good through my recapped and redoped KLH Sixes. I should hook up my EPI M-50s and EPI 100s sometime as they, too, should be a good match for this great, little, vintage receiver.
 
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