NAD C320BEE or HK670? NAD it is! Speakers?

Hey!
If possible try to hear them both. With the same speakers. So you will see which is better.
I'd prefer the NAD.

I'm going to shop on the net. I havn't found a local shop that have either of them in store.
Thanks!

I heard both and I bought the NAD. The HK source direct is not very accurate, lower mids are muddy and so is the bass, NAD uses better components....smoother sound.

320BEE is a better amp than the HK670 though the HK power rating is slightly higher but dont be fooled as the NAD can pump out lots of dynamic power with a very high current on demand.

Thanks...
Not really what i wanted to hear since i'm leaning towards the HK-670. The HK-670 won the EISA-award 2003 so it cant be that bad. Hmm... Too bad i live in a town with no HiFi-stores worth their name. Hmm... Tricky...

Hi....HK-670 may be a fancy award winner and is also good but the ground reality is NAD 320bee is superior....on components, build and sound.

This is my opinion as I have benchmarked both at the same time i could find a few flaws with the HK.

Thank you. I'm still not sure though.
Which will it be?

Time will tell! Cheers!

Well I think it´s pretty simple.

It´s known that NADs are always well built with very good sound and good components. That´s true. And even more if someone tells you that he has probed the two of them and he prefers the NAD... and even more... if it´s well known that awards are not equitative at all, that money is more important on that things... I think it´s a very simple decision.

NAD gives always very good products at very ood prices.

Just to prove a point...

The HK amp : Pressing the source direct switch and playing the amp without source direct with bass & treble controls set at defeat, there was a huge difference in sound between source direct ON and OFF.
This proves that the pots and the bass and treble control parts within the amp are not of very high quality. A lot of component interference.
The bass sounded muffled at volume at 11 oclock and above. Mid bass is boomy and not clear.

The nad : with or without the source direct switch, sounded the same, exactly....good pots and parts and tonal balancing and less component interference. Sound is clean even at very high levels, Nad has a long standing reputation of putting money on components rather than looks so they make ordinary looking stuff with great sound.

nevertheless its your choice finally...My sincere advice to you is dont put too much weight on the awards bit as they can and are bought out most of the times.

Check the reviews on the internet also. Make an informed decision.

Thanks!
NAD it is!

Do you have any tips on good places to look for reviews?

Btw... I need new speakers. Im thinking B&W 303. Any suggestions?

Any reputable hifi mag will have reviewed the NAD 320BEE..they are all over the internet, audio assylum may have it....what hifi, audio review, ecoustics, hi-fi news etc....its the favourite of all mags.

B&W 303 are good in the upper and midrange but bass is sorely lacking....if you are looking for bookshelves...in the same price range...monitor audio bronze, canton karat, PSB, etc...anything you would like as the nad plays and gels with all speakers beautifully.

I havn't decided if i should go with floorspeakers or bookshelves. Any tips on floorstanders? Not to expensive though...

yeah....floorstanders...
B&W 603.S3
Jamo E855
Monitor Audio Bronze B4
PSB 4T
Boston Acoustics VR

By the way...you live in the US ? Europe ?
Out of the above PSB and Boston Acoustics would be easily available in the US since they are made on that continent. The others are European.
All of the above are cheap and good.

manek.

Yep, I'm from europe (sweden). I'm gonna check the speakers (and my wallet ). Speakers may be a later projekt. I think I'm gonna try with the ones I have. If it sounds ok I'll have them for a while and then buy florstanders.

Thanks again!
centipod

Hey!

I see that the Jamo E855 is really cheap at one online store. Almost half of what it costs at other stores. About 250 EUR.

Is it in the same class as the other floorstanders?

250 euros? It´s hard for me to believe it... That´s what I have paid in cables...

You have quality cables, man!

Or maybe you have your speakers and amp in different parts of town.

LOL

Its a huge differance in price on some of the floorstanders:

B&W 603.S3
900 EUR
Jamo E855
250 EUR (500 the two other stores)
Monitor Audio Bronze B4
570 EUR

Are these in the same class or good compared to their price?

btw...Is it better to have small speakers in a small room or big speakers in a small room?

Hey! I just leveled up! I'm now level 2, "Learning".

It´s always better to have small speakers in small rooms, the speaker size may be bigger in bigger rooms of course...

If you have big speakers, too powerful speakers, in a small room the sound will be worse, if you have small speakers in a big room probably the sound won´t be good because it will loose itself in that big room.

Anyway the acoustic characteristics of the room are very important too.

I haven´t heard any E855 or Bronze B4 yet but I can tell you that 603 S3 sound very good for their prize, specially one or two months after buying them (after the burn-in period), it really makes a difference.

OK. Then I think I will buy bookshelve speakers. Something that fits my small apartment.

I have my 603 S3 in a very small room, not much more than 3x6m. There are 3m from the speaker to the opposite wall and it sounds very well. Probably the 604 S3 would be very big for this room, but 603 work perfectly.

If you can try a floorstanders on your room it would be better to do it first. Not more than 150w.

the E855 are very decent and so are the monitor bronze. both these speakers work decently well in small rooms but you need to keep them about 12 inches to 15 inches away from the rear and side walls.

I dont know how youre getting E855 at 250 eur but if you are then you should grab them. Are you sure they are the E855 and not E850...the E850 has just been stopped and E855 are their replacement....they both look identical except that the E855 has an extended phase plug on the drivers.

Monitor audio also makes good speakers and bronze is definately their hot selling line on bookshelves and floorstanders. The E855 aso have their bookshelf version but between the monitor audio and jamo bookshelf I would prefer the monitor audio bookshelf.

Well. That's what it says. It is the E855. And the specs match the specs on the other two sites where it costs 500 and 550 EUR.
Here's a link (swedish, 1 EUR = 10:- (swedish crowns)):

http://www.siba.se/Product/Product_Speakers.aspx?Identifier=SE75086

BTW, I just ordered the NAD. It should get here in three weeks.

And hey! Thanks once again for all your help!

Very beautiful speakers

But I cant find any reviews on them on the internet. Strange...

And now I feel like inserting a pirate smiley. It looks cool!

OK, here's the deal with the Jamo speakers. They had forgotten to mention that the speakers were not sold by the pair! ARRGH! Those bastards!

LOL of course...

so it still adds up to 500...so its all the same. These speakers are newly introduced in the market so maybe thats why no reviews yet....I heard them in the Jamo hi-fi shop and was very impressed by the sound,looks and price. Thats why I recommeded it. I heard jazz and rock, both sounded very good and they have received good reviews in the local AV magazine too. They are slightly rolled off on the highs which I like....mids are clear and bass is good and solid but not ear hurting. They have a family of centres and surrounds to expand into a good home theatre system too.

Next week I'm going to listen to different speakers in stores... I just hope that they have any good ones.

B&W 309. Good? Bad? Or ugly?

B&W 309 is now a model not produced by B&W. Its not on the B&W website when I last checked. I have heard it though and its not bad..it could be better...the B&W 603.S3 is better than the 309. check it out and see if you lke it.

Yes, go hear all the spekaers in the world before making a decision. Thats the only way to make the right choice for you.

Most of the good dealers will also carry NAD 320BEE so if they do carry it audition them with the NAD.

There's quite a difference in price. In sweden anyway...
B&W 603.S3 costs 9000 kr (=900 EUR)
B&W 309 costs 6000 kr (=600 EUR)

I wish there were some good dealers in my town... They don't have any fine stereoamps. They have good speakers though...

yes and there difference in sound too....I must say the 603's are much better.....

I see... Too bad... they are out of my pricerange.

Have you heard DALI 5005?
DALI is a danish speaker and ar supposed to be a good companion to the NAD. But they may be hard to get outside of scandinavia...

yes i've heard the dali's but I find their upper register not true to the instrument timbre. Good for rock, pop and such stuff but I didn't like them too much.

Listened to the B&W 603 against the Dali Suite 2.8, and preferred the Dali.
They are about the same price at HiFi Klubben.

Still haven't decided though - since then we've listened to a few others and decided to increase the price limit...dangerous to audition too much...

Then you should try out Cadence Diva and Dynaudio Audience 62/72, B&W 604, jamo E855, jamo D570/D590. All very good and economical. I dont know if you get the PSB wher eyou stay but if you do check out the 4T. PSB is a sister company to NAD.

I would seriously consider NOT getting Monitor audio Bronze speakers if you are into rock or heavy metal. I have the NAD C320BEE and MA B2s with a NAD C521i as a source and the shimmer of cymbals and other high notes can be quite irritating in this setup. Low frequency extension in a 3x4m room still leaves much to be desired.

With jazz and vocal heavy music, this combo is very competent.

Archangel,
There is a bit of learning for all of us from your last post.
OK monitor bronze is out then :-)

What interconnects and speaker cables do you use ?

MAnek.

Interconnects and speaker cables are Analysis PLus Oval 1s and Clear Ovals.

Could it be your room which is a bit bright and lively on the upper frequencies ?

Here's an update for you:

My amp-delivery has been delayed. So I canceled the order and ordered it from another store (HiFi-klubben). A bit more expensive but they had it in store and i should get it in 5 days.

I wish I could afford to buy speakers at once but I'll have to wait until the 25-th. I guess I need the time to decide what speakers and cables I should buy.

Could it be your room which is a bit bright and lively on the upper frequencies ?

I've heard my system in another room and it is still bright but not as much in my bedroom where it's at most of the time. My bedroom probably reinforces this brightness.

I am now looking at a thicker rug and drapes to dampen the highs.

I've also been looking at the same amp, I'll admit that I have know knowledge on hi-fi seperates and so I want so ask a couple of questions that I hope people can answer for me.
My dvd player has a left and right Chan phono out (the red and white phono connection) Will I be able to link this into the amp? I realise this would only be sterio.

Also I have no idea what speakers to get, I am willing to spend around £300 and Want something that will take at least 40 watts and sounds nice, I have been looking at the Wharfedale Diamond 8.4 and have seen some good reviews for it. Does anyone else have any suggestions for speakers at this price? Bookshelf ones would be preferable due to the size of my room.

I would be very very greatfull of any advice
thanks

Your analogue left/right out will go into the amplifier.
Af per your speaker requirement...I suggest you see the PSB range. JPW & heybrook would also fir your requirement.
i also somehow like Jamo and they have a huge range of speakers that fit anyones pockets and tastes.

Sorry rlm....forgot to mention morduant-short. they make pretty affordable and good speakers.

Ok thanks very much I'll have a look. I was looking at some B&W speakers, the DM602 S3. Apparently there excellent speakers and are within my price limit, however at the back of the speakers there are 4 connectors, I assume 2 for high and 2 for low frequencies, the problem is that at the back of the amp there is only a total of 4 connectors. Does this mean that I could not use these speakers with this amp? Sorry I'm really clueless.

the connectors behind the speakers can be used ina pair also. The new speakers will come with a metal rail connecting both pairs of terminals so if your amp does not support biwiring...no matter...you will still be able to use those speakers....B&W are also good. cant go wrong with B&W.

But i suggest please hear more than 3 to 4 pairs of speakers and them decide.

Manek, Archangel,
I have the same high frequency problem with the NAD 320BBE and JMLab Chorus 705. Listening to Confortably Numb (Pink Floyd, The Wall), the cymbals sound quite irritating all along the song.

Since my NAD went back to the shop 3 months for repair, I got to try a Cambridge Audio 500 instead and the problem wasn't so noticeable. On the other hand, moving the speakers around in the room helped.