S. Branch’s Harmon/Kardon 330b Receiver & T45 Turntable

After hearing Kevin discuss the qualities of the H/K 330c receiver in an earlier video, I set out looking for one or something similar. In a discussion group, I came upon a really great guy who was refurbishing an H/K 330b, and after long conversations realized he absolutely knew what he was doing and bought it from him. It arrived just a few days ago.

For my upstairs system, I planned to put it on bookshelves to save space just like when I was a
teenager. The problem was that I had already obtained some highly-rated Boston Acoustics CR85s which really are too big for bookshelves but I used them otherwise (see pics) by putting them on their sides. The concern I had was that the manufacturer recommended a minimum of 15 W to drive them and the H/K 330b is only rated at 20 WPC max (it was actually measured higher but I didn’t know it at the time).

However, it was never an issue. At just 25% of the volume it was blowing me out of the room and it could even be heard in the basement. Okay, I hooked it up to a JVC XL-V211 cd player because of a well-reviewed DAC and found the sound to be a recreation of what I heard in my youth.
The gentleman who refurbished it contacted me and said that vinyl sounds fantastic on it. So, I brought up an H/K T45 turntable I had in my basement workroom for testing and hooked it up. Yeah, by the pics it is a tad difficult to use, but the quality of the sound is well worth it. I couldn’t be happier.

My thanks to Kevin for the recommendation, to Paint Toad for his amazing abilities, and to my best bud. Al, from my MIT days for all his knowledge and encouragement. And, of course, my wife for her patience and support in my hobby and endeavors.