NAD+B&W vs. Harman/kardon+Jamo

[olewaever]

HI,

Any good advice on this hard choice for CD-player, amp and speakers for a relatively large room (and to play all kinds of music from New Order, Teardrop Explodes, Nick Cave and Flaming Lips to childrens' music -- and both loud and quit, to a listener well positioned and walking around:

SYSTEM ONE:
Amp: NAD 320 BEE
CD-player: NAD C521 BEE
Speakers: B&W DM 603 S3

Possibly, upgrading to NAD’s C352, because of some of the problems with 320BEE

SYSTEM TWO:
Amp:harman/kardon HK675
CD-player: harman/kardon HD755
Speakers: Jamo D590

These would cost the same (ca 2.000$) at two different dealers in Denmark - and therefore I can't hear them directly up against each other (only rush back and forth with the same stack of CDs!). Any experiences, advice or warnings?

Ole

[mgripy]

If those are your choices, listen to both if possible, but I would lean to HK in that scenario. That would be my personal choice.

[anamorphic96]

I would go with System One with the C52 instead of the 320BEE. One of NAD's specialties is integrated amps. Harman Kardon is great stuff but aimed more at home theatre. Harman only makes one integrated amp and from what I understand and its only available in Europe.

[kexodusc]

I like H/K but if you're swapping the 52 into System One, I would expect it to top the H/K.. My last H/K amp was a solid party workhorse and took a bit of abuse, but wasn't the greatest in terms of sound quality, and judging by what I've seen from their newer stuff, they haven't really refined them much.
But to be fair, at least where I live, the NAD is a good chunk more money and one would expect it to be a step up on the H/K, which isn't a bad value at it's price.

I would start with your speakers first, once you decide those, the rest should fall into place. Your speakers will contribute the most to the sound of either system, start there.