Question for Audiophiles

[goatfarmer]

A guy I work with gave me this receiver,and a tape deck, along with some speakers. The receiver is a Harman/Kardon 330C, the cassette deck is a Concord, with asliding mechanism that allows you to play 12 cassettes in a row.
I remember H/K from the old days, don't know much about Concord. The receiver sounds scratchy when you turn up the volumn knob, big repair? Any info on Concord?

 

[hydralique]

That's a receiver worth saving . . .

Check in at Audiokarma.com and do a search for the H/K 330c. It is considered to be a very nice unit, not high power if I remember correctly, but with good sound and tuner. Pair it with a set of reasonably efficient speakers and you'll have better sound than most new systems.

Scratchy controls on old electronics are common, and often can be fixed with some deoxit sprayed into the right spots. This is something best done by someone who knows what to do as spraying it into the wrong spots (like the tuner gang) can cause damage, but the fix is quick and easy for a knowledgeable person.

 

[revvinkevin]

It's a matter of either cleaning... or replacing the control "pot" for the volumn control (and probably the bass, treble and balance too!). I'm not too sure about "cleaning" them.... But in the worst case you can go to your local electronics supply store and purchase new control "pots". If you are handy with a soldering iron, you should be able to replace then yourself.

 

[hydralique]

Oops! Wrong web address . . .

Make that Audiokarma.org

 

[whirlcool]

Usually there is a little hole in the rear of the pot that is making the scratching noise. Just squirt in a little DeOxit in that hole and turn the knob on the front of the pot full sweep in each direction. The noise and scratchyness should be gone.

You are correct, that H/K 330 is a nice little receiver. I would look for some nice speakers to go with it. Maybe a pair of vintage AR-4ax's would go very nicely.
Concord was a mid level company that specialized in the tape recorder business. They make several reel to reel models, but their most popular was a AM/FM radio with a built in cassette drive that you could record directly from the radio with. I seem to remember their products from the 1968-74 time frame. They were on a par with makers like Webcor, VM and Wollensak.

 

[goatfarmer]

Thanks for the info!

kennyGF