My question is this; Can a Harman Kardon 3380 receiver play 4 speakers at one time or only 2 and would this be a good receiver for the M60's. Also I have CSW M60 bookshelf speakers as a second pair able to handle 125watts max. Is the HK receiver too much for these? Thank you in advance for any replies.
The 3380 has A and B speaker outputs, and both can be driven simultaneously or separately. The receiver is capable of 80 watts into 8 Ohms, which is more than enough to play both pairs of M60s (Axiom and CSW) loudly. Are you going to have the bookshelf speakers in a different room?
Randolph, welcome. It's possible to connect two sets of speakers to run in parallel from the 3380 terminals if the speakers don't have less than a 8 ohm impedance(which would result in a 4 ohm impedance when the 8 ohm speakers are run in parallel). What exactly do you have in mind though? If you're thinking of using the CSWs near the Axioms, it's unlikely that they'd blend very well with the better Axiom sound. You don't have to worry about overpowering them though, only the amount they'd need at a given sound level would be used; the receiver doesn't force unneeded power into speakers.
The HK has two sets of speaker outputs - the second button from the left is labeled Speaker 1 / Speaker 2 - I'll assume this turns on each pair of speakers. The back panel has two sets of speaker outputs labeled as 8 ohms - the amplifier specifications are 100 Watts per channel driven into 4 ohms and 80 watts into 8 ohms. The owner's manual is not available on-line to see if there is a warning about driving two sets of four ohm speakers. The M80's are 4 ohms, the M60's are 8 ohm speakers. This amplifier will not likely damage your speakers but I've found that distortion (clipping) rather than power kills more speakers.
Well, I'm mostly looking to listen to music, but would also have the speakers set up for movies with the csw M60's as rear channel. I'm not so much into home theater as to need a center channel and sub woofer. I guess what you might say is that I'm intimidated by the a/v receiver choices and I'm trying to make it easier on myself by choosing a stereo receiver. Would the power or sound of the Axiom speakers drown out the csw M60's? I would choose an Hk Home theater receiver if it had a phono hook up, but I suppose I could just get a pre-amp. Please straighten me out as I've realized that this is what causes insomnia.
Keep in mind that a 2 channel receiver will not be able to do surround sound. The same stereo sound will come out of both pairs of speakers. You'd be better off just listening to one pair during movies.