I kept waiting for my 10 year old Marantz Dolby Digital receiver to die but it would not. With a new HDTV, HD DirecTV and AppleTV, those S-video connections just weren't cutting it. Having been out of the market for so long, I was completely underwhelmed with all of the cookie cutter receivers from Denon, Onkyo and Pioneer. The latest Marantz units looked nice but having owned some NAD amp and pre-amps for over 20 years, I really wanted to see what they had to offer.
I found an Onkyo receiver at Crutchfield that on paper, seemed to do it all and at $400, seemed like a no brainer. After ordering it and spending hours trying to figure out why my great new HDMI connections were not working, I found an article on the Crutchfield website detailing the many issues with HDMI connectivity. I have a first generation 1080p LCD set and the necessary handshake between the receiver and TV would not stay connected. I also realized that the Onkyo unit was very basic ergonomically and decided to return it.
I came across the NAD unit on the AudioAdvisor website and instantly fell in love. All the specs were there and I knew how conservatively they rated their units power-wise.
It arrived and after helping Mr. UPS bring the beast in - 50 lbs shipping weight - I started unpacking it. I spent some time reading through the manual which was pretty well written but I noticed several references to how the unit was designed with component video as its primary video connection. HDMI garnered barely a paragraph.
I connected everything again via HDMI, held my breath and turned everything on. Nothing. I quickly resigned myself to component video and after a $200 trip to Best Buy, I had my new Audio Quest cables in place.
I discovered through trial and error that the receiver's on-screen display does NOT transmit on the HDMI connection which was confirmed through a nice, condescending e-mail from NAD customer support.
Fine. I went through the settings on the OSD - which require you to forget that you have ever worked on a computer with an Enter key - and got everything configured. The Audyssey surround speaker setup took about 5 minutes.
And the result? Darn near compete satisfaction. Listening to my music collection via the AppleTV was like listening to it for the first time. I could not believe how much better the NAD made my Def Tech satellite speakers sound compared to the old Marantz unit. I just sat there playing song after song after song.
I then watched "The Hurt Locker" and it sounded amazing as well.
DirecTV programs in HD look and sound great.
The unit also provides for a B set of speakers, a rarity these days, as well as a Zone 2 output. I run a set of speakers outside and so the Zone 2 was a requirement for me. NAD includes a nice little remote just for Zone 2 that makes selecting the source very easy.
I store the receiver in one of my kitchen cabinets and have a small fan that comes on any time the receiver is running. Even when left on for hours, the receiver is never too hot to touch. This is even more surprising when you consider the compact chassis of the receiver that is a good 2 inches less deep than the receiver it replaced.
My only issues are that the OSD is very clunky and the surround sound mode keeps defaulting to Stereo every time I turn the receiver off. Other than that, I am extremely happy.