ren9328

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
1.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I purchased the NAD c320Bee used on Audiogon for a friend. While it was in my possesion I was able to compare it to both the Krell KAV 300iL and the YBA YA 201 integrated amps. The speakers used were Dynaudio Contour 1.3 SEs. I realize that thse components are in a far different price levlel than the NAD but the point for me was to see how it would perform when mated with associated equipment that would not be the limiting factor for its performance.

The c320BEE acquitted itself finely. I would rated its resolution as fair it is definitely on the slightly warm side with a pumped up bass/midbass. This slight plumpness of the bass makes it sound more powerful than its 50 wpc rating would suggest but it runs out of steam when the volume gets loud. Soundstge width and depth are quite good its treble detail is not the last word in air and detail but it is non-fatuiging to listen to which will make it a good match for the speakers it will generally be mated with.

If you are looking for one of these (or the c325BEE) and think that you are buying Krell type performance on the cheap, you're not. Top flight gear with top flight performance comes at a price. On the other hand if you want an inexpensive integrated amplifier that can grow with you system through a few upgrades than look no further. It does enough right to give you a taste of upper end sound reproduction and for its price on the used market it is an absolute steal.

Buy the NAD c320BEE, a good CD player and a pair of used Dynaudio Audience 52s and you will likely have a stereo system that is the envy of you friends and it will not have caused you to take out a second motgage on you home.

This is a fine integrated amp that is only found to be lacking when doing side by side comparisons with more expensive equipment. Highly recommended!

Price Paid:  $349.00 from Spearit Sound

Summary:
I'm reviewing this after using it for several years, and replacing it with new electronics (read below). I was using it to power a pair of Paradigm Reference Studio 20's. Music was largely classical and jazz.

At the time I purchased, it seemed like the best choice, but now I wonder. Compared to what I'm currently using (an Outlaw RR2150 receiver), the NAD's sound is too laid back, too sterile and uninvolving. On the positive side, it's fairly neutral, and does well with voices (which is probably why I bought it back then). But it really lacks presence and provides insufficient detail. Soundstaging is inferior to the Outlaw, too. These flaws are magnified at low volumes.

And the NAD has a design flaw, one that I found the hard way. When you plug in a headdphone, it automatically shuts off the speakers. One day, I wanted to listen via headphones, and when I removed the plug, the tip stayed in the jack, which rendered the amplifer useless. I couldn't anyone to fix this trivial problem for less than $200, so I tried to fix it myself. Bad idea.

So while this isn't a terrible product, I think that there are probably better options at or near the price point, at least if you like the same sort of sound that I do.

Strengths:
Attractive.
Well built.
Good remote.
Neutral.

Weaknesses:
Too laid back and clinical-sounding.
Insufficient sonic "presence"..
Lack of clarity and detail.
Flat soundstage.
Poor low volume performance.
Poor design re headphone jack.

Similar Products Used:
Outlaw RR2150

Price Paid:  $400.00

Summary:
To make it short, it's a very good amp in it's price range. I listened to several amps around this price, and even the 600$ rotel amp sounded bad to me (just my opinion, but it sounded wayyyy too metallic).

The NAD sounds natural, and the sound is exceptional, if you ask me. I have 2 bookshelf speakers and my amp could blow them away before distortion occurs.

Strengths:
Cheap
Powerful
Good sound

Weaknesses:
Volume control knob does a skkrrrrrr sound sometimes when listening to music. You have to turn the amp off and rotate the knob to min/max volume several times, and the problem is gone for a while.

Slightly off center with headphones. You have to adjust slightly.

Thats it.

Price Paid:  $275.00 from audiogon ad

Summary:
I purchased the amplifier for the following application: I have a modest home theater with a 30" Toshiba CRT, a pair of Klipsch Heresy speakers (pretty efficient), and a DVD and laser disk player. I wanted to use the amplifier for audio switching and volume. I wanted to replace a 1990s Yamaha AV receiver that was too big and had a lot of features I was not using. The setup is shared by a decidedly non-enthusiast wife, so the setup has to be very turnkey. So basically I was looking for a low cost integrated two channel amplifier with remote and switched AC.

That pretty much narrowed the field to the pioneer elite (too tarty looking, and I am a bit offput by their putting the elite badge on midfi gear), and this unit. I got a decent price on a used NAD, so I picked it up.

Right out of the box, I noticed a major bummer. The AC plug in the back was unswitched. This is contrary to what NAD advertises on their Web site ("the C320BEE also has an AC switched outlet ... so you can easily switch your entire system on or off with the remote control or from the front panel"), and pretty useless (note to NAD; I have an unswitched AC already; it is called a "wall socket"). So this means I can't use the amplifier to power on the TV.

There is a fair workaround. The unit will react to three different power signals, power on, power off, and power toggle (the third one is undocumented and not on the supplied remote, but it's what goes to the power button on a universal remote, and handy to have). So I dedicated function keys to each source on my universal remote (a oneforall 9910), and programmed macros that, in addition to selecting the video and audio source, sends a power on signal to the amp. Then I programmed the sleep button to turn off the TV and power off the amp. Switched AC would be better; just assign power toggle to the power button, but I *think* my wife will be OK with the extra key strokes.

Probably no big deal to most folks, but since the company falsely advertises a feature, I thought it would be worth noting here.

Strengths:
None that jump out at me. This is a cheap looking midfi amp, but priced accordingly.

Weaknesses:
Kind of cheap looking, even in this price range. Even the remote is dowdy looking.

Similar Products Used:
I own an NAD monitor series receiver and Yamaha AV receiver, both around 15 years old. Much better units (but they cost more dough). Would have loved to have used the NAD receiver for this application, but it has a really stupid defect on it; you have to press two buttons to fully power it on. I think NAD considered this a feature, not a bug, at the time, but I think they have stopped implementing it.

Andrew Scott

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.33 of 5, 6.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00 from New Zealand

Summary:
I would like to share my observations having used this product daily for the past 1.5 years.

Although it's good value for money and I would not replace it with any other product in this price range, it has a few shortcomings.

I'm very happy with the sound. I use it for music CDs, DVDs, and TV. I have used several different speakers including Wharfedale, Energy, and Fostex. My current Fostex speakers allow the NAD to perform to it's potential.

I use it with a NAD C521bee CD player, which is a good match in terms of price and performance.

Strengths:
- Good power amp section (see below regarding pre-amp).
- Pleasant sound, I would call it accurate and lively.
- Great value. In my opinion the sound quality far exceeds other mass market brands in the same price range.
- Pre-out / main-in jacks allow upgrades. Upgrading the pre-amp to a better quality unit allows the power amp to perform to it's potential.

Weaknesses:
- Preamp section is not that great. I believe the potentiometer is not good quality. The left / right levels do not match (slightly off center image). Scratching sound from right channel when moving volume up / down, probably due to contaminent in pot. This is only noticable with high efficiency speakers, and has been resolved by working the volume control through the minimum / maximum range several times.

Similar Products Used:
Many other mass market products, some other hi-fi brands.