Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
built like a sherman tank, this amp. from NAD is a departure from its dull lack lustre looks of yester years. It is very well made with all industry premium parts from WBT , sanken, nichicon etc. And a lot of people say it is built by GRYPHON in Denmark , and is based on the TABU integrated. I dont want to believe that as I don't want Gryphon to take the credit for the hard work NAD designers have done here.
This is a very powerful, warm sounding amp. The bass is superb,the treble a bit bright, may improve after some more hours of use. The sound stage is wide and deep. The imaging is superb and the vocals are the best virtue of this amp.
This amp. generates a lot of heat after 4 -5 hours of use, almost impossible to touch the heatsink after that. very very hot.......... not warm mid you.

Strengths:
Best bulid and finish .Good bass, nice imaging, very good for vocals, and no need for a heater to warm up your room !!!!

Weaknesses:
bright treble, the facia can get dirty due to the unique silver finish, but can be cleaned with water mixed with mild soap. Goes very HOT !!!

Price Paid:  $0.00 from Audiogon

Summary:
Recently purchased along with S500 CD player. These are a matched set. If you balanced outputs on S500 to the S300, you will not be disappointed. Used with Dynaudio Contour 1.1's and Partington Dreadnought stands. Combo may be better than S100/S200/S500. I have these in my main system with Dynaudio Contour 1.3MK2's and Ultima stands. Waiting on a Dimarzio balanced to do real comparison

Strengths:
Build quality is exceptional. Great soundstage and vocals.

Weaknesses:
Does throw off some heat but I once owned the AR Amp. So not really that bad.

Similar Products Used:
MF A3.2 integrated MF A308 integrated

Price Paid:  $1500.00 from local store

Summary:
After 4 month of extensively use, I think I’m in condition to express an opinion. My system: Integrated Amplifier: NAD S300 CD player: NAD C541I Loudspeakers: Paradigm studio 60 Interconnects: Audioquest phyton. Speakers: Nordost Superflatline. This is may first experience with NAD products, I bought my CD and amp based on reviews and store listening. Then I compared my S300 against Bryston 4B, Sonic Frontiers SFL80, Denon 1082 (receiver) and Marantz PM68, all from different levels performance. My NAD have been tested with the following CD players: NAD C541I, Sonic Frontiers DAC and transport, NAD S500, Panasonic RP82 DVD audio player and Carver CD. Speakers tested with it: Dalquist DQ30, Polk audio Lsi7, Jamo Concert 8, Bose 301, Paradigm monitor 9 and Studio 60. In my opinion the S300: Treble: Great sounding treble with a great presence, but in the bright side, little acid trebles, at least under my configuration. Mids: Wow, the mids are incredible, the voices are focus, perfectly positioned in the center of the stereo image. Bass: Perfectly controlled, natural and with a great presence. Soundstage: The great focus on mids can fool you about soundstage, but the 3D image is great and deep behind the vocals and perfectly pin point localization. Warm: This amplifier is very warm compared to other solid state integrates. Not as sweet as tubes. Detailing: great, with a huge definition, but not as Mark Levinson. Construction and Built: Made in heaven, according to my research is a Ghrypon Tabu under NAD skin, all the components and specifications are the same, except for the trafos, C Core for the Tabu, Hölmgren for the NAD, also the Dumping factor is different, 150 for the Tabu, 100 for the NAD. The rest is identical, same sanken amplifiers, same capacitors, same potentiometer and same layout. Complains: -If the CD player is not smooth and sweet enough, the sound can be consider hard, definitely the better match is the NAD S500 or a tube based DAC or CD player. -Forget about poor recordings, this amplifier is very sensible to poor recordings, you probably change your music taste to jazz and classical. Conclusions: And Overall great integrated amplifier, one of the best in its class, Have to be matched with same class components. The best features are: soundstage, mids, bass and focalization of vocals. The worse: treble. For the price, nothing even close.

Strengths:
Everything.

Weaknesses:
Bright treble

Similar Products Used:
See above.

Price Paid:  $1200.00 from eBay

Summary:
This is not to be an offensive review, but I think the Rotel RM1065 (an home theater A/V receiver) sounds better than the S300! The unit looks very impressive and imposing. And unfortunately, this is the only positive thing I gonna say. The remote is a complete joke. If you are crazy enough to spend $250 to buy the optional metal-made remote, then you are a complete joke too. It has many RCA (phono) type inputs plus an XLR (balanced) input. The speaker binding posts are of very good quality. But who care when the sound is not great. No clarify, no soundstage. Imaging is good but not precise. Runs like a furnance. My advice is to get an Musical Fidelity A300 or an Krell 300i instead. The NAD S300's price is completely not jusified. WARNING: The original packing material is a total joke too! UPS and FedEx require at least 2 inches of cushion around the unit, and the original factory packing do not have that much! So, as I shipped the item out, the unit got damaged and UPS refused to pay a penny. So, if you are crazy enough to buy one, make sure you ask for double-box and extra cushions, or you will be on your own EVEN if you buy the shipping insurance!

Strengths:
Looks pretty impressive.

Weaknesses:
Average sound quality. Remote from hell. Way over-priced when comparing to other equal- or lesser- priced products.

Similar Products Used:
Mark Levinson, McIntosh, Accuphase, Sonic Frontiers, Classe, Musical Fidelity, Krell, Rotel.

Price Paid:  $800.00

Summary:

this amps is like a tractor. Compare it to a little amps like Cambridge Audio or even a little Nad ! there is so much more dynamic compared to this tractor ! i'm very dissapointed but as the seller said to me : a true price for good amps of 100 watts is not 800$ but 10000$.

Strengths:
good with voices ..

Weaknesses:
no dynamic, no 3d stage, ... no life .

Similar Products Used:
a lot

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