Price Paid:  $250.00

Summary:
The NAD 114 is quite nice, in that the circuitry is one of the cleanest I've seen. There is only one massive PCB that is almost the size of the chasis. Here things are well seperated, the power supply, phono-stage, main gain stage, and tone stage is all seperated. The signal tracks are seperated by ground tracks to increase channel seperation and induce noise. the input RCA are directly soldered on the PCB. Infact the only wire that U'll find in this pre-amp in the mains wire and wire coming from the transformer. Source select switches are far to the rear to minimise signal lose. Volume control is a Blue Alps at 20k, a precision laser-cut device to maintain accurate channel tracking. Basicaly the best passive potentiometer you can get. All resistors are metal film 1%, and capacitors are poly-caps. You'll find no IC op-amp here in the main stage, only discrete transistors. There's a delicated headphone amp, something that u'll never find in a pre-amp of this price. The socket is a 6.5mm gold plated. NAD even go to the trouble of shielding the transformer to minimise induce noise on the circuit. It's a pitty they didn't use toroidal transformer here. With no signal and at max volume the pre-amp is very quiet, no hum or hiss what so ever, this is mainly because of the use of precision volume control. Other things that they could have improve was to use gold plate rca for all input instead if just CD and Phono. Apart from this minor issue (which I'm sure you can fix) this is the best pre-amp you can get for this price range or even higher.

Strengths:
Described above

Weaknesses:
No balanced in/out

Similar Products Used:
Pro Series 4 Pre-amp

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Second-Hand

Summary:
NAD 114 is a decent preamp for its price, however the designers could have done alot better to further enhance the perforamce and ultimately blow the competition away. After a few modification, this preamp could be top of the line. But for now 4 out of 5 mainly for value.

Strengths:
- Alps Precision Volume Control - No ICs in active stage. - Metal Film Resistor and Poly-Caps - Everthying's on the one PCB. - Source select close to rear. - PCB layout is clean and orderly. - Nice little headphone amp.

Weaknesses:
- Pick-up signal from source not selected - Input gounds tried together. Should have been seperated. - Channel seperation isn't as good as it should be. - Zout (220 Ohms) is a bit high, but good enough for non op-amp design. - Source select could have been made more solid.

Similar Products Used:
- Nelson Pass's "Balance Line Stage"

Summary:
I bought this product in an emergency; my wife and I were sitting around listening to a newly purchased CD one evening when Ella Fitzgerald's voice started to sound like Jimmy Hendrix's guitar. As it turned out something was terribly wrong with the B side of the preamp, sports fans. That's when I found out about the lack of phono stages in modern day preamps. I went to the nearest decent audio store in Yakima, about five miles from where I live (the alternative being at least 100 miles away.I auditioned a really nice McIntosh, which I couldn't afford and then the NAD 114 and 116. They both sounded pretty much the same to me so I bought the cheapest one and have been happy with it ever since.

I have learned a lesson since, though. Next time I will budget more carefully and get a preamp with an outboard power supply and a separate phono amp.

Strengths:
Two tape loops, two amp outs, gold plated Phono, CD & headphone jacks,phono input switch for MM/MC cartridges. Nice open soundstage, handles dynamics well. Simplicity. Price.

Weaknesses:
Lack of air in top end, although defeating the Tone Controls improves this gratly. (I was trying to boost high frequency response when I discovered this.)

Similar Products Used:
Dynaco PAT 4.

Price Paid:  $199.00 from Spearit Sound

Summary:
I just got the 114 today and wow! I never thought I would hear my music so clearly. I know I could have better, but for the money, this is it. Controls are simple and tone controls are hardly needed, in fact I don't even use them. Kudos to NAD.

My system

Sony ES CD
Adcom 545 II
NAD 114
Monster M1.2 Speaker Cable
AR Pro-Series Interconnects
Cerwin Vega DX-7 (To be replaced)

Strengths:
Clarity of sound, spaciousness, direction, everything else too.

Weaknesses:
None yet, but don't figure on finding any...

Similar Products Used:
Onkyo

Summary:
I use the NAD in conjunction with a Parasound 1500A to power a pair of Dyanaudio Audience 70s. I very happy with the clear and detailed sound I am getting, although admittly I have not had the opportuntiy to plug in other pre-amps and compare the sound. Nontheless, given that the NAD/Paraound combo compares well to an excellect Classes integrated I tried, shows that the NAD is a good performer. This is a nice pre-amp for the price

Strengths:
Decent build quality, good phono section

Weaknesses:
no remote