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Review 1 of 2
Price Paid:
$699.00 Summary:
I purchased four NAD components including a c162 preamp. Of the four compnents delivered, two were defective including a bad transformer in this preamp. NAD designs their own products but are having them produced in cheap Chinese factories with poor quality control. While I appreciate my local dealer and NAD standing behind their product and replacing the defective units, there is no reason for this to occur at this price point. When you drop several thousand dollars on electronics, the fact that NAD has pretensions to be comparable with very high end systems does not excuse basic oversights and poor attention to detail and quality control. From a practical perspective, the NAD 162 only has direct on off switching if you want to bi-amp for one amp. So, if you want to bi-amp, this creates a problem of how to turn on the seond amp remotely. In their separate amplifiers, they have a 'sensing' state to turn themselves on whenever they receive a source signal from a CD player, etc.. But if you play the stereo at low volume, the amps turn themselves off. Again, there is a very basic lack of attention to detail. Buyer beware! Strengths:
Once the defective components were replaced and the cheap interconnects supplied with the components were replaced with quality cables, the sound was flawless. And I am sure from this review, you can tell I am a picky guy. NAD needs to put someone new in charge of quality control. Weaknesses:
When you get to this price tier, you should not have to put up with the unacceptably low quality control exercised by NAD. I bought a new Music Hall turntable to use with the system. And although the phono section of the pre-amp receives good reviews because it does not require external amplification, I personally think it is not very good. I also have a NAD CD and the relative signal strengths are dramatically different, with the CD signal being much, much stronger. Buyer beware!
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