Price Paid:  $60.00 from Craigslist.org

Summary:
Just bought this on craiglist after reading the reviews on here. I figured that for $60, I couldn't go wrong. I agree with people about the build quality, but I also like the tone. In 2007, it's definetely getting a little dated, but if you can find one that works at a good price, it's still a goood value.

Strengths:
Nice tone. Classic NAD look. Should be pretty cheap these days.

Weaknesses:
Build quality.

Price Paid:  $399.00 from The Speaker Shop

Summary:
Having previously owned the Nad 7020 receiver it was with great anticipation that I purchased the 513 and the 6340 cassette deck. Great sounding CD player with a very poor build quality. Mine is still going however after a friend fixed the main wire set which moves everytime the door is opened and closed. Very stupid design mistake. Curiously another friend bought a higher priced single play unit in the same series and the display burned out and he tossed it out to the curb. The cassette deck worked for about a year and then worked when it wanted to. Dissapointing products compared to the 7020.

Strengths:
Great sound

Weaknesses:
reliability and design

Price Paid:  $450.00 from Whitby Audio

Summary:
I bought the player in 1994 and it has finally made me mad enough to unplug it. The sound quality was always enough to make me hold on to it but after the display blinked out, the drawer took on sentient life, random play randomly shut off, and the whole unit would have a hissy fit for days rendering it impossible to turn on, I decided to have it fixed by the NAD authorized dealer. He told me it's not worth fixing, buy a new one. I also learned, too late, that NAD was offering a trade for the "lemon" 513 units. Sucks to be me, I suppose

Price Paid:  $300.00 from Hi-fiklubben

Summary:
OK, the design of the disc drawer is perhaps not the most intelligent one, and it's really quite awkward to use. But this dosen't change the fact that the sound is great! I especially enjoy the detailed and engaging sound when listening to jazz-recordings with e.g. Miles Davis or Dave Brubeck from the late fifties and early sixties. In playing these discs the NAD really shines, with excellent snappy bass presentation, and clear and crisp treble. I love this CD-player, and it will probably be the last thing I upgrade in my system, even though it's a bit slow sometimes.

As for the technical problems, that I've heard of, my player has had none. Perhaps I was just lucky.

Strengths:
The sound!

Weaknesses:
A somewhat awkward disc drawer. It's annoyingly slow.

Similar Products Used:
Denon DCM-595 (?)

Summary:
I bought my NAD 513 used from an eBay auction, and I've had it hooked up for about 1 month. I had a Technics SL-PD888 5-disc CD changer, but I wanted to try out a player with (hopefully) a more "high-end" sound. It's interesting that both the NAD and Technics players have the MASH 1-bit D/A conversion. Anyway, the NAD 513 sounds GREAT. The bass is noticably more "punchy", and drum snares have more "tingle", for lack of a better word. Some recordings that I previously thought of as "flat" sounding (like 'Huey Lewis/Time Flies...The Best Of' and 'Boston/Boston') now have a more lively, enjoyable sound. I think the disc drawer is handy to operate.
The only negatives (small ones) are that the disc under the laser mechanism always resets to disc #1 when the player is powered on - so you have to open the drawer each time you turn it on to check which discs are where. Also, the 513 does not have a Random-single disc mode, only a Random-all disc mode. Overall, an EXCELLENT player for the money!

The other componments in my system are:
NAD 7240PE receiver
Musical Fidelity X-10D CD upgrade
Monster Cable M550i interconnects
OMC-type speaker cable w/banana plugs
NHT SuperOne Xu speakers
Lovan Affiniti 24" speaker stands