All in one functionality,
good sound,
great remote,
good looks.
Price - no need to buy seperate components
Bass is very good, a little bit overdamped for my tastes though.
With the price of Linn's Classik system going sky high, there isn't much competition for this unit in this price range.

FM is not very sensitive, and FM sound is mediocre
AM is noisey but very functional
CD mechanism is VERYNOISEY and slow, especially with mp3 files
Sound is not rich or three dimensional
Does not sound as rich or musical as my old NAD equipment which I still have the following: 1020, 3020, 7020.

Great bass, mids somewhat lacking, treble needs to burn in before it becomes musical. Sound is somewhat one dimensional, clearly eminating from the speakers with little width, or depth. Sound was very dry at first and took a while to become more musical. I finally got this unit to become very musical with the use of Paul Speltz' Anti-Cables, a great cheap alternative to expensive speaker cables. The CD mechanism is VERY LOUD and NOISEY, but read every disc I placed in it. It was rather frustrating to skip to MP3 song #167 by having to skip one song at a time. I found no other way of skipping songs faster. DVD was fine with good picture, but music CD's lacked the richness, and three dimensionality of my Linn Classik. Power is good, Iit drove four 6 ohm speakers well, but ran out of steam quickly. Although the remote is very large, it is very good, especially compared to mass market receiver remotes. You could possibly get by with just this one back lighted remote for everything in your room. The AM and FM section are mediocre at best, and I found the AM to be receptive, but noisey. The FM sound was not great and very one dimensional, reception was disappointing. Build quality seems supurb, and the overall functionality of this system is great. Following is my rating of each of the units components out of a possible of 5 being highest: Looks=5, Value=5, Remote=4, Picture=4, Sound=3.5, AM=3, FM=2

Similar Products Used:

Linn Classik

* Good bass foundation - really captures the low octaves * Full bodied sound * Very listenable * Handles every music genre * Looks

* No ID3-tags on MP3 CD's/DVD's * No SACD support * Navigation could be easier and quicker * SRS mode unpredictable on stereo material... * Limited connectivity options

Bought this a couple of weeks ago. I was on the lookout for someting to replace my Grundig FineArts stereo receiver, which had become somewhat dated. The room is a small room in the attic. I auditioned it briefly at the dealer, comparing it to a Cambridge Audio 640A amplifier and ditto Cambridge CD player. Overall I liked the sound of the NAD better. More full-bodied and better bass it seemed. Connecting it at home to a couple of Tannoy mX2 speakers - wow, they were transformed, delivering better bass and sounding bigger than ever before. Treble also good and perhaps could have sounded sweeter in the midrange - but that is nitpicking. The overall impression was "luxury sound" for not a lot of cash. Perhaps some are bothered by the bass - but in my ears it is tight, punchy and welcome. It would be interesting to know which speakers the previous reviewer used... Later I found that it was also able to control a pair of floorstanders better than my current RXV 740 receiver. Better sound and better bass. CD's were eaten omnivoriously by the integrated DVD player. MP3's also sounded good. A minus for not showing ID3 tags (just numerics in the display) - but then again several high-end CD/DVD players also lack this... Talking about MP3's I code at 192 kbps from my own CD's. Lower rates like 128 kbps are not good in my opinion, with audible defects anyone can hear. The tuner/radio part of L53 also impressed with low noise and good sound. It actually was better than the tuner in Yamaha RXV 740 which costs a bundle more. DVD picture quality: I've only done the briefest of tests here. It is OK, but beaten clearly by Philips DVP 720SA for example. Anyway that's not my primary use and neither was the test extensive. All in all a purchase I'm very pleased with. The L53 makes me consider upgrading both speaker cables and speakers - because it can clearly deliver quality and deliver it with more demanding speaker loads than Tannoy mX2

Similar Products Used:

Grundig FineArts receiver, Yamaha RXV-740, Philips DVP-720SA

Lot's of features

Sound quality

I guess due to the fact that this unit has just recently come out, I have not seen any user reviews of the NAD L53, only marketer reviews that all praise it, albeit reservedly, but praise it all the same. After purchasing one today I felt I had to write a review. Unfortunately, there is really not much to say, basically, the sound quality of this unit is so bad, I am amazed and astounded that NAD would release it. I could only listen to 2 CDs before I repacked it and will be taking it back tomorrow, there was no point in going on and trying to find any positive points. The CDs I used were The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed and Junior Wells - Hoodoo Man Blues because my first test was to see if it could deliver on, what I consider good old basic rock and roll soul. The default settings produced a tin sound that was unbareable so I played with the settings, decreasing the treble, increasing the bass, but that resulted in no mid-range and all I could hear were the drums and acoustic guitar. No matter what I did the sound was always cold and isolated. I am really disappointed because it sounded like exactly what I wanted. I'd rather have everything in one box, I have recently moved into a smaller place and I don't really want stacks of components. I also really miss radio (having been without a tuner for 8 years) and also want to add internet radio so the optical input was what I was looking for. I was willing to sacrifice some sound quality for the added features and smaller package, but not to this point. I give it a rating of "complete waste" because, after all, this is an integrated amplifier, and if can't do that, it ain't worth anything.

Similar Products Used:

Rega Brio Marantz 63SE