"laid-back style".It handles most speakers with ease.
Very stabile and powerful.

I haven't come across any yet

The NAD216THX surprised me. I always had some sort of prejudice about NAD. It wasn't my brand. More or less by accident I got a NAD216THX at home(my amp had to be repaired), and it took me by surprise! A powerful sound.
Natural and with ease! All my other amps had quite a problem with my Dynaudio-speakers I guess, because this power-amp plays so calm but musically. At first I thought I missed a whole lot of sounds in the mid-range, but if you take the time to listen a bit longer, you'll find out that everything is there, only in some sort of modest way.It CAN sound harsh and wolly in the bass, but only if your AC powercord is not in phase.
But perhaps it is just a case of the right combination.
I use it with Dynaudio speakers, a Mission Cyrus PCMII CD-player and Musical Fidelity/WBT-interlinks and Monster speakercable. That's right...no pre-amp. I use my CD-player as a pre-amp.
The 216THX delivers a powerful, natural sound in a modest way.
Away with the headache....long live NAD!

Similar Products Used:

Luxman, Rotel, Musical Fidelity

Power, clarity, price.

weak speaker terminals

I must admit I was a less then impressed with the speaker terminals, but that went away when I powered this unit up. I am using it as a center channel amp in bridged mono mode and I am very pleased with the clarity. It has plenty of power to wake up my "Logo" I know that there are better amps out there, but for the money you can't go wrong.

My System:
Yamaha RXV-793 reciever
Yamaha MX-85 main amp
yamaha MX-630 rear amp
Nad 216 THX center amp
Magnepan MG 1.6 front speakers
Magnepan MMG rear speakers
Martin Logan Logo center speaker
2 Velodyne FSR-18 subs

I am very impressed with the 216. This is an excellent match to the NHT2.5i, providing plenty of muscle to drive them and sounding very accurate and balaced while doing so. I think the previous reviewer that thinks this is a muddy sounding amp should listen to it with a different system!

I picked up one for under $400 (demo). Plenty of power, more than the amp built into my Yamaha receiver. As for the sound quality, I will say "thin" in the midrange, and a little ambient, but it's really difficult to say that these are the result of the amplifier. There is possibility that the receiver or speakers are contributing factors. On a positive note, I noticed that there was more low end after hooking up the amp. Muddy? Not according to my ears.

I decided to retire my Proton D940 after more than a decade of service,replacing it with a NAD 216THX. That was a bad choice: Listening to the
NAD 216THX gave me fatigue instead of relaxation. Treble and bass were
not right - over-emphasized. Quickly pulled the old Proton out of the
box back to servive. Music through the Proton never sounds that good!

I liked the 214 power amp better too. It definitely had less bass than the 216THX but it sounded more realistic to me. The 216THX has an etched sounding treble and too much bass. Listening to high end amps fom Krell, Classe' and Audire comnvinced me that the 216THX low end is overblown and accentuated. As for me, I'm still deciding whether to lay down the green or just buy a cheaper,albeit decent amp such as the Parasound HCA-1200II, Nad 214 or Sonographe SA250.

After trying the 216 and lower priced 214 at home and during in-store demos with several different speakers, I must say the lower powered, lower priced 214 is quite a bit better. The 216 was good as far as having more bass, but the bass just wasn't very realistic. Kind of pronounced without having definition. The 216 also has problems with a very flat soundstage and a crispy (sizzling) treble. Ouch. The cheaper 214 was more natural sounding to my ears. And best of all I saved money!

I have had nad 216 amplifier almost 2 months. and i have to say that i am very satisfied. it provides plenty of power and bass extension is excellent. Absolutely the best ampplifier that i ever have had

My NAD 216 sounded only okay for about 2 months, and then fried out. When I returned it to the shop, mine was the 5th one they had back for the exact same warantee work in 6 months. It took 9 months for the shop to get parts. When it was ready, I left it at the shop to be sold on consignment. It still hasn't sold 9 months later.

I use the pre-amp section of my Denon receiver and compare the sound between the built in amplifier of the receiver and this NAD amp with the same music source. The sound from the NAD is "beefier" but lacks the detail (as compared to the built in amp of the receiver). I bridge the NAD into mono, married it to an outboard active crossover and a home brew passive sub-woofer, it sound gread. Since they sound better than my 6 months old powered Sub, I sold the powered sub and have the green to buy a good DVD.