That gorgeous, lush, high-end NAD sound. Good build quality. Puts more expensive players to shame!

discontinued! :-( Anybody got one to sell?

Darn it, I still haven't found a better-sounding CD player for under $3,000. This little NAD 514 is (was??) such a gem! There's not much I can add to the other owners' comments. Why did NAD discontinue this gem?

If anybody has one (or more!) of these giant-killers for sale in good condition, please email me.

Similar Products Used:

Rotel, Musical Fidelity, Adcom, Krell, Parasound...

I have compared NAD 514 with Denon DCD1015, Marantz CD 67SE and Rega Planet. Each CD-player had it's pro's and con's. The Denon has a tight but not so deep bass, the Rega has an "analoge"-like sound and a wide sound-stage but is too laid back and lifeless, The Marantz has life, but the treble is too "digital" and dynamics are weak. The NAD 514 combines many of these pro's: A not too "digital" sound, dynamics, deep (but not so tight) bass, a wide and deep sound-stage and most of all it bringes the music life! The NAD 514 gives you good value for your money!

The NAD 514 is one of the few CD players that I can even bear to listen to. For it's price($500.00), The mega-dollar players don't even do this good. The sound dosen't get ugly even at it's worst. Until DAD is finalized, this player will suit me quite well.

The magical touch of NAD is here, the sound is warm, well detailed, unfatiguing, but I am not so enthusiast with complex tracks or bad recordings.The 514 excels with vocals, guitar or classic, stuff like that, but do not demand him to play AC/DC...
The choice is yours, but take care to match with a very good amplifier to play his best. Audition is vital.
It's probably better to wait the arrival of the TWO NEW CD PLAYER FROM NAD IN NOVEMBER 1998... Instead of that, I think that the 514 is still fab, perhaps you could find one player on sale, use this hot news..
Best regards from Belgium

I fairly carefully listened to both the 512 and 514. There are marked differences between these two players. Both are very good for the price, but the 514 had deeper bass and cleaner highs. On selected cuts from the GRP recording of David Benoit's Waiting for Spring, the clearity of the cymbals was immediately evident. I never thought it would be possible to hear the differenceeasily, but it really was immediate. The 512 sounds a bit more like the Marantz has been described. On classical pieces it was a bit more difficult to tell the two apart, but there, a clear edge in bass depth went again to the 514. At first you could be more impressed with the 512 due to the brighter highs, but if you listen carefully, you will hear that they really are more accurate from the 514. I really like it. The compression mode for late night and tapes for the car is a nice feature as well that the 512 does not have. My rating is for the price range.

What can I say, it sounds great...
It sounds so alive and with such brilliance...

None

This cd sounds great, I havent got word for what I feel for this cd, I hae had some sony and pioneer before, but they dont even come close, although the prize says so...
Buy it, you wont regret it....

Great strenght when it`s needed...
Just great....

None

This amplifier sounds just great....
And it`s pretty cheap, it doesn`t look much at the paper but in the real world it can rock your neighbourhood...
Just buy it...

All kind of music sounds great on this machine,
even bad recordings

Optical Out

You get a lot of machine for your money, $ 400 or something like that.....

Similar Products Used:

Denon

NAD 514 is a good entry level CD player. My dealer and me agree thatNAD 512 sounds very close to 514. Not much difference. You do get
more function on 514. 512 also produced loud capacitor
discharging noise when I turned off the machine. Both are
OK for the money.

Recently, I decided to make changes to the sound system which comprises three pieces of Nakamichi (receiver, single cd player and single tape deck) and one set of ENERGY loudspeakers. I decided to keep the receiver and the speakers but change the cd player and the tape deck. I wanted a single cd player and a quality double tape deck and I went to Nakamichi first. They only had a multi-cd player and no tape decks. The dealer said they do not manufacture single cd players anymore at Nakamichi and he tried to convince me that the new multi- cd player is excellent, but I am biased against the multi because of bad experience with the mechanical aspect of the caroussel.
I then went to another quality store and tried different brand names (including Marantz, Rotel, etc). By the end of the search I fell in love with the NAD 514 and a 616 NAD tape deck that answers my needs. I am very happy with my choice and I feel that the manufacturers are very honest about what they claim in the product. All the features are very strong and precise and it inspires an air of old good stuff but in the latest eletronic technology. I hat a lot of buttons and I like to listen to one CD at a time and keep the CDs in their jewels not naked in a storage tank.
I do not use a lot of buzz technical words but I believe my gut feeling led me to good products. Both items worked wonderfully with the Nakamichi receiver.

An advice to pals on this site: keep the wrapping boxes and manuals and all documents and related items in good place. I sold the Nakamichi tape deck and I fetched a very good price for it because I was able to put it in its original box plus all the manuals and cords.