At least it doesn't leak oil

poor Tracking

Well Folks, I was in the market to replace my 8 yr. old Denon DCD2560. My Denon plays fine, but I wanted to update my system. I read many good reviews (and some bad) about the NAD C540. I took home a demonstration model and was impressed with it's sound quality. Overall very nice, not as edgy as my Denon. Shortly therafter I purchased one.
After playing it a short while it would start to skip. You know, the typical digital clicks that last for just a brief period of time. Well I gave it a chance to sort it out, but the problem became worse. It occurred on just about any disk on any track at any time. The following day I returned to the dealer and he explained the problem was with the "loom" portion of the transport and all the machine needed was literally a good "whack !". He was very pleasant and gave me a new replacement. When I returned home, the same problem recurred ! I know that vibration was not a factor since it would happen while listening to headphones. The Player is also on a level surface. I still have my Denon hooked up and it would track discs just fine. Overall I am very disappointed with this model. I wanted it to work so badly and I gave it every fighting chance. For the poor tracking, I would have to give the unit a big thumbs down.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DCD2560, Various Sony CDPs

There are several comments claiming that all kinds of NAD-Players could not handle CD-Rs well. I had to decide wether to take home the C540 or the previous model 524. There is clearly not much different in the sound quality - simply the best in their price-range.
Finally I took the 524. Since then I have played even the modest and cheap CDRs - no problems. I also never had any problems with random skipping etc.
Later NAD told me that the new generation like C520 and C540 actually have more tracking-problems because of the "improved error correction" which might now be too sensitive.
So audition it first with several of your own CDRs...
...if the playback is o.k. their will be definitly NOTHING preventing you from buying these two great players.

Very high-rez for $500; soundstaging, imaging and dynamics are strong; handles many styles of music well

The usual from NAD players: No programmability, ergonomically unfriendly remote

Partly because of other reviews on this site, I decided to give NAD another shot even though I was disappointed with the 522. The C540 is everything I'd hoped the 522 would be. I auditioned a comparably priced Marantz before deciding; in comparison to the NAD, the Marantz sounded overly bright and flat in perspective. As for the lack of programming capacity, it's something I can easily live with, especially since sound quality is my top priority and I'd expect to pay a great deal more to get a player that significantly outperformed the C540.

Similar Products Used:

Grado SR125 headphones, Rotel RA971 amp, Creek OBH-11 headphone amp, XLO signature interconnects

Deep bass, good soundstage

skipping problems, weird transport errors

I got the C340 amp and the C540 along with LM Lab 509 speakers.
The C540 did skip with several 'comercial' CD's, not to say it was unable to play CDR's. It couldn't position itself on the begining of the track on Michael Jackson's Dangerous (it packs a lot of minutes in the CD).
I returned it back to the store and tryed the new one. Same problems. Another one seemed to work ok.
Back at home, I still found ocasional positioning errors, but last night's I was really dissapointed when none of the buttons on the fron panel worked and I was not even able to eject the disc. Even more, if showed a 'No disc' later.
After a few hours powered down I could eject my CD (George Michael's Older).

I'm considering returning the darned thing back for ever...
The quality control of NAD seems to be nonexistant.

Beautiful, involving sound quality. Handles wide variety of music equally well - throbby Massive Attack type music , Beethoven sonatas, jangly guitar pop all sound full and open.

No power standby - ie, can't turn off using the remote. The remote - not good - NAD needs to look up the word "ergonomic" in the dictionary. No ability to program which is a nuisance sometimes.

The NAD just fits in really well with my system (HK3270 receiver, ALR/Jordan Entry 3M, QED cables) - it was the last thing i added and the difference was astonishing (i had been using a cheap and cheerful Pioneer CD player.

I looked at most <$800 (AUD) CD players before choosing this one. The poorly designed remote and the flimsy CD drawer put me off for a while, but in the end, the sound quality naturally prevailed. The nice people at Tivoli (Camberwell, Victoria) have a pretty good listening room and i was left on my onw to listen to a wide range of music on a variety of player(using my own receiver/speaker combination which was particularly useful). Initially the HK price point equivalents (740? 760?) sounded more lively and exciting. But after an hour or so of swapping and changing, the NAD just sounded like the player that would be less tiring to listen to. And now, playing the NAD side-by-side with my old Pioneer (same CD in both, playing in sync), the difference is incredible. The music just sounds more enjoyable, more appealing - i remember playing a Tori Amos CD one afternoon which i hadn't played for many years. The sounds were just intoxicating.

In summary, i think i did a pretty thorough job of researching and auditioning CD players in the price range i was looking at - and if you are in the same market, do try to include this unit. But more importantly, do try to make the time to have a longish time with your shortlisted units - i'm glad i did.