I don't have a great deal of experience with the C542, but I have heard it. I recently bought a C525BEE and absolutely love it. NAD make some excellent products and the C542 is definitely worth hearing.

Hi Bob,

I don't have a NAD C542 but have used a NAD C541i the model preceeeding it for 4 years or so as my back up player.

It is a fine machine, solidly built and sounds especially good on HDCD disks. It sounds lively, deep and solid bass, a liquid but sometimes dark midrange with clear and extended detailed highs.

Colin.