Simaudio Moon Evolution 860A power amplifier Associated Equipment

Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment

Analog Source: VPI Classic turntable & JMW tonearm, Ortofon Cadenza Blue cartridge.
Digital Source: Krell Cipher SACD/CD player.
Preamplification: Nagra BPS battery-powered phono stage; Simaudio Moon Evolution 740P and Pass Laboratories XP-30 line stages.
Power Amplifiers: Pass Laboratories XA60.5 monoblocks.
Integrated Amplifier: Simaudio Moon Evolution 700i.
Loudspeakers: Revel Ultima Studio2.
Cables: Interconnect & Speaker: Nirvana. AC: manufacturers' own.
Accessories: Bybee Technologies Signature power conditioner (not for power amp, only sometimes for other components); AC power from dedicated 20A circuits; Audiodesksysteme Gläss record cleaner; LAST stylus cleaners.—Fred Kaplan

COMPANY INFO
Simaudio Ltd.
US: Simaudio Ltd.
2002 Ridge Road
Champlain, NY 12919
(450) 449-2212
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
dcolak's picture

And for a fraction of the cost.

Venere 2's picture

The only thing the NAD M3 would blow away (or any NAD product) is its own internals!

NAD stands for shit "Not another defect". Absolutely awful reliability. And, NAD sound quality is nothing special. Cheap hifi sounding.

dcolak's picture

http://www.stereophile.com/integratedamps/107nad/

Sheldo243's picture

You do realize the review in the link is 8 years old?

Venere 2's picture

I don't give a f*ck if Fremer went nuts for the NAD M3. Fremer also claimed the Graham Slee Era V phono stage was miraculous… Good phono stage for its price point, but a little dull. Not the greatest thing ever as Fremer proclaimed.

I have found that NAD gear gets great reviews that do not match with my appraisals when I hear them. I wonder why that is.

The Nad C375BEE was reviewed by Stereophile, and Sam Tellig just about raised a shrine in its honour. I owned it, my brother also owned one. It can be beat easily by British integrateds in the same price bracket. Really easily.

Also, mine lasted 6 months before the front board blew out. My brother was lucky: his lasted 9 months. Good luck with NAD repairs under warranty. They outsource those repairs to local repairmen. Anyone with a multimeter and a screwdriver in your area will be the NAD repairman!

Keep pushing NAD, and I will tell stories of products with 100% failure rates and so on. I know a few former NAD dealers. There is a reason they don't sell NAD anymore...

Trickster's picture

Although I'm late in chiming in dcolak... I've owned NAD amps way back when I was just a budding audiophile that could only afford entry level gear. Today, NAD is way far back in the rearview mirror. I now own more reference-standard amps such as McIntosh, Classe and Simaudio. Simply no comparison.

volvic's picture

I have not heard this particular amp but back when i was living in Montreal a friend owned a W5 amp from Moon and I was really impressed with it, over the years have heard their gear at different shows and actually own some of their products (dac and phono preamp) and absolutely love them. I lament the price increases with each new model but c'est la vie. I have over the years owned different NAD products, not the M3 but have heard the M3 at retail outlets. Great amp but I would have to believe that long term satisfaction would be had with the Moon.

LennyM's picture

To suppose that the injection of a 1 kHz signal into a power amplifier tells you something very important is ludicrous. I recently compared a new Parasound amplifier to my own 15 year old Moon W-5. I preferred the W-5 for many reasons, one of which was its apparent greater bass output and control. The W-5 was rated at 190 Watts, the Parasound at 250 Watts. But the Moon W-5 has almost twice the transformer capacity and more than twice the power capacitance compared to the Parasound. That matters more than these spurious output measurements.

BillK's picture

I'm surprised Simaudio chose not to add a manufacturer's comment to address the measured twenty watt/channel shortfall.

Exaggerated claims of power output in the 1970s are why the FTC clamped down and established procedures for amp ratings, but there's no way of getting around the fact that at least the 860 tested did not provide the power advertised, and it would be good to know whether the sample was defective or if the defect lies in the printed specs.

bean-on-a-roll's picture

Fifteen years ago, while walking along the streets of Barcelona, I chanced upon a second hand shop called Cash Converters. As noted, CC gave a fixed amount of cash for goods in reasonable condition, from almond crackers to zebra-striped ashtrays. Therein, I saw a tiny Nad Integrated Amp designated 310. Offering a mere 20 watts aside into 8 ohms, the 310 features a dual channel single-ended driver stage powering a complimentary set of output transistors - one N channel MOSFET and the other a "state-of-the-art" PNP biopolar transistor, a toroidal transformer, and tone controls whose effect are progressively diminished as the volume is advanced. As noted by another reviewer, the simplicity of this design results in a 20% reduction of components, a feature once marketed by NAD as "Super Simple Circuity." While this little Nad quickly falters with hard rock or complex orchestral works, the simplicity of its design delivers, with limpid musical grace, the profound pleasures to be found in well-recorded jazz trios and chamber music - all for the astounding price of sixty euros. Except for brief vacations, I have never shut off my NaD 310 in 15 years, and it has never done anything but recreate the musical events I enjoy with very little artifice and not so much as a hiccup of a technical problem. Over the years, capacitors have been replaced, and I have decent interconnects, and my Audioquest Crystal Cables are connected to a second hand pair of Acoustic Energy Aegis bookshelf speakers, also bought at CC for 150 euros. For 210 euros (and remnant interconnects from a once lavish system before my family came into being) I can still be transported to audio nirvana. What gets one there is to be cherished ... So, in the late night hours, I am very thankful for having this tiny Nad in our apartment ... Listening to good music depends not so much on dollars spent as time enjoyed ... This Nad is far from bad ...

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