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The good news: Domestic audio has survived its first half century and continues to live above ground. The bad news: At an age when most hobbies can enjoy the luxury of splintering into smaller factions that hate each other with impunity, ours isn't big enough. There are too few audiophiles on Earth to indulge that kind of specialization, let alone support the very different magazines that would ensue—so we'll never get to enjoy such promising titles as Liberal Tube Lover (not that I didn't try), The Elderly Skeptic, or, of particular interest, Cable Hating for People Who are Barely…
Also during those three years, my main interconnect has been a borrowed 6m pair of Nordost Valhallas: the best-sounding long interconnect I've used. Thus, substituting an identical length of the Heimdall interconnect seemed a pretty fair review comparison, the only other difference being the upgrade to those fancy WBT phono plugs. I used 1m and 1.5m samples of the Heimdall interconnect for my source components. The speaker cables reviewed were 2m Heimdalls, with spades on the source end to suit my Lamm monoblocks, and the excellent Nordost Z-Plugs (a number of which I bought years ago for…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Wires. Capacitance: 11.0pF/foot (speaker cable), 32.0pF/foot (interconnect). Inductance: 0.11µH/foot (speaker), 0.46µH/foot (interconnect).
Dimensions: 1m, 1.5m, 6m (interconnect); 2m (speaker).
Serial Numbers Of Units Reviewed: 70449, 70453 (short interconnect pairs); 70448 (long interconnect pair); 80163 (speaker pair).
Prices: Heimdall interconnect: $600/1m pair with WBT Nexgen phono plugs; $630/1m pair with XLRs; $160 each additional 0.5m. Heimdall speaker cable: $1500/2m pair with choice of Z-Plug bananas or spades; $175 each…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Linn LP12 turntable, Naim Armageddon power supply, Naim Aro tonearm, Linn Akiva cartridge; EAR 834P, Artemis PH-1 phono preamplifiers.
Digital Source: cartonless Sony SCD-777ES SACD player.
Preamplifiers: Lamm LL2, JuicyMusic BlueBerry Xtreme.
Power Amplifiers: Lamm ML2.1 monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Quad ESL.
Cables: Interconnect: Audio Note AN-Vx, Nordost Valhalla. Speaker: Nordost Valhalla. AC: JPS Labs The Digital (CD players), Cardas Golden Reference (some other components).
Accessories: Mana Reference Table &…
At the extreme high end—Halcro, VTL, Boulder, etc.—reviewers gush about a lack of character. If you're paying $20,000, you want a preamplifier or power amp to disappear. At those price points we also want extreme, unfatiguing resolution, and noise that's well below what most people would consider audible. But at those prices, an absence of character is definitely something most people aspire to.
Oddly, a lot of people think it's a good thing when a less expensive amplifier has character. We're generally tolerant of noise and limited resolution in cheaper gear, as long as a…
Once you're used to the remote, it's easy to find the Volume and Mute controls in the dark—a remote's most important feature, in my opinion. But the remote is multifunction, designed, apparently, to control a range of NAD components, which means it's busier than it needs to be if you use it to control only the C 372. It doesn't seem to be programmable. In an all-NAD system, the remote's versatility would probably be appreciated, but it wouldn't work with my Marantz SA-15 SACD player, so for me, the extra complexity was a mild annoyance.
Listening
What's inside the NAD C 372 matches…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state, two-channel integrated amplifier with seven line inputs. Rated maximum output power at clipping: 180W (22.55dBW). Continuous average output power: 150Wpc into 8 ohms (21.76dBW) within rated distortion. Dynamic power: 220Wpc (23.42dBW) into 8 ohms, 340W (25.31dBW) into 4 ohms, 460W (26.62dBW) into 2 ohms. Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.3dB (–3dB at 3Hz and 70kHz). Damping factor, ref. 8 ohms, 1kHz: >150. Input impedance (R, C): 20k ohms, 470pF. Input sensitivity, ref. rated power: 770mV. Signal/noise (A-weighted, ref. rated power…
Sidebar 2: What Is Powerdrive?
Like most industries, hi-fi has its share of empty marketing slogans—so many that it makes sense to regard manufacturers' claims about their equipment with a certain degree of skepticism. I kept this in mind as I pressed Greg Stidsen, NAD's director of product development, to explain to me just what the company's PowerDrive technology is.
A lot of what makes high-end monster amps powerful and expensive is the extra balls required to drive a difficult loudspeaker load—one of very low impedance, perhaps in combination with a large phase angle—at…
Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Rega P7 turntable; RB-700 tonearm; Rega Bias 2, Elys 2, Exact (old and new versions) cartridges.
Digital Sources: Marantz SA-15S10 SACD player, Benchmark DAC-1 D/A converter.
Preamplification: Whest PS.20, Rega Fono (MM) phono stages.
Integrated Amplifiers: Arcam A75 Plus, Exposure 2010S.
Loudspeakers: Vandersteen 2Ce Signature; Mackie HR824, Event SP8 powered nearfield studio monitors (using C 372 as preamp).
Cables: Interconnect: Chord Chameleon Silver Plus, Chord Chorus, Monster Cable M550i, Mogami XLR balanced. Speaker:…
Sidebar 4: Measurements
I preconditioned the NAD C 372 by running both channels for 60 minutes at one-third the measured continuous clipping power into 8 ohms. With the amplifier cold, the THD+noise percentage was 0.0037%; it had risen very slightly after 60 minutes to 0.0046%. The top panel was also quite hot at that time—just under 60°C—but I could keep my hand on it.
The maximum voltage gain into 8 ohms was 38.1dB, 29.05dB of this coming from the power-amplifier section, 9.05dB from the preamp. Neither section inverted signal polarity; ie, the amplifier as a whole preserved…