The new C370 was designed to…
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NAD has been out there on the leading edge of entry-level high-end sound long enough that some audiophiles reckon they invented the category. Sure, we should give serious props to the likes of Creek, Rotel, Musical Fidelity, Arcam, Denon, and Parasound, all of which have made significant contributions to the musical aspirations of budget-conscious pilgrims. But I continue to harbor warm feelings about my last extended visit with an NAD component: the inexpensive yet supremely musical L40 CD Receiver, which I reviewed in the June 2000 Stereophile.
System, Setup, Space
I did much of my auditioning of the NAD in my wife Mary's heavily carpeted, 12' by 17' by 10' piano studio. The current reference rig in Mary's room is fairly simple but decidedly hi-rez, and tweaked for all it's worth. There's the rich, dynamic-sounding, 85Wpc Musical Fidelity A3 integrated amplifier and its smooth, holographic sister, the A3 CD player. A pair of Synergistic Research Kaleidoscope Phase 2 interconnects (with a Master Power Coupler) link amp and source, both of which are equipped with a truly dramatic enhancement: the JPS Labs Kaptovator power cord…
I did much of my auditioning of the NAD in my wife Mary's heavily carpeted, 12' by 17' by 10' piano studio. The current reference rig in Mary's room is fairly simple but decidedly hi-rez, and tweaked for all it's worth. There's the rich, dynamic-sounding, 85Wpc Musical Fidelity A3 integrated amplifier and its smooth, holographic sister, the A3 CD player. A pair of Synergistic Research Kaleidoscope Phase 2 interconnects (with a Master Power Coupler) link amp and source, both of which are equipped with a truly dramatic enhancement: the JPS Labs Kaptovator power cord…
The Musical Fidelity A3 offered more liquidity and tube-like richness in the same signal chain. The C370's non-intrusive tone controls permitted supple, subtle adjustments without changing the overall tonal balance, though in so doing I became aware of a slight reduction in the retrieval of ambient information, at which the C370 more than held its own with its more expensive integrated brethren.
The C370 held its own so well that I was inspired to reach for Benjamin Zander and the Philharmonia Orchestra's new multichannel hybrid CD/SACD recording of Mahler's Symphony 5 (Telarc 2SACD-…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Remote-controlled integrated amplifier with seven line-level inputs (including two tape in/record out); preamp out/main in, and a second preamp out with up to 12dB attenuation; NAD Link; Soft Clipping and Bridging switches. Output power: 120Wpc (20.8dBW), continuous average power into 8 ohms, both channels driven. IHF dynamic headroom into 8 ohms: 3dB. IHF dynamic power (8, 4, 2 ohms): 210W, 340W, 450W. Frequency response: 20Hz-20kHz, ±0.3dB. THD: 0.03%. S/N Ratio (A-weighted, ref. 1W): 94dB. Damping factor (ref. 8 ohm 1kHz): >150. Preamp output…
Sidebar 2: Measurements
The chassis of the NAD C370 was hot after the usual one-hour preconditioning period at 1/3 power into 8 ohms, but, at around 55 degrees C, well within the bounds of safety. (The internal heatsinks were much hotter, of course, but these cannot be reached by inquisitive fingers.) The amplifier didn't invert signal polarity, and the maximum voltage gain (into 8 ohms) was a high 39.4dB. Input impedance at 1kHz was 300k ohms and the output impedance across most of the audioband a moderate 0.16 ohm, this rising slightly to 0.19 ohm at 20kHz. This is equivalent to a…
This can be seen in figs.7 and 8, which show FFT-derived spectra of the NAD's output while it reproduced a 50Hz tone at 1W and 10W, respectively, into 8 ohms. At the lower power level, an entire series of odd harmonics can be seen that effectively disappear at the higher level. Yes, even at 1W, the third harmonic—the highest in level—lies at -80dB (0.01%), with most of the other harmonics at or below -90dB (0.003%). But this still suggests a somewhat inadequate output-stage bias current.
Fig.7 NAD C370, spectrum of 50Hz sinewave, DC-1kHz, at 1W into 8 ohms (linear frequency…
Genesis Advanced Technologies was formed in 1991 to manufacture loudspeakers designed by industry veteran Arnie Nudell, who was responsible, with Cary Christie, for some of high-end audio's highest-performing models when both were at Infinity Systems. The company was acquired a few years back by Gary Leonard Koh and some of his friends, but Nudell remains with the company as Chief Scientist and the company has offices and a production facility in Seattle.
The last Genesis design reviewed in Stereophile was the 500 (in May 1999), which then sold for $11,500/pair. Kalman Rubinson…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Four-way, floorstanding loudspeaker with powered woofer section. Drive-units: two 1" (25mm) circular aluminum-ribbon tweeters, 4.5" (115mm) titanium upper-midrange cone, two 6.5" (165mm) aluminum lower-midrange cones ("midbass couplers"), three 8" (200mm) aluminum woofer cones. Inputs: speaker level on 4mm terminals, line-level on balanced XLR, LFE line-level on XLR. Output: LFE pass-through on XLR. Frequency response: 20Hz–36kHz, ±3dB. Crossover frequencies: 71–135Hz, 300Hz, 3.6kHz. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Sensitivity: 90dB/2.83V/m. Maximum…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital Sources: Ayre C5-xe universal player, Olive Symphony media server; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Benchmark DAC 1, Grace m902 D/A processors.
Preamplifiers: Mark Levinson No.326S, No.32 Reference; NHT Passive Volume Control.
Power Amplifiers: Mark Levinson No.33H monoblocks, Musical Fidelity kW750.
Cables: Digital: Kimber Illuminations Orchid AES/EBU, AudioQuest SVD-4 S/PDIF. Interconnect: AudioQuest Cheetah, Madrigal CZ Gel-1, Ayre Signature Series, Crystalconnect, Canare (balanced); DiMarzio, Canare (unbalanced). Speaker: AudioQuest Kilimanjaro…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I estimated the Genesis 5.2's voltage sensitivity as 89.2dB/2.83V/m, which is within experimental error of the specified 90dB figure. However, as can be seen from the plot of its impedance magnitude and phase (fig.1), the speaker demands a lot of current from the partnering amplifier. With the tone controls set to their maximum positions (bottom trace), the impedance drops below 2 ohms for most of the lower midrange and briefly in the mid-treble, where the minimum impedance is a low 1.4 ohms at 7.8kHz. More problematic, the phase angle is highly capacitive in the…