Beware of NAD M3 Fire Hazard

No manufacturer is going to warranty something that has been tampered with. But its also easy to ascertain that such a thing happened. If it were me, since the unit is worthless as it now sits, I would send it to them with a note explaining that perhaps they could examine it and make a determination (with documentation) as to why they think its been tampered with. At that point you would be rid of it unless they saw clear to sort it out; if not in warranty a repair estimate should precede that.


At least in the case of my car, dealer/manufacturer repairs to it are not more expensive than an independent shop. If that amp was doing the job for you the cheapest way though this might simply be to get it fixed correctly.

Yeah, but that pic man, it shows sprayed cap juice everywhere.

Yeah, its a mess. I've cleaned that sort of nastiness up before. If this were my unit I would be fixing it; replacement is going to be a lot more and unrepaired its worthless. But I understand being gun-shy too.

If this was a serious problem with NAD products we all would have heard about it long before this.


Its very possible that the cap failed without provocation (such as from a failed rectifier); once having developed a source of heat internally it becomes a vicious cycle that goes into thermal runaway until something gives (which is usually at the other end of the cap).


So it might be that replacement of this part and cleaning up the amp is all that is needed, but I would not run it again without having replaced all four filter caps. Caps that are downstream of this particular part may well be just fine- much depends on what the failure mode is (so that should be investigated first- see if there is a failed rectifier), but even if a shorted rectifier allowed AC on the cap without shorting out the power transformer's winding, downstream caps might be just fine as resistors are in the circuit that could have limited current.