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NAD 304 - Best SS amp ever?

I'm being silly, of course, but my experience with this integrated amp has been really baffling. I'll give a brief historical outline

I. Bought one in 1994 on the strength of Corey Greenberg's utterly excited "this is real high end audio for $300!" review in Stereophile (btw, this review isn't anywhere online that I can find). After owing it for a few days, the skeptical retailer asked me if it sounded as "glorious" touted? Well, powering my lil' Dahlquist DQ-16s, the answer was YES!

II. In 1995, something went wrong and I needed a repair. That was the old "green circuit board" version. Borrowed a Quad Amp and Preamp...maybe a 405 with matching preamp? Sounded big and warm.

III. Got the NAD 304 back with new Blue circuit board. Sounded way bigger, more dynamic, and clearer than the Quad set-up. Loved it! had to sell it off later that year to help with some debt.

IV. Bought one in 2008 for $175. I'm using it to power Triangle Zerius 202s. I know, not the first combo you'd imagine, right? Sounds very clean and not lacking tonally, but now I'm looking for more dimensionality and palpable presence. I have tried using more powerful NAD amps, a high-powered Adcom, and I'm currently trying a Parasound HCA-750A. Everything sounds...ordinary. To be fair, the Parasound has warmed up and is starting to sound pretty good, but it doesn't exactly blow the 304 away.

Am I going to going to have to look at much more expensive gear? Tubes, maybe? Some of the amps I've tried have been very affordable, but the Quad and the Adcom were kind of ridiculously high-priced IMO, and the 304 was hands-down the winner in those shootouts.

Has anyone else had a similar experience - and if so, what did you finally choose upgrade with?
joelv

Showing 1 response by gasolin75

gasolin75's avatar
gasolin75
13 posts
 
I have a nda 306 i bought used for 107 euros and i like it alot, have had a nad 302, c316bee,c316bee v2 (phono input), c326bee got extremly hot even at idle and it's not even a class a amp, D3020,3020e,3020i and a c717 dvd system i use for my tv (q acoustics 2010i) .

The nad 306 have pre out main in, infrasonic(subsonic filter) mm/mc input for mm/mmc cartridges, high gain,bass eq,soft clipping, bridge mode,mono,2 sets of binding posts (1 is always on and you can enable the second pair) tone defeat.

What you forget is that the nad 304 is not just a 35 watt amp (nad 306 50watt) it has a dynamic power of 2x120 watt in 8 ohm (306 2x160 watt)which is alot for such a small not that expensive amp AND it's rated at 2 ohm with a dynamic power of 2x200 watt, should be enough for most speaker in a small to medium sized room.

I like nad how it doesn't sound bright (clearer with a pair of audioquest rca jumpers, latest versions) and a deep well controlled bass although not super loud, turn the volume up (nad 306) and it shows it's power in the bass, even when it's neutral (bass 0db, no bass eq) you can hear it's a dynamic amp.
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