Nad M3 non repairable

@schubert , "NAD =Not always reliable"

That sounds better than the tech at the shop I worked back in the 90s who said my NAD 2600 stood for "Nearly Always Defective".

After taking the journey I have, my feeling is that an old style tube amplifiers and preamplifiers represent the safest investment when it comes to electronics.  They provide fulfilling sound, and you can readily repair them with easily obtained parts.  For me, solid state amplification and digital looks like the opposite end of the spectrum.  Especially, once you reach the boutique level.  Not to pick on any manufacturer in particular, but I don't see safety or value in proprietary and complex electronics from tiny organizations carrying 4 digit price tags.

Beyond this, I've crossed my fingers in regard to the flurry of bills making the rounds in some state houses that deal with requiring electronics manufacturers to make available proper, meaningful, and complete repair documentation.  It's a far different world than when the SAMS PhotoFact guides were ubiquitous

..After taking the journey I have, my feeling is that an old style tube amplifiers and preamplifiers represent the safest investment when it comes to electronics.

That’s exactly what I did. I abandoned digital ss amps and went all tube point to point wiring - easily repairable integrated. Couldn’t be happier. NAD is the poster child for tube amps.

Tunaman, I'd be interested in your M5 before you turn it into a lamp LOL. Also, a few people have suggested finding a competent tech to look at the M3, I agree with that. I'll tell you my experiences with several NAD pieces, along with plenty of other brands of gear. If you find a NAD piece that is made in Japan, that's the good gear in general. The stuff coming out of Taiwan and now China typically is populated with "cheap" electrolytic capacitors, and they fail plain and simple. Your power supply in the M3 is most likely a switching power supply, (I haven't looked at the service manual) which NAD would not have a drop in replacement for now, hence their response to you, but a competent technician or engineer "should" be able to rebuild that power supply. I have a beautiful M5 that sounds incredible (yes, the NAD gear does tend to sound great when working) and when I received it the unit was dead. The standby LED would not even turn on. I opened it, headed straight to the switching power supply (this one powers the digital and logic portion of the unit, and also the brains of course) and guess what I found? Several bad electrolytic caps. In a switching power supply some of those electrolytic caps are working very hard, being constantly exposed to switching pulses in the range of 10's to 100's of kHz. If they are cheap caps, they will fail, plain and simple. When they failed in my unit they also took out a diode unfortunately. I replaced all of them with good quality capacitors, and replaced the diode, and I now have a unit that is quite reliable, will last longer than it did new, and it sounds excellent too. If you really like your M3, don't give up yet. Also, NAD's response is not surprising to me, they would rather sell you a new piece than keep and old one running. They are not the only company out there that does that. Good luck. If you are anywhere near the SF Bay area (south bay) I would be happy to take a look at your M3. I don't do this for a living, I'm an engineer with a great career and job, audio is a passion for me, not a living LOL.

i've always called 'em Not Again, Damnit--their reputation for unreliability and bafflingly unresponsive customer service is richly deserved. Virtually every time I pick up a NAD piece it misfunctions, usually in some small but hugely annoying way. The really frustrating thing is that their gear actually does sound good and would be good value if it actually kept ticking. It's odd that they're jointly owned with PSB and Bluesound, whose gear is impeccable.

I worked for a nad dealer in the early 80's when they migrated from proton.  Still have the 5120 original flat tonearm table they made back then in my collection.Traded in my Manley stingray for the M2. two years ago.and still musical, with gobs of gain but the Nuprime calls out to me...Perhaps its time to cut it loose before an issuance  occurs.  Consider any future purchases from vendor with biblical "narrowed eyes".