Nad M3 non repairable

Bryston amps 20 Year Warranty !

Use it as a paper weight.

I have a NAD M2  that after some many years sparkled and crackled  and died.   I suspect the cats warming themselves atop the unit  or old age rendered the unit dead.

Will NAD send me a box for an M2?  Can I ship the unit to NAD for repair? 

I did this once early i it's life (under warranty)  they shipped it back and it worked flawlessly for 7 yrs or so.

I REALLY love, well loved, the unit  and don't mind putting some dollars towards diagnostics and prospective repair  

I live in North Central Florida,   in a little city,  Dunnellon

any guidance or suggestions would be appreciated

Hi Tunaman and BrianMobiarity,

Do you still have the broken M3?  I would like to buy it.

Thank you, best regards,

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".

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.

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.

..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.

@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

Been telling folks for 40 years , NAD =Not always reliable .
It’s just a marketing firm , the factory that made it in China may well be out of business etc .
I love the ton of "factory refurbished " on here , did they send it back to China ?
For whatever reason their CD players are quite good though .
Perhaps a long relationship with one factory .

@tunaman,

send a pic of the M5 lamp when you have finished it!
😂😇

All you here are very nice, thanks again!

Bryston site don't have prices, that tells me I can't afford it.

Maybe they're too big to care, but the business lost by bad publicity, especially when on a site like this that has worldwide readership, seems irreplaceable. Here's a little tale…I bought a ProCo "Rat" guitar distortion box in around 1980, 10 years later sent it back for repair and they replaced the jacks and pots for free, and sent it back to me at their cost in a box filled with candy. 10 years or so later I sent it to them again, this time they sent it back with new pots, jacks, etc., all no charge, in a box filled with candy and a ProCo Rat T-shirt.

I use NAD power amp for surround speakers. I never regarded the brand as good enough for a main system. Kind of a good value product rather than a serious one. Bryston is more serious and designed to be long term suppported and easily repaired. You get what you pay for.

Agreed cleeds.
As I said earlier, can you imagine this response from Krell or McIntosh?
They are still up there at high end partly because of their continued support.
I had great success with Wilson on parts for 20 year old speakers direct from them, no hassle, pricey yes but that’s to be expected.
It appears that NAD decided they wanted a piece of the high end action and profit but not the responsibility that comes with it!

czarivey

Therefor sticking to old vintage school on components made in 70's 80's with all parts and diagrams available. Everything else is disposable trash.

This is mistaken. many high-end audio manufacturers stand behind their products with long-term service, and I'm speaking from first-hand experience. Audio Research, McIntosh, Bryston have made support a cornerstone of their business plan, for example. Their longevity suggests that's a wise move. As for NAD: such lack of support is a disgrace.

can you request a circuit board from these junk makers. that can help to ID parts in fault by trivial local tech. there are lots of equivalent semiconductors to repair your unit if circuit diagram is acquired. 

Shame and a Pox on NAD! I am presently listening to my 1977 Son of Ampzilla! Still in daily use and sounding mighty fine on the DCM Time Windows!

I' m going to drill a rod through the side of the M5 and make a lamp out of it.

Thank you  for all your replies, I replaced it with modern stuff from Best By, also my cd player ( nad m5  ) had the loading tray repaired twice, Maybe the mid range disposable units are the way to go. My new 900.00 Anthem amp sound very good compared to the 6.000.00 nad

where are you located if i may ask?

I have the M2 always worry about repairs because of its fancy schmancy design. Mine has gone back to Lenbrook twice. Lucky for me they still have parts and I live fairly close so I don't have to ship it there and back. Sorry to hear yours has given up the ghost. BTW I love my M2, it sounds great and the build quality of the Masters Series is superb.

It does need to be made more public I agree but I doubt NAD will do diddley.
However it may protect some poor innocent parting with their hard earned

As I suspected then, anybody with an M3 is basically living on borrowed time.
Who is ever going to buy a used one knowing this bs?
Sorry for anybody who has spent good money and is now out of pocket and with a dead piece...

You could try making a post on social media. The more reasonable and fair you sound plus a plea for help to NAD, citing brand loyalty, could do the trick. They may reach out to you and offer a solution. 

Lenbrook is big and they could right this if they wanted to. 

I had an issue with a Creek integrated. I ended up contacting Mike Creek and he sold me a rare part from his private collection. It allowed me to salvage the unit and prevented a total loss. 

Im sorry to hear this. NAD makes great sounding gear. Some of their masters series stuff is superb and competes with far pricier stuff. I hope the company stands by its stuff. I like them. Sorry again. 

My M3 had the exact same problem. Blown Power board, not repairable. Only it never made it to 10 years. It’s a beautiful piece. Huge heat sinks, velvety smooth volume control. 2x mono design, Extremely versitle crossover and sub out piece of garbage. A dealer near me warned me to stay away from NAD and I didn’t listen. The factory kept it for 6 months before telling me to pound sand.

If you’re thinking about buying NAD think again. They are trash and don’t back up their products. Other than this I have no strong feelings on the matter.

Therefor sticking to old vintage school on components made in 70's 80's with all parts and diagrams available. Everything else is disposable trash.

@chayro 
Sorry my bad...lol
I did not pick up on your inflection.

Yea selling can be a nightmare in today's age and it only gets worse as common sense is the least common of all senses!

@uberwaltz - That part about the returns was tongue in cheek.  I once sold my father's destroyed ESL tonearm which I described as "rusty junk" and the buyer told me the base was cracked!  He didn't want his money back though.  But that's why I'm sort of turned off by selling things mail order.  People want to buy used at half price and then expect new with warranty.  That's why I always try to sell local.  Come, inspect, listen and then make your decision.  

I owned NAD equipment for years, loved the sound, an M3/M4/M5 combo my last.  I thought it was great equipment, but not very reliable.  I had problems with the M3 & M5 when they were new.  The M5 kept losing it's programming, had to have that repaired multiple times.
Too bad the parts for the M3 are no longer available, great sounding unit!

@chayro 
When you sell on eBay "as is for parts only"( category you select at time of listing) there are NO returns allowed if it is not working. I guess if you sent something else entirely different to listing and description it may go badly but as long as fairly described you will have no comeback.

My 1992 Pontiac firebird convertible is still going strong.......

Just sell it on Ebay as not working, as-is.  Somebody will buy it.  Then they will tell you they want their money back because it's not working.  
I do think an amplifier should last more than 10 years, but you're lucky to get that out of a car and people accept it as part of life.  

Just 10 years old and considered disposable and on the scrap heap
Disgracefull tbh and to think I was even considering buying into the NAD masters series at one stage.
Just imagine Krell or McIntosh turning round and saying at just 10 years of age the unit is not serviced with parts any longer and is basically obsolete.
I guess this is what owners of NAD masters series gear can ALL look forward to right now.
You have to figure this is really going to kill resale prices!
Sorry to hear of your loss Tunaman but thank you for bringing this up here.

Shame on NAD and note to self to stay away from them in the future. Unacceptable that this unit cannot be fixed for reasonable money.

tunaman
I hate to read situations like yours. This is a common theme and problem w/ the newer NAD gear. If you can find a tech to attempt to fix on the cheap- go for it. If not, move on to a different brand.  About 10 years ago I almost bought into the NAD Master Series. Today, I am glad that I did not purchase any of those components.

Thanks guys, Nad repair said part was unavailable, and could cost 2000. with no guarantee. 

Most any component can be repaired - providing it hasn't been run over by a truck! The issue is finding a competent technician and paying the cost (could be quite high!).

A NAD m3 is a 180 watt, dual-mono integrated that went for 3k 10 years ago?

Has to be worth a grand on Ebay. I'd try to find someone to fix it for less than that.