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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?
128x128joelv
zavato's avatar
zavato
1,391 posts
 
No experience with a 304 but I do have experience with another NAD amp. Years back I owned a very costly 2oo+ wpc amp which developed a fault. I sent it to madrigal for repair and while it was being repaired I put in an NAD amp into the system with barely 1/10th the power. I was shocked at how close the NAD was to the broken amp at less than high volume levels. This showed me how good NAD could be within its design limits. The build quality did not seem nearly as robust on the NAD but sonically, it proved to be the real deal.
mcgarick
277 posts
 
A good Tripath amp will ruin a lot of NAD owners...fantastic sound for peanuts.
mcgarick
277 posts
 
I bought a Trends TA-10.1 used on eBay, and it's easily the best amp I've owned. But there is power limitations, I got some ADS L-780's and this pairing is stuff dreams are made of. I'm a HUGE Trends Audio fan now...WOW!
tbl_hk's avatar
tbl_hk
9 posts
 

To chime in this long outdated thread, my upgrade thread started in 1979 when at the age of 11, I moved with my family to a new home where the previous owners left their Pioneer rack HiFi there, namely a small receiver, a turntable and speakers.

In 1985, I upgraded the receiver to an integrated amplifier Harman Kardon PM-650, and the spaekers a year later to Allison CD-7 (8" woofers and nipple-shaped paper tweeters.

Much later, in 2000, I was loaned a tube amp, Audion Sterling, a single ended EL34 one at that, and I upgraded the speakers to a pair of cloned Scanspeak set-up.

During the years 2001-2016, I changed from integrateds to separates, and entered the realm of tube amps and vintage/antique speakers. Now my rig is Nakamichi CA-7A, Marantz 8b/McIntosh MC240, and JBL 4320 stacked fours.

Last year, I bought an NAD 302, then another NAD 306, and finally I got myself feeling in love with the NAD sound, and bought some receivers lick 7020, 7155, 7175, and also Pre/Tuner 1700, 1155 pre, and a bunch of their old cassette decks.

I imagine the NAD 304 was a product in between the likes of 302 and 306 so my impression on my NAD 302/306 may be relevant to the 304, too.

Sufficient to say, paired against my other more expensive amps, I tend to like the sound of higher end NAD receivers like the 7155 and 7175, and these are best driven by my tube pre-amps such as Mcintosh C-11 or C-20, and Audible Illusions 3 or 2D.

My usual setup for cable TV and movie watching is NAD 1700 as preamp, NAD 7155 as amp, and my JBL 4320 stacked fours. When I want to lusten to some serious LP and SACD/CD, I move in my Nakamichi CA-7A preamp (or any other tube preamp I have), and my trusty Leak TL\50+ (KT-88 tube amps).

I am saying, NAD gears are so good, I live with them on a daily baisis along with my higher end pieces and I am happy about their sound all the time.

Terence

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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