NAD Reliability

Per my local NAD dealer, customers return more receivers, DVD players, and CD players than the integrated amps.

Problem is labor cost is higher in China now and that's forced Lenbrook to reach out to less reputable suppliers which can only mean one thing: less quality electronics components.

My NAD guy has noticed that NAD quality has slipped a bit more than in the past, not much, but noticeable.

In addition, Lenbrook reps have pressured my NAD guy not to make it easy for customers to return their purchases which the dealer does not like at all.

On several occasions, he told me that he had to ship several crates of brand new DVD and CD players back to NAD for service.

Integrated amps are relatively more reliable since they don't have that many moving mechanism but he's said the power supplies and power switches have been the downfall of the NAD integrated amps.

I have heard that the Master line has issues too but not to the extent as the Classic line.

I guess it's very much the luck of the draw. My experience with NAD so far has been neutral. I purchased a cheap NAD amp that did not have any problems during 5 years of ownership and it still sounds great at my Mom's.

I purchased a more expensive NAD unit last year and had problem with the power switch from day one, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

I purchased from David at DMC Electronics in Calif. before and I would buy from him again. Just google his store name and you will find him.

Decent price, decent service, and a nice guy to deal with.

Anecdotally, and from my own experiences, NAD's digital players are quite unreliable--I believe I've owned three seperate NAD players and each one had problems (laser, drawer mechanism). Their integrated amps, on the other hand, have been trouble-free, perhaps (as suggested above) because they have fewer moving parts. I've come to regard NAD components like most European cars--they're beautifully engineered and fine performers, but high maintenance and repair-prone.

I've got a NAD M3 and I love it... However the volume control is doing that thing where it doesn't really lower and occasionally goes up depending on how fast I turn it down via the front knob. It's kind of a stutter. I have seen other cheap stereo systems whose front volume knob eventually stops working. It seems to be the digitally controlled type knob, as opposed to a potentiometer or something like that. I hope that my issue doesn't get any worse. I can always use the remote I suppose, but who wants their nice heavy integrated amp to have issues like that?

Also the words above the volume knob have rubbed off.