Amp/Preamp Asylum: REVIEW: NAD 320BEE Integrated Amplifier (SS) by Anthony Dockrill

Model:	320BEE
Category:	Integrated Amplifier (SS)
Suggested Retail Price:	$400 USD
Description:	2 channel; 50 wpc; integrated amp designed by Bjorn Erik Edvardsen
Manufacturer URL:	NAD
Model Picture:	View

Review by Anthony Dockrill ( A ) on June 30, 2004 at 00:19:05
IP Address: 203.82.101.10

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This review is all about a product that's performance exceeds even my most optimistic expectations. The main reason why I got the NAD C320BEE was because I had decided to take a 12 month break from tube DIY and I wanted something boring and reliable while I concentrated on work and other projects. I didn't want any distractions - with tubes its very hard for me not to get out the soldering iron and start fiddling.
The logical choice seemed to be between 2 amps the C320BEE and the Panny XR-45. I thought long and hard about getting a Panny but in the end decided to stay with an analogue amp so when I went back to tubes the change would be straight forward.
Anyway I listened to a C320BEE in a local HiFi shop and I was impressed. It sounded well balanced and engaging but little did I know just how good this amp could be.
Anyway when I got my amp home it sounded great right out of the box but over time as it burned in it improved substantially. I would say burn in is about 50 hrs to get 98% of what this amp has to offer.
My general impressions of the amp are that it pulls off a near impossible balancing act; Its very transparent but also has an organic sweetness about it which makes it a joy to listen to. But I did have a few bumps along the way. The C320BEE didn't like my speaker cables - Supra Ply 3.4. For a start they wouldn't fit the connectors at the rear and once I had them fitted the sound could be a little metallic on some recordings. Fitting some Tara Labs speaker cables fixed this problem plus they fitted the connectors much better. The amp was also a little dark sounding - this was traced back to the interconnect from the CD player (NAD542). Replacing my DIY interconnect with TMC White interconnects brought about a huge change. Gone was the slightly dark closed in sound and in its place a glorious open presentation.
To get the best from the amp it is necessary to remove the pre out/power in jumpers as they are rubbish and basically stop this amp from being outstanding. Taking them out and replacing them with an old pair of Monster interconnects I had handy was an nice improvement but when I replaced them with a pair of Yellow TMC interconnects (custom made for me - 25cm long) the change was huge. Also to get the best from the amp I found it was necessary to place the amp on 5 focalpods.
OK so now that its burned in and lightly tweaked what do I really think?
Well coming from a tube background (both single ended and push pull) The first thing I must talk about is the bass. Its rock solid and has weight and control that tubes can only dream about but the bass is also extremely expressive. Its not typical solid state mechanical bass. Listening to Massive Attack is a sobering affair when I think back to how tubes handle the bottom end on these kind of recordings. Also the sound stage it totally stable even at high levels with bass heavy material - again something that many tubes amps can struggle with. Also coming from tubes it was also sobering to hear the dynamic swing of a good solid state amp. Compression of the transient edge is something 90% of tube amps are guilty of. Thats not to say that solid state as a rule is better. I've head many flat and dull solid state amps but the C320BEE is alive and punchy in way that can be breath taking.
Before I get lynched by the tube heads I must say it doesn't have that musical midrange of a good tube amp but it does to my mind show what many lesser tube amps are doing wrong. Overtly forward midrange of many tube amps is clearly shown up here by the C320BEE as coloured and bloated. I know its nice to listen to especially on vocals but if you are after transparent truthful reproduction it just plain wrong. The C320BEE midrange is sweet, grainless, very articulated and fast. Also unlike many good solid state amps that I have heard the upper midrange is not dry and mechanical. So while I do miss what a really good tube amp can do in the midrange I would miss the C320BEE's open and articulate midrange if I went back exclusively to tubes.

If I had to pick one feature that impresses me most and also destroys one my most long held prejudices towards solid state it would have to be this amps soundstage. 10 years ago when I first got into tubes the solid state amps I were hearing at the time were flat with very little height and simply not believable in any kind of way. This amp has an open sound stage which is homogenous from left to right. It displays fantastic height and depth and in my system basically sets an all time high standard. Moving my system to TMC interconnects only enhanced this quality further. One of my favourite tracks but not one of the best recordings around is John Coltrane's Summer Time the extreme panning of drums and piano to the left and sax and bass to the right makes this recording highly problematic (plus it has a slightly hard and dry sound). With this amp for the first time this track is an absolute joy to listen to. Coltrane is coming from the right speaker but for once he isn't trapped in a box, he is blowing and player his heart out and it shows. The sax has a size and scale that easily reaches outside of the dimensions of the speaker. Also you can't help but listen to the music and not the artifice of the recording - now that is impressive.
So overall I'm flabbergasted by this amp, with a little sympathetic tweaking it really is one of the best amps I have heard - period. It has speed, transparency, punch, bags of detail and all while being sweet and musical. I never expected to be saying that about a low end solid state amp. Things have moved an awfully long way in the 10 years since I got out of low end consumer HiFi and into DIY. I thought I was taking a 12 month holiday from tubes but I now have to ask myself some serious questions about what I really want to be listening to in the future. At the moment my future is a dull grey box called NAD C320BEE - and may be a little tube system in the bedroom....

Anthony

Product Weakness: Speaker Connectors. Pre out/Power in jumpers.
Product Strengths: Sweet and dare I say organic sound which is transparent open and fast but always musical. Great value - no amazing value. Good remote.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	NAD C320BEE
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	None
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	NAD 542
Speakers:	VAF DC-X
Cables/Interconnects:	TMC interconnects/ Tara Labs Speaker Cable
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	All genres
Time Period/Length of Audition:	3 months
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	Speaker Connectors. Pre out/Power in jumpers.
Product Strengths:	Sweet and dare I say organic sound which is transparent open and fast but always musical. Great value - no amazing value. Good remote.