NAD C352 Amplifier
Despite of all structural changes, NAD Electronics continues to be the guardian of Hi-Fi traditions. The British-Canadian company has made a significant progress in the segment of high-class expensive equipment (with new Master series) in recent year, but now we return to "classics" - the line of relatively inexpensive amplifiers. In olden times exactly such equipment lent eclat of Hi-Fi manufacturer to NAD with the highest quality/price ratio.
The amplifier C352 was released in 2004 but still continues to get excellent reviews in the specialized press. There is no sense to comment the design - if not go into details NAD equipment looked so ten years ago. We can't call the construction of the device a compromise one, rather the opposite - everything is subordinated to the principle of sufficiency. Although the faceplate and handles are made of plastic, the lower and upper parts of the body are made fundamentally, of steel. There are no such "extra" functions like loudness, selector of speaker systems, multiroom in C352. There are only needful: selector for seven sources with outputs for record, two (!) outputs from pre-section and the input for power amplifier, switchable equalizer, balance and volume control. From its predecessor - C350 - the described model got a massive Holmgren transformer and high-current amplifiers with "soft" clipping limit, being able to work at a load of 2 ohms. But the input circuit technic has fallen under "alignment". The optimization allowed the engineers to eliminate the secondary chains and thereby to increase the accuracy of signal transfer. Non-interference into sound is the main rule for all developments of NAD.
I must say, the device makes an impression by its sound. Light "porcelain" notes are captured - you can feel a solid bass structure, the middle is as if covered with glaze, the upper band has gloss. A movable and powerful drive comes up along with fundamental nature of sound. The device controls speaker system surprisingly well, fully opens the dynamics and tonal color of the lower case, does not allow boomy side-tones to step out of line, and gives the body and spirit to each bass instrument. We also remembered "attack" features - drums are structured, impulsive and endued with clear overhangs.
In the mid and upper range I didn't find neither metallic nor too sonorous tones although the tonal balance of C352 doesn't fall under the definition of warm. It seems sometimes that strings need more naturalness - smoothness of sound prevents to "taste" the instrument to the bitter end. The same effect is felt in vocals too. Vocals are played promptly, emotionally but without revelations - without any subtle irregularities. The upper band is deprived of subtle details too. Probably due to this stereo space in NAD has a slightly fabulous volume and more "significant" imaginary sources are heard.
