NAD 302 Amplifier
Whatever novel developments may be hidden inside the sheet metalwork of NAD's 302 amplifier, anyone hoping for a radical departure in external styling is going to be disappointed. Even with the best will in the world, it's hard to describe the characteristic NAD style as much other than militarily workmanlike, with little relief from dark grey but for white legends and logo, darker grey control knobs and buttons and a dull green on/off button and power-on light. A friend who dropped in during the listening sessions felt it looked elegant beyond its price bracket all the same.
Still, as my grandmother would say, always being one for the wise saw, you listen with your ears, not your eyes. In this direction, something interesting appears to be going on which is evident simply from manhandling NAD's £159.99 replacement for the venerable 3020. Unprepared, a two-hand lift has it tilting alarmingly -there is a very hefty transformer indeed to be seen under the ventilation slots on the left of the casing. Atypical NAD audiophile sense is already apparent; looking at the controls it becomes more obvious. Yes, there are tone controls for bass and treble; but they can be defeated. Round the back is a pair of speaker terminals, with switchable impedance between 4 and 8ohms and the typical NAD external link which can be used to separate pre- and power-amplifier segments. Also on the back plate is the equally recognizable 'Soft-clipping' switch.
Given the proliferation of sources these days, inputs are less extensive than some of the amplifiers hailing from Far Eastern designers, but, given that Tape 1 has a monitor circuit, the low number is probably adequate all the same. Excluding the phono stage, there are two tape inputs and three other line level ones marked Tuner, Video and CD. NAD are not, since they are appealing to a mass-market, donning a hair-shirt, since apart from the tone and volume controls there is a balance control too.
So far, so NAD. Plugging in the sources brought about the surprise that the 302's looks had not. For a dozen years or more, NAD amplifiers have typically had a warm, gentle manner, a little soft in focus, a bit too subdued for some tastes. The new model is quite different: forward, pushy, up-front and noticeably brighter. In fact, it was one aspect of this brightness which brought about some doubt. Before I delve into this, let's deal with the 302's strengths, with which it is very well supplied.
While the 302 may seem a little low-powered next to the Japanese power houses, it doesn't sound it. It has plenty of sinew and muscle, evenly spread over the full frequency range. Drummers display more than enough energy, for example, for even the deafest Rock fanatic not to feel short-changed in this department. Quite unlike earlier models, the 302 has vocalists and soloists striding out big and beefy onto the carpet in front of the loudspeakers.
It's this aspect - a credible impression of life-like size -that very successfully draws attention away from a failing that's minor in the context of a £160 amplifier. Peering into a pleasantly deep, broad and well-extended soundstage it became evident that imagery was less precise than relaxed listening would lead you to believe. A flute in a Jazz quartet, for example, was a little hard to pin-point; rhythm and bass guitars in Paice Ashton Lord's live Hammersmith Odeon concert recording, clearly left and right, were less than sharply outlined. Stop concentrating, lean back in the chair, however, and the 302 becomes a performer. Whether it's heavy Rock, Jazz, or full-scale Classicai, the music expands into the room filling every corner.
This is one of the new NAD's greatest and most appealing qualities. Music - whether it's Mary Black, Lou Reed or the London Philharmonic - is involving and emotional. I listened to the Barbirolli recording of Otello. In the last act, Desdemona utters a spine-chilling scream as she suddenly realizes Otello is about to strangle her. It should make you cringe in horror - like the approach of the unseen killer in Hitchcock's Psycho. With the NAD between my source and ESL-63s, both I and my fellow listener found we had shut our eyes trying to close off the vision the 302 put in front of us extremely successfully.
For a budget amplifier to recreate powerful emotions is rare. For one to cope with sources and loudspeakers that are a dozen times its price and keep its street cred is astonishing.
One problem, which is the blot on an otherwise supremely attractive landscape, however, will show up. It became noticeable at first on female vocals and later on violins. In the upper reaches of the scale, voices take on a sandpapery coarseness and violins a hard, shouty quality. Given that the rest of the tonal range is brightly coloured with a bass and midrange that's full and firm, it doesn't take long for this to become intrusive. If the wick is turned up, this coloration can sometimes be almost painful. While Man/Black's 'Columbus' has all the intonation and nuances present, her voice as a result is thinner than it should be. in orchestral recordings, the effect is to make first and second violins less distinguishable than they ought to be and flutes harder in tone. Switching on 'Soft-clipping' diminishes its apparent impact at high volume, but the general effect of applying it is to unfocus the sound and harden the mid-range and treble: best avoided.
While you might expect that the upper treble would be sharp and bitter throughout - even spitty - that's not the case; even close-miked vocals don't display any obtrusive whistles or screeches. Woodwind is splendidly sweet and lower strings superbly resonant, which does much to counteract the problem.
Overall, the 302's strengths far outweigh its weaknesses for its price. One of its particular strengths is Its disc stage, which is of a quality matched by few even at fifty pounds more. While there are some compromises evident - a degree of strain in the upper mid and treble when pushed - for tonal accuracy and veracity it comes very close indeed to the line stages. Focus is a little softer, depth of field flatter comparing the same recording off CD and vinyl. All the same, it shares all but the last fraction of vigour and definition of the line level inputs.
It stands up extremely well against the competition. It also has a point in its favour that the rivals lack. Remove the links joining 'Pre-Out' to 'Power In', find a power amplifier, and a magic wand is waved over the 302 turning it into a very respectable preamplifier, dispelling almost all the reservations about it as an integrated. It has to be one of the bargain potential upgrades of the year.
It was clear immediately that the coarseness of texture In the upper registers was much more a quality of the 302's power stage. As a pre-amplifier, the edginess was smoothed over. The music expanded, not in scale - it would be difficult for the 302's staging to become wider - but in quality. A vocalist's or instrumentalist's key changes were suddenly unmistakeable; dynamic transitions gained an extra degree of control. The benefits were profound: Mary Black's voice was more realistic; Paice Ashton and Lord's concert snapped into much sharper focus. Whereas, as an integrated, the 302 had had a little difficulty in maintaining a driving rhythm and keeping a close eye on a melody as well, as a preamplifier there was no difficulty in focusing on, and following, any individual player. Violins lost their scrapy quality; tonal colour everywhere bloomed and filled out.
It was remarkable how much more fulfilling it became. Still evident was the big presence of vocals and instruments that made the NAD sound so involving as an integrated amplifier. Also still there, but visible through a cleaner window, was the depth and breadth of the stage, the positions and movements of players requiring less concentration to pinpoint. Even the bass end of things became tauter, a drummer acquiring that extra degree of whipcord in the wrist. Over it's performance as an integrated the 302 as a pre-amp gained a distinct edge; even more coherent and a few per-cent more on the ball in the rhythm and timing department.
Despite the reservations, in terms of insight into a recording, fine detail and credible tonal quality, the NAD is well up in the budget ranks. It takes a very brave stance. Whereas much of the competition has opted for a cooler sound, the 302 goes all out for full-frontal force and realism, refusing to opt out of hard-rocking bass, avoiding smoothing over potential cracks. It won't deafen the neighbours, but for practical purposes it has more than enough dynamic range for a listener to believe it goes much louder than in fact it does.
As a pre-amplifier, NAD's 302 won't supplant pricier designs. It still shows signs of strain in the upper mid-range, and can still demonstrate a small degree of uncertainty when the music is complex, but it makes the upgrading path to a pre-power combination one of the most cost-effective on the market. It's good enough, intrinsically, to partner power amplifiers well beyond its price. It brings out all its virtues and retains none of its vices. Buy it and the potential for an extremely satisfying future pre-power system will be sitting there waiting for the next decrease in interest rates. In the meantime, it's an amplifier that won't disappoint, as long as you are careful about choosing the speakers and sources to partner It.
