NAD S300 for £680 at Hifibitz

The Nad s300 came today, sounds nice.

 

Chunky piece of work, isn't it?

 

come on Gazz we need some more info than it "sounds nice"

 

Rephrase : sounds great, feels heavy

 

Yes the s300 is heavy and it does get hot, I don’t think I’ll be leaving it on all the time more turn it on in the morning and turn it off at night.

I have only had the nad for a couple of days so its really first impressions. First thing
I noticed is how musical it is and the top end is open. The mid being laid back with excellent detail,and with tight bass. The biggest limiting factor being my speakers B&W 601’s. I am on the look for speakers to suit.

 

Glad you like it. I love it, but then I'm no audiophile and have not heard much else lately. But it's so much better than what I had before

As for speakers, I'm shopping around too, and would not mind the Thiel CS2.4. They look good and are supposed to be a fine match with the S300. Too expensive here in Europe though, but if the US$ remains low, at 4200 USD they are a bargain.

And BTW I switch the S300 on in the morning and off at night (have adequate central heating and don't need the extra heat and power bill)

 

I've heard the Thiel 1.6's not long ago sounded good, i listened to the Totem staff which are excellent, i'm sure there must be a dealer in Paris as they are french canadian.

 

Depending on room temperature the S300 can take several days to reach thermal equilibrium...

 

Isaac - I thought that all hifi ''warmed up'' so to speak in a matter of mere minutes at the most, and I've heard it often quoted here on ZG that if it takes longer than that then there is something wrong with it.

Given that you are a technical chap (and I am not) - is this not true?

 

By thermal equilibrium, I mean that the temperature of the casework is no longer changing. In the case of the S300, this is largely to do with the HUGE mass, and the length of time taken to heat through all the cross members and the massive fascia when heat is being lost from the heatsinks.

As this affects the ambient temperature inside the amplifier it will have an impact on the operating temperature of the early stage transistors which are not operating at high currents.

Lots of people have lots of opinions on warm-up and power-up/power down. From measurements I have made temperature has a significant measurable effect on amplifier distortion. For best life of capacitors, keeping a voltage constantly applied to them is much preferable to constant switch on/off.

In terms of "all hifi", because every design is different you can't say things as simply as that. The S300 takes such a long time because of the immense thermal mass. With amplifiers at work I can get them to temperature and optimum performance very quickly if I don't mount the heatsink. If I do, it takes significantly longer to achieve that operating temperature (although the shielding effect of the heatsink has a measureable effect upon dynamic range). Thus, an amplifier with a very small heatsink in a relatively confined space where it will not act efficiently (eg Arcam A65) will get up to temperature very fast compared to an amplifier with very big (3sq ft surface area per channel) and heavy (30kg for the amp) exposed heatsinking like the S300.

A valve obviously requires temperature for its operation. The mass of the valve itself is small and the heat source is very high temperature so it gets up to temperature very quickly. Heatsinking is obviously not applicable.

So, people can believe what they like. Some equipment will act one way, some will act another way. One rule does not apply to all equipment.

 

You can certainly tell that that the S300 gets warmer over a matter of hours rather than minutes by feel. Mine's been on for about an hour or so and it's lukewarmish to the touch - in another couple of hours or so it'll be decidedly warm.

Can't say I've noticed any audible difference whether it's warmed up or not, but then I'm deaf and stubborn. Out of interest Isaac, have you performed any measurements on the cold/warm performance of the S300?

 

I haven't. Right now I know mine will get a very good noise figure.

 

Was just about to post a mildly puzzled reply, then light suddenly dawned. Sad, but funny.