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NAD 2200 Vintage Amplifier Review

EJ3

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I own a 2200 Power Envelope which I bought new and sat in my basement for 20 years up until about 6 months ago. I have not had looked at, but seems to play well. The amp is driving a pair of Vandersteen 2CE Sign 3 and 1 Rel T/9i. Vandersteens are not efficient and love power. One option is to acquire another 2200 PE to bridge and land around 400 WPC but not sure how much it would cost to service/upgrade. A decent 2200 PE will set be back around $500.00 USD. The other option is get a set of Schiit Vidar (https://www.schiit.com/products/vidar) for about the same power, but at a cost of about $1,400.00 USD.

Any comments or advice on this would be appreciated.

I think that it would behoove you to do a search on this site (ASR) of this review:
NAD 2200 Vintage Amplifier Review
and read the full review:

I find it highly unlikely that the power of one NAD 2200 would be an issue with most speakers, including the relatively inefficient Vandersteen 2CE Sign 3's & the REL T/9i, however, if you are driving a setup involving more than one pair of these, you might want more. (For reasons of my own [which are not necessarily logical] I run one each in the bridged mono 4 ohm mode for both the L & R channels and one in the stereo mode {into a pair of custom subs that are 2 ohm}).

These are excerpts from a test by ASR (in this case: Amirm) of one of my NAD 2200 IDENTICAL TRIPLETS that was sent to ASR (Amirm) for testing after all three of mine had passed through Peter's hands at Quirk Audio. (and a picture of my NAD 2200 TRIPLETS at Quirk Audio)
1614652017592.png


It is power measurements where the magic of this amplifier comes to life so let's look at that with 4 ohm load first:

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We can see a kink in distortion when we hit 200 watts as the unit sails past that to produce whopping 337 watts per channel, both driven! Per design characteristics, you can have much more during momentary peaks:


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Wow, we have one kilowatt of power coming out of this amp in short duration!
Lab Input Measurements
I was surprised that the frequency response was not flat but was relieved to see later in the thread that this is due to insertion of low and high pass filters. So here is the frequency response with Lab input that doesn't have such a filter:

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Response now (in green) as it should be, ruler flat to below 10 Hz, and well extending past the 40 kHz limit of this measurement.
Zoomed:

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And signal to noise ratio:


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Conclusions
Nice to see innovation like this from equipment that is over 30 years old! Shame on manufacturers that produce amplifiers for much less power, more distortion and higher prices these days. No, you don't get a fancy case here and sheet metal is strictly budget category. But you are not going to sit on the amp. The guts are where it matters and NAD 2200 delivers.

NOTE: the output relay on stock 2200 gets corroded and fails over time. There are videos and DIY threads on how to upgrade the relay there to fix the problem. The unit tested here has that fix. Other than that, there are not reports of many other reliability issues even though NAD products are often said to be less reliable than other brands.

Overall, I am happy to recommend the NAD 2200. I almost gave it the highest honors but given the upgraded nature of the test unit, and the fact that used amps may have issues, I avoided that. But you could have easily pushed me to give it the golfing panther.
 

Angsty

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EJ3

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thank you all @Angsty, @EJ3 for your inputs.
It sounds like I'll be staying with my PE 2200 possibly get another one to bridge, because there is never too much power. :)

Now that you have more or less set a course of action, I would like to respectfully suggest that IF you are in the U.S. (and cannot, don't want to or just don't have the time to research and do it yourself: that you get a NAD 2200 (perhaps through Peter at Quirk Audio), have him or his company do his suggested refurbishment/upgrades and send it to you. When you get it, hook it up and send out your existing one for the same treatment. Obviously I had my three under his care all at once at one point. I had an electrical failure: The failure was external to our home. (But it took out a 45 amp relay, an Uninterruptable Power Supply and one channel of one of my NAD 2200'sminside our home. That was reason enough to send the three NAD 2200's (simultaneously) to him again. He has also had a hand in one of my 2 APT/HOLMAN pre amps and my ADVENT 300 receiver. I ,like Angsty, also like big power, as apparently do you. However you decide to get it done, good luck with it.
 

EJ3

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Some of what was done (per Peter at Quirk Audio) to the NAD 2200's of mine (for more info, see Quirk Audio's website for more details):
(and original specifications)

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[IMG]https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/data/avatars/m/0/2.jpg?1477370459[/IMG]
amirm
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Jun 9, 2020
#20

carlob said:
I'd also like to know what's been upgraded
Here is the letter:

"The upgrades are outlined below for your interest:

This unit has bee upgraded, refurbished and serviced- NAD evolved the 2200 to the 2600 and 2700-their improvements have been incorporated.
The details of the upgrades are outlined below and you may see further information at www.Quirkaudio com


Input boards: the output I C's have been replaced with modem designed for audio low noise fast slew rate units an all the electrolytic capacitors replaced with AUDIO grade Nichicon . Also additional capacitors have been installed across the IC power supply lines to provide instantaneous power availability. The ceramics have been replaced with COG types and WIMA film as appropriate , all other components have been tested.

Power amplifier boards: These have all been checked and all electrolytic capacitors replaced with either audio grade and low impedance Nichicons and WIMA film capacitors. The boards per specifications. Additionally, the VAS stage power reserve capacitors have been increased in capacity with ultra-low impedance types-following the 2600/2700 improvements.

Power supply: All the electrolytic capacitors have been replaced. The troublesome relays have also been replaced, as have any other components not in specification. The reservoirs of power in these units mean that under normal listening conditions they will not strain, giving great headroom, dynamics and detail. "

Amir
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Peter Z

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Does anyone have any contact information for Quirk Audio? I have a pair of 2200's I am running as mono-blocks and am very interested in their upgrade service. I have searched all over their site and cannot find a contact page / address/ phone number / email. When trying to reach them through their other social media links on the website, it either goes to a dead page or to a page about educational products for young children.

Can anyone help?
 

Mudjock

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Does anyone have any contact information for Quirk Audio? I have a pair of 2200's I am running as mono-blocks and am very interested in their upgrade service. I have searched all over their site and cannot find a contact page / address/ phone number / email. When trying to reach them through their other social media links on the website, it either goes to a dead page or to a page about educational products for young children.

Can anyone help?

You could try PM'ing him on the AudioKarma site. User name appears to be pwauk12
 

DWPress

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I've got three of these in storage right now but used them with a NAD 1300 preamp bridged 8ohm into earlier incarnations of my DIY speakers before I ripped out the XOs and went active and then they powered the woofers for awhile. All of them have quirks that the relay replacement would likely solve but I haven't fired them up in a few years.

Now that I've gone Class D I doubt I'll ever want to go back to these heaters again but I enjoyed them in my system for a good 15 years. If anyone is interested I'd happily part ways with them just to make room!
 

monkey86

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Hi. I noticed that in all models that quirkaudio upgrade: 2200, 2600 also 2700, original value capacitors were used on the low voltage bus but on the high, instead of 120v 10000uf, 100v 10000uf was used. I know those are impossible today to get 120v but isn't that too big a risk? I will be grateful if someone explains it to me I would like to upgrade my 2700 and I am afraid.
 

Doodski

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Hi. I noticed that in all models that quirkaudio upgrade: 2200, 2600 also 2700, original value capacitors were used on the low voltage bus but on the high, instead of 120v 10000uf, 100v 10000uf was used. I know those are impossible today to get 120v but isn't that too big a risk? I will be grateful if someone explains it to me I would like to upgrade my 2700 and I am afraid.
Can you supply specific examples of this changing of value of components? Like the model of the unit and what values where before and after.
 

monkey86

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I do not know if I made it clear... but my point is they used 100v instead of 120v. If the capacitor voltage would be greater than 120v then ok but 20v less, is it safe?
 

Doodski

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If you look their blog, you will surely notice. In the photos they added NAD2200, 2600, 2700 before and after repair so the four main capacitors markings are clearly visible https://quirkaudio.com/?page_id=707
100WVDC capacitors will suffice although for the die hards 120WVDC is nice to have.
The 2200 has +/- 62VDC and +/-95VDC rails.
nad 2200.png

The 2600 has +/- 72VDC and +/-95VDC rails.
nad 2600.png

The 2700 has +/- 72VDC and +/-95VDC rails.
nad 2700.png
 

cjm2077

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100WVDC capacitors will suffice although for the die hards 120WVDC is nice to have.
The 2200 has +/- 62VDC and +/-95VDC rails.
View attachment 156783
The 2600 has +/- 72VDC and +/-95VDC rails.View attachment 156784
The 2700 has +/- 72VDC and +/-95VDC rails.
View attachment 156785

The more you derate a component, the longer the mean time before failure is. I don't know what standard derating for commercial audio equipment was, but a 120V cap would be about 20% derated, and the 100V would only be 5%. 20% is a pretty reasonable amount of margin. 5% is cutting things pretty close.
 

restorer-john

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100WV on the caps is cutting it way too fine. The rails will often sit above 100V. Consider the mains voltage only has to fluctuate by a few percent for them to be sitting outside their WV.

Not only that, since the 2200 was made, voltages across Europe have been standardized- there is no 220V and 240V, it is 230V nom. The US is 120V nom. The unit has primary tappings down to 10V trims to ensure the main caps are safe and that's with 120WV caps. And secondary rated voltage is 71-0-71V which after rectification losses, will be around 99V unloaded.
 

Doodski

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What's the problem? The size is not large and the voltage is a bit higher but there should be inventory available for a package that fits the chassis.
 

monkey86

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Thanks to everyone for help. I will be looking for 10000uf120v caps maybe someone has on this planet…
 

Doodski

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@monkey86 QuirkAudio states that there is shortage of inventory on that size of capacitor. Seen this before and will again I am sure. Some person goes looking for the ultimate power supply capacitor only to find it's not offered or is a awkward dimension. Have you seen the power supply ripple on a O-scope? Is there a actual issue or are you swapping out capacitors for something to do?
 
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