This is a review and detailed measurements of the NAD C 3050 integrated amplifier with included DAC and optional streaming module. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $1,599.
As you can tell, the C3050 has my all time favorite feature, dual VU meters!
They are crisp and nicer looking than many others in modern gear. They have an indication for 8 ohm but when measuring at 5 watts, it showed the wrong value in that load. It was correct for 4 ohm but then wasn't accurate at other levels. So it is really more for fun than accurate power metering. There is a switch to make it show the input signal instead of output in the back. Wish this was in the front.
Nice to see the tone control. Not so nice is lack of tone defeat. I especially disliked the rotary volume control which has a so so feel and those LED that look out of place and don't tell you the actual level. An annoying thing is the BlueOS green LED constantly blinking. I assume it is showing network activity but why would I want to see that all the time?
The top and surrounds have a vinyl wrap which looks decent from far but has a real plasticky feel which is a major departure from the vintage look they are going after. The grill on top is fairly open allowing you to see the Hypex Ucd class D amplifiers which in operation, ran quite cool. Back panel shows a mix of vintage and modern features:
I got a kick out of those jumpers from pre-amp to power amp which was a cool feature back in 1980s. They would still be useful today to use a higher power amp. We have modern features such as HDMI ARC, S/PDIF and trigger support. There is Dirac functionality which I imagine is part of the BlueOS streaming option. Don't care for the bright colors of the speaker terminals but they are otherwise functional. I am happy that they did not put in a captive power cord to match what we used to have in early days of hi-fi.
NAD C 3050 Amplifier Measurements
Let's start by setting the gain to 25 dB and seeing how the analog input performs:
Not bad. That is the average noise+distortion of all amplifiers ever tested. Let's test it with Toslink digital:
This is noticeably quieter, allowing to SINAD to raise to a respectable level:
Here is the direct comparison of noise at 5 watts:
I do like to see better noise performance though. Fortunately at full power, we get there:
Frequency response shows that analog input is digitized at lowest sampling rate:
I was hoping for a pure mode or something that would allow it to go in without double conversion. Then again, this allows analog input to be subject to Dirac correction.
As with noise, crosstalk is better with digital input:
Multitone test shows rather constant level of intermodulation distortion:
I would have liked better high frequency performance:
Power is rated at 100 watts for both 4 and 8 ohms which the test unit produces and then some:
Power is however variable with frequency, with 40 Hz dropping fair bit as you see above and below:
I could not run peak power test as the protection circuit would intervene. For the same reason, I could not test reactive loads either. Our stress power test showed variability:
I can't explain why power is lower in upper bass than lower. It may have something to do with recovery from clipping.
Frequency power sweeps show what I stated before regarding more or less constant distortion+noise:
Have we seen this with UCd amps before?
Power was stable upon turning on the unit other than a glitch:
That glitch may be what was interfering with power measurements.
I did not test the other subsystems.
Conclusions
While NAD could have done a bit more on design, what is there is rather unique with inclusion of VU meters and such. I say what is there is good enough as is objective performance of the amplifier. It runs cool and is reasonably priced. So somewhat interesting but not all that it could be.
I am going to recommend the NAD C3050 amplifier.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
As you can tell, the C3050 has my all time favorite feature, dual VU meters!
They are crisp and nicer looking than many others in modern gear. They have an indication for 8 ohm but when measuring at 5 watts, it showed the wrong value in that load. It was correct for 4 ohm but then wasn't accurate at other levels. So it is really more for fun than accurate power metering. There is a switch to make it show the input signal instead of output in the back. Wish this was in the front.Nice to see the tone control. Not so nice is lack of tone defeat. I especially disliked the rotary volume control which has a so so feel and those LED that look out of place and don't tell you the actual level. An annoying thing is the BlueOS green LED constantly blinking. I assume it is showing network activity but why would I want to see that all the time?
The top and surrounds have a vinyl wrap which looks decent from far but has a real plasticky feel which is a major departure from the vintage look they are going after. The grill on top is fairly open allowing you to see the Hypex Ucd class D amplifiers which in operation, ran quite cool. Back panel shows a mix of vintage and modern features:
I got a kick out of those jumpers from pre-amp to power amp which was a cool feature back in 1980s. They would still be useful today to use a higher power amp. We have modern features such as HDMI ARC, S/PDIF and trigger support. There is Dirac functionality which I imagine is part of the BlueOS streaming option. Don't care for the bright colors of the speaker terminals but they are otherwise functional. I am happy that they did not put in a captive power cord to match what we used to have in early days of hi-fi.
NAD C 3050 Amplifier Measurements
Let's start by setting the gain to 25 dB and seeing how the analog input performs:
Not bad. That is the average noise+distortion of all amplifiers ever tested. Let's test it with Toslink digital:
This is noticeably quieter, allowing to SINAD to raise to a respectable level:
Here is the direct comparison of noise at 5 watts:
I do like to see better noise performance though. Fortunately at full power, we get there:
Frequency response shows that analog input is digitized at lowest sampling rate:
I was hoping for a pure mode or something that would allow it to go in without double conversion. Then again, this allows analog input to be subject to Dirac correction.
As with noise, crosstalk is better with digital input:
Multitone test shows rather constant level of intermodulation distortion:
I would have liked better high frequency performance:
Power is rated at 100 watts for both 4 and 8 ohms which the test unit produces and then some:
Power is however variable with frequency, with 40 Hz dropping fair bit as you see above and below:
I could not run peak power test as the protection circuit would intervene. For the same reason, I could not test reactive loads either. Our stress power test showed variability:
I can't explain why power is lower in upper bass than lower. It may have something to do with recovery from clipping.
Frequency power sweeps show what I stated before regarding more or less constant distortion+noise:
Have we seen this with UCd amps before?
Power was stable upon turning on the unit other than a glitch:
That glitch may be what was interfering with power measurements.
I did not test the other subsystems.
Conclusions
While NAD could have done a bit more on design, what is there is rather unique with inclusion of VU meters and such. I say what is there is good enough as is objective performance of the amplifier. It runs cool and is reasonably priced. So somewhat interesting but not all that it could be.
I am going to recommend the NAD C3050 amplifier.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
