NAD C 316BEE V2 Integrated Amplifier Review

[billou5767]

You are comparing apples and oranges - which one of those has 5 inputs including a phono stage, tone/balance controls, headphone output, and a remote control?

pioneer 202D , dab 229 euro

 

[milosz]

Adjusted for inflation, this would have sold for $70 in 1975. It's a bargain.

 

[ssashton]

There are plenty of of class D amps using 36-48 V power bricks. However, they are also bridge-tied load (BTL) architectures which allow the full voltage to be driven across the terminals while these traditional AB amps are single-ended, so only the positive or negative half of the voltage rails are in use at any given time.

The result is that with the 36V PSU, a Fosi v3 can do 34 watts vs. 43 watts for the NAD, about a 1-2 dB difference. With the 48 V power brick, the Fosi destroys this at 8 ohm with more than 2x the power.

That's true. I did say I was generalising, so without knowing / discussing specific amps voltage rails it's difficult to make any further case. I will point out however that many speakers present higher than an 8 ohm load at certian frequencies and that will set your distortion free spl limit for the system. A good case for speaker designers to stick with 4 ohm drivers moving forwards, I think.

16 ohm speakers were common for valve amps.
8 ohm became the normal for class a/b.
4 ohm makes a lot of sense for class-d.

 

[conman1040]

I read the white paper on the Power Drive S system in this amp and it says that if the halogen bulbs used in the drive were to break or wear out, the C316BEE V2 would act like a 30wpc amp into 8homs. This is not the case when the bulbs are working, there's much more power. Does anyone know a way of verifying that the bulbs are working? I've tried playing a tone with no speakers connected to the binding post as I had thought that I could see a light through the metal covering when there is no load in the past. I've just tried that again but I see no light. There doesn't seem to be any solutions online that I've seen and I know ASR is the best place to ask.

 

[Hiten]

In my limited understanding (as said in my previous post) the bulbs are there to control power envelop circuit. So on one hand one might get high power for few miliseconds but the bulbs limits it after few miliseconds. So if some music peaks has sustained high demand for power and one is listening at high volume bulbs will lit. If bulbs are not lit with average listening level they will last long.

It would be interesting to have data on how long average music peaks can be. I guess they can be larger than 5 to 10 miliseconds.

With phono and bypassable tone control this looks like good amplifier.

 

[pogo]

Here you can see beautiful photos of the bulbs (via Vorwärts = Forward): Link

 

[usersky]

I read the white paper on the Power Drive S system in this amp and it says that if the halogen bulbs used in the drive were to break or wear out, the C316BEE V2 would act like a 30wpc amp into 8homs. This is not the case when the bulbs are working, there's much more power.

Here's the soft clipping/halogen bulbs power source implementation:

 

[restorer-john]

I read the white paper on the Power Drive S system in this amp and it says that if the halogen bulbs used in the drive were to break or wear out, the C316BEE V2 would act like a 30wpc amp into 8homs. This is not the case when the bulbs are working, there's much more power. Does anyone know a way of verifying that the bulbs are working? I've tried playing a tone with no speakers connected to the binding post as I had thought that I could see a light through the metal covering when there is no load in the past. I've just tried that again but I see no light. There doesn't seem to be any solutions online that I've seen and I know ASR is the best place to ask.

It's a simple system which takes advantage of the cold resistance of lamp filaments being low enough to allow current to flow from the HV rails and produce high peak power. If the current flows for too long, the filament temperature goes up, its resistance increases, the voltage drop becomes greater and the current ceases to flow from the HV rails. ie, the amp falls back to a 30wpc amp.

You won't get the globes to "light up" with no load (speaker attached) as there is no current flowing (of significance).

It's the same "bright idea" that's been used for over a century to protect power supplies in everything from electric model trains right through to a pair of JBL Control 1 loudspeakers. Even the Radio Shack Realistic Mach 1 and Mach Two loudspeakers had twin sets of bulbs to protect the drivers from too much power being applied in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

[Doodski]

Current limiting 250W bulb.

 

[PuX]

curious that NAD C320 performed a bit better. both are budget models from the same line, just made in different decades.

I really hope sometime someone sends Amir one of: C355, C356, C375. it would be nice to know if the higher end of NAD's lineup performs even better or simply stays competent with more power.

 

[OsoSolitario]

Maybe too much "Classic"?
We run 2024... one could asume progress in electronics has evolved spectacularly over the last 40 years... Introducing a product with such "boring" characteristics today has very little merit (although the features are not bad and price is also very correct). It looks like a copy-paste of any '80s integrated amplifier...

 

[Doodski]

Maybe too much "Classic"?
We run 2024... one could asume progress in electronics has evolved spectacularly over the last 40 years... Introducing a product with such "boring" characteristics today has very little merit (although the features are not bad and price is also very correct). It looks like a copy-paste of any '80s integrated amplifier...

It is from a long line of 4 Ohms rated amps. It's better quality than many others so what's the big deal if it has the same features in 2024? It has bias and offset calibration too which the others much of the time in this price range do not.

 

[Billy Budapest]

Here you can see beautiful photos of the bulbs (via Vorwärts = Forward): Link

Where are they in the photos?

 

[JSmith]

It is from a long line of 4 Ohms rated amps. It's better quality than many others so what's the big deal if it has the same features in 2024? It has bias and offset calibration too which the others much of the time in this price range do not.

The first image is the V2 (4.0 2017), with the phono stage and the 2nd is the V1 (3.0 2012) without.

JSmith

 

[pogo]

Where are they in the photos?

Click here for the 'PowerDrive-Halogenlampen':

 

[restorer-john]

Where are they in the photos?

In the cans:

 

[restorer-john]

For someone wanting pre out/main in on this integrated, it'd be a very easy modification:

 

[Doodski]

The first image is the V2 (4.0 2017), with the phono stage and the 2nd is the V1 (3.0 2012) without.

View attachment 386392


JSmith

Ahhh ic. Thank you. I'll edit that post.

 

[JSmith]

Ahhh ic. Thank you. I'll edit that post.

All good mate, just something I noticed. I've been known to do the same thing on occasion. It would be much easier if they just gave the new version a new model number, instead of just V2 at the end.


JSmith

 

[DanielT]

Speaking of heat from the amplifier as addressed in the thread earlier, I'm generally wondering about BEE constructions.

I had a NAD C720BEE receiver and I found it to be much hotter than my other amplifiers.Other than that it was a good receiver, big and ugly but good.

Are all Bjørn Erik Edvardsen constructions more than "normally" warm, hot amplifiers? Maybe it doesn't matter that much, or does it?