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NAD T778 Audio/Video Receiver (AVR) Review

GXAlan

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Sadly this is one reason why I think HTIB from companies like Sonos and Sony are growing in popularity. High end home theater is as much about software as it is hardware. NAD is supposed to have reasonably good team thanks to BluOS but it seems that Denon/Marantz are a step up. Sony AVRs are pretty good but they really seem to be exiting that market. Unfortunately fewer choices are a bad thing for innovation and pricing.
 

Fillius

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I've had my T778 for several months now and it sounds (to me) far better than my Denon X6700 ever did. The NAD is also a lot more reliable for HDMI, which was the main reason I returned my Denon.

The fan does unfortunately run all the time, even when the unit is cold, but it only increases from 1000rpm when the unit gets really warm. It would have to be running all channels driven at a high volume on a hot day for it to warm up enough to boost the fan. I've never seen mine go above 1000rpm, but I have seen other owners say their units have during a heatwave.

The fan noise is noticeable at certain places in a silent room, but most of the time I don't notice it.

Long term, when my warranty expires I might be tempted to swap the fan out with a silent Noctua, but for now I'm just going to see if putting some acoustic foam on the all behind the unit will stop it bouncing the sound back into the room. I've not bothered in the past few months because at my main listening position I can't hear it, but I can if I move over one seat.

It's worth noting that I had a constant buzz/hum from my Denon (possibly from the transformer) which also seemed to bounce off the walls and amplify. It was even louder than the fan in the NAD, although at a lower frequency so perhaps easier to ignore.

I've not had any distortion with the NAD as far as I'm aware, although I haven't used it above -10dB.
 

JanioG

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So I wrote to NAD customer support. If they will answer, I will let you know. But im sceptic.

@oupe, this tells me, that this is not problem only for my sensible ears, its just that it seems that people want to like this receiver, as i did, and that is why they dont want to talk about the negatives,

but for me, this just isnt it...

@Filius, the solution with the acoustic foam is for me not an option. I have the receiver in my living room, and my wife would probably kill me if I came out with such idea :)

 

GXAlan

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I've had my T778 for several months now and it sounds (to me) far better than my Denon X6700 ever did. The NAD is also a lot more reliable for HDMI, which was the main reason I returned my Denon.

That's really good to hear. What sort of problems did you have with HDMI?
 

JanioG

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So i have received the answer from
Nad:

“Regarding the Fan operation in your T778, the fan speed will adjust according to what the units thermo sensing circuit that measures in the 9 Amplifiers and power supply. The amplifiers will increase in temperature the louder you play audio, and the fan speed will increase accordingly. Because of this, we do not have a published recommended temperature range.

As long as the T778 is on its own shelve, with nothing placed its top cover, it will be fine you should not need to worry about the temperature values. Please note that the single back panel fan must always rotate to cool the PSU and amplifiers.

The fan has a lot to cool so it would run 100% of the time. There is NO WAY to disable or shut it off. If it did the units PSU and 5 stereo amps would overheat.”
 

Fillius

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@Filius, the solution with the acoustic foam is for me not an option. I have the receiver in my living room, and my wife would probably kill me if I came out with such idea :)

I'm only going to put a few tiles behind the TV stand and possibly one or two directly above the NAD in the cabinet.

On another forum someone returned their first unit due to fan noise and the replacement was an improvement. You might just have a loud unit.

Although it sounds like you're not happy with the device overall.

Is the distortion you're heading when listening to 2 channel audio with the front speakers set to small? I.e. crossover and sub enabled? There is a bug which causes distortion on 'hot' sources because NAD haven't left enough headroom. It doesn't affect me because I have a music preset that disables my sub.

That's really good to hear. What sort of problems did you have with HDMI?
There was the fault with 4K120Hz they offered the external box workaround. I also had regular issues where switching resolution/refresh rate/HDR resulted in a black screen and required a reboot. I had some problems with audio, mainly from the Xbox where the audio would drop and a loud static hiss output on all channels until reboot. There were a few more issues with CEC/ARC reliability, but they're pretty common on all AVR's I think. I also had quite a few cases where my Blu-ray player would only output DTS/DD rather than lossless audio.

The NAD is much more stable, still a few issues here and there, but they're not a daily frustration for me like the Denon.

It's a shame because one of the reasons I picked the Denon was their reputation for stability. I guess that doesn't apply to brand new partially tested HDMI 2.1 chipsets.
 

GXAlan

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It's a shame because one of the reasons I picked the Denon was their reputation for stability. I guess that doesn't apply to brand new partially tested HDMI 2.1 chipsets.

That's a very good point. All of the great CEC and Dolby Vision and HDR pass throughs have been with older, more established chipsets.
 

JanioG

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Is the distortion you're heading when listening to 2 channel audio with the front speakers set to small? I.e. crossover and sub enabled? There is a bug which causes distortion on 'hot' sources because NAD haven't left enough headroom. It doesn't affect me because I have a music preset that disables my sub.
Hi, yes and no, so I always listen to multichanel audio, whereas the front speakers are set to small (at 80 herz) and with a sub.

Regarding the sound. What I also find interesting is, that on Marantz I always listened to all sources with DTS upmix, it was exciting, powerfull, lively, warm, top fit for me. With the NAD I dont like DTS upmix at all - as I listen to it, I always find myself switching to other upmixes. With the NAD I prefere Dolby upmix, but I still dont find it as exciting as the DTS upmix with Marantz... With the NAD I thinkg that the best upmix is multichannel stereo, but still i dont use it, because it lacks the multichanel effects of the DOLBY (ot even DTS) upmix, which are very pleasing to me. Unfortunatelly, I can not find the perfect ballance from all the worlds (upmixes) with my sound materials...
 

Beershaun

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Hi Folks,
I have decided to purchase one of these for my new Atmos Home Theater. It was between this and the Denon X8500. I chose this one over the X8500 for Dirac and the BlueOS streaming services support. And the super cool color touch screen. :)

Looking forward to joining the club!
 

oupee

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Hi. Inquiry to the owner. I read the instructions, but it didn't help. Is it possible to use an external amplifier for the front speakers and internal amplifiers for the rest of the speakers in configuration 7.2.4?
 
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nick-v

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I'm joining the club too. Replacing my T758 v3, so I'm hoping to hear a decent upgrade.

My T758 driven system is my only system that's never quite sounded "right" even before reading about how poorly it measures.

The T778 will be driving a 5.1.2 BG Radia in-wall system. I might throw an ATI AT523NC at the front L/C/R.
 

nick-v

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My new toy showed up this morning...

20211109-134558.jpg


So far I hardwired it to the network switch, set up a DHCP reservation in the router, downloaded the latest updates (then power cycled via the rocker switch on the back), configured BluOS, Roon and Control4.

I tested some familiar material and everything sounds great. Looking forward to running the full version of Dirac Live with my Umik 2.
 

nick-v

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Hi. Inquiry to the owner. I read the instructions, but it didn't help. Is it possible to use an external amplifier for the front speakers and internal amplifiers for the rest of the speakers in configuration 7.2.4?
Unfortunately I don't believe this receiver works like that (which is a problem IMO).

Even if you're using a separate amp for Front L/R or L/C/R, you can't reassign the internal amps to power the Height 3-4 channels. I believe you would need an additional 2 channel amp to power the extra height channels.

EDIT: to clarify, I'm just going through the menus and unfirtunately you're only able to reassign the "Back Amplifier". So it can either power surround back channels, Front (Bi-Amp), Zone 2 or Height 2.

It would work in your case with a 5.x.4 system, but for 7.x.4 you would still need an additional 2 channel amp.
 
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Beershaun

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Unfortunately I don't believe this receiver works like that (which is a problem IMO).

Even if you're using a separate amp for Front L/R or L/C/R, you can't reassign the internal amps to power the Height 3-4 channels. I believe you would need an additional 2 channel amp to power the extra height channels.

EDIT: to clarify, I'm just going through the menus and unfirtunately you're only able to reassign the "Back Amplifier". So it can either power surround back channels, Front (Bi-Amp), Zone 2 or Height 2.

It would work in your case with a 5.x.4 system, but for 7.x.4 you would still need an additional 2 channel amp.
Hi,
Could someone who owns the unit and an external amp confirm if this is the case or not?

I am in the process of building a 7.2.4 system and was planning with my installer to buy a 3 channel for the F/L/R and then run the 4 height and surrounds off the internal amps. If I can't repurpose the internal amps for rear height then I'll need to change my plan to buy a 2 ch amp for the rear heights instead of a 3 channel for the fronts.

Thanks in advance.
 

oupee

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Hi,
Could someone who owns the unit and an external amp confirm if this is the case or not?

I am in the process of building a 7.2.4 system and was planning with my installer to buy a 3 channel for the F/L/R and then run the 4 height and surrounds off the internal amps. If I can't repurpose the internal amps for rear height then I'll need to change my plan to buy a 2 ch amp for the rear heights instead of a 3 channel for the fronts.

Thanks in advance.
I read a lot and if external ones are used for LRC, the internal ones will remain unused and still you really need to buy two amplifiers for 7.2.4. This is a major mistake for me and I stay with SR8015.
 

nick-v

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Or you could use the internal amps in the T778 for the L/C/R and buy an inexpensive amp to power the height 2 channels.

I agree there should absolutely be an option to reassign more than just 2 channels of the built-in amps.
 
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