You have a nice system. You pretty much like it. But you’ve got an itch to scratch. We always want to make our systems better, right?! What’s your NEXT MOVE?
Here’s my recommendation for the guy who has a nice rig, but wants to upgrade for less than Croesus money. Your speakers are good. Your receiver or integrated amp is respectable. You are happy with your source. What’s the smartest upgrade for you to make short of trading up to huge bucks in speakers?
MUSCLE UP!
Yep, increase your power. With very rare exception, your speakers have a lot more to give you than what you are hearing. We can prove this with even very modestly sized speakers, as long as they have good range. Take the Wharfedales at $1800 per pair. They sound fine with a nice $1200 integrated amp from NAD or Audiolab. But….
They can sound sooooo much better! You won’t believe me, and I don’t expect you to, until you hear the difference a gutsy power amp can make. If you run the pre outs of your receiver or integrated into a forceful power amp, it will sound like you bought NEW SPEAKERS!
I’ll bet you don’t realize how much more testosterone is hiding behind your grill cloths. The more capability your speaker has, the bigger the difference you’ll hear in upgrading your horsepower!
NAD C-298 Power Amp $2400 (185×2)
C-298 is my favorite amp in the biz these days, considering price/performance. It will rock and roll with Macs, Brystons and Krells at a fraction of the price. Why?
It starts with, Eigentakt. NAD is the first company on the market to employ Purify’s new patented technology. It is an ADVANCED upgrade over the already highly regarded N-Core designs. NAD does a lot with Eigentakt. They don’t just slap a cheap supply on it and go. They run a linear supply along with classic NAD features of Soft Clipping and Power Envelope.
C-298 never sounds stressed. It sounds the same from watt 1 to 400. More about that in a minute!
The Eigentakt design eliminates standard transistor based distortion and heat laden devices.. The C-298 achieves .00017% THD at 185×2. Compare that with any traditionally built amp the the distortion is in the neighborhood of .1%. C-298 runs 588 times less distortion!!
What about my reference to 400w? The Eigentakt module is rated to 400w. NAD has chosen to rate the C-298 at 185×2 so it can accurately claim .00017% distortion. If it ran all the way up to 400w the THD would be similar to the other guys. But that’s not what NAD is selling. They’re selling BETTER, not bigger.