Bridged NAD C298 Power Amps, $2400 ea

Your speakers are hungry. I have the solution to your dilemma and it isn’t even prohibitively expensive.

Let’s take a look at Stereophile’s Class A power amp listings (April 2022 issue). The Stereophile guys are certainly knowledgeable. They skew ridiculously expensive because manufacturers throw their gear at them. This exposure is cheaper than advertising. I can name numerous products that equal or surpass the heavy iron Stereophile writes up. But since many of you read the mag, let’s start here.

There are close to 30 amps in the first class listings. I’m disqualifying most because they’re STUPID money or niche amps with tiny power or frequency limitations.

NAD C298 $2400 (185×2 or 620×1)

My favorite of these legit contenders (price/performance) is NAD’s C298. It is a slam dunk best buy in the amplifier market. First, let’s address the power.

C298 is rated at 185×2. At 185×2 its distortion is .0005 or less. Please note, at rated power C298’s distortion is so low it is difficult to measure.

Virtually every other amp out there hits 1% distortion, or CLIPPING, at its wattage rating. Hmmm. Is it fair to claim your power at clipping? I don’t think so.

NAD is telling us that C298 puts out oodles of power at distortion so low that you’ll never hear it. If you take a competitor rated at 160×2, it clips at that rating, hence 1% THD. The pertinent question is, how much power would this competitor give you at the same distortion levels of C298?

Well, first of all, there are precious few amps on the market, much less on this list, that could ever achieve C298’s scant distortion levels PERIOD. If you relaxed the distortion to, say .1%, that 160×2 amp would produce only 100×2 at this acceptable level of distortion.

Just for the record, .1% THD% is 200 times higher distortion than .0005%. I’m not saying C298 sounds 200 times better than this competitor. I am saying, it sounds cleaner and less HARSH. These are distortion characteristics that matter, even if you put your head in the sand about the numbers. Higher distortion yields biting sound. Let’s go further.

Stereophile tested C298. Hence, we’re not talking about what some aggressive advertising department dreamed up and pulled out of its keister for the sales brochure.

In the stereo mode C298 clipped at 275×2! So, if NAD was playing ball like the other guys, they’d claim 275×2 for C298. They wouldn’t be fibbing. They would be on the same playing field as the other guys.

But NAD is contrarian. NAD wants us to think about its remarkably low distortion so it claims power of 185×2, so it can stay at extremely low THD of .0005.

NAD C298 Mono Performance 980 Watts!

In the mono mode, C298 tested out to 980 watts! Hence my headline here, one kilowatt per channel for only $4800, is within 20 watts of being accurate. Yep, you can spend $4800 and get 980×2 of Ferrari like speed and acceleration.

The Other Guys

Now lets look at a competitor on the A list, the Benchmark AHB2, $3000, power claimed 100×2. Stereophile tested it. It clipped at 108w in one channel and shut down. AHB2 did reach its 100w rating. But it did so at such a stressful level that it blew its cork at just over that rating. How much power would this amp produce at C298 levels of distortion? Maybe… one third of what the C298 does, and at about a third more money.

The Rotel Michi M8 Monoblocks sell for $7500. They’re rated at 1080w each, but clipped at 1020. For about double NAD money you’re getting comparable power- that isn’t as happy with a low impedance, weighs 130lbs each, and runs hot enough to be concerning.

There are a few others remaining on the list. Feel free to chase down the numbers. It’s more of the same.

Sonic Performance

Of course numbers aren’t everything. Yet they do provide us with an apples to apples starting point of what you get for your money. They’re meaningful.

C298 incorporates state of the art Eigentacht amplifier technology. Due to vanishingly low distortion characteristics, it sounds remarkably true and isn’t laden with the grainy or harsh artifacts of traditional amplifiers.

NAD starts with Purify’s Eigentacht parameters and builds its own hardware that incorporates their own PowerDrive headroom. C298 is massively dynamic and impactful while being tonally neutral. We’ve had customers buy C298 that are looking for the pure piano tone of a Steinway D. We’ve had customers buy C298 that want to raise the roof with rock/pop/jazz.

While there are many good amps on the market, you can’t find a better value than NAD’s C298. C298 performs right there with the best of the best, for substantially less money.

NAD is a well capitalized international company with a vast service network. It is a wise investment vs something that is badged, or a ma and pa outfit that struggles to pay bills and could be gone tomorrow.

Please stop in to hear C298 for yourself.