Vintage NAD 3120 Amplifier in depth tour
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- The NAD 3120 is the so called Audiophile version of the famous NAD 3020, the most popular amplifier of all time.
In this video, I take you on an in depth tour of this great little amplifier.
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The interesting part is that the 3020 remains the frame of reference for all amplifiers, regardless of the price. Incredible.
I have one of these in our bedroom system with a 5120 ‘table and some small Cambridge Audio speakers. It’s lovely for late night sexy time. 😉🤓 Mine needs some cleaning and TLC.
My first amplifier when I was 17!
Fantastic!
Thank you! Cheers
Glad you liked it.
the 3020B did have binding posts/banana sockets because i had one brand new back in the day.
It's a well known fact that running the signal path through tone controls will degrades the sound quality. The added noise is substantial and can easily be measured and even heard on higher resolving systems. I used to always use tone controls, but when I got better gear the sound was obviously cleaner with the tone controls out of the signal path. Decent gear has good dynamics and doesn't need tone controls to crank up the bass or treble. I still think tone controls have a place in much of budget gear, to help get better dynamics
Good capacitors in a NAD? I’d say NAD gear is the gear I work on with the most garbage caps. Interesting that yours were perfectly fine. Maybe only the ones that went to the states sucked.
Indeed - I was surprised when they all tested fine, especially given they are obviously cheap no-name electros.
Audio Amplifier Servicing has mentioned the quality of NAD parts.
Great video. I have a NAD receiver 7400. The outpout from the right speaker is not coming out right. I have to play the the volume knob to get to a normal level, and the bass and treble are not reaching their peak. Would you be able to take a look at it for me? Where are you located?
I'm in Sydney, Australia. Does the "bypass" button on the front make any difference? Have you tried bypassing the pre-amp stage by inputting signal to "Main In" - this will give you an idea where the problem is. Good luck!
impressive analysis. did you take measurements before and after?
No - unfortunately I don't have anything to measure with. However as the old electrolytics that I tested all measured fine, I would not expect a huge difference. This unit was in very clean condition as received. I replaced the capacitors mainly as an exercise. One thing to note is the old caps were rated -20/+80, which means in reality, a 4700uF will measure more like 5600uF. I replaced them with -20/+20% tolerance. Theoretically, if you had a design that was a bit dodgy, this reduction in capacitance could cause problems. However I don't believe there are any such issues here.
Great breakdown - I’m from the uk and just moved to the states - I noticed on the wiring diagram there’s possibly some switches (?) to change voltage/hertz, but opening her up I can’t see these, any advice on changing this from native 240v to 120v or are these separate versions with different power modules screwed in?
I believe that a different transformer is used for different voltages, in which case you will need a 120v to 240v step up transformer to use in the USA. Good luck!
@@audionautica6843 Thanks!
Great Video Thank you, I have this amp and the sound is beautiful. When you say Audio File what do you mean? Like MP3 Storage? Also i am sad i thought it was a metal front. Well spotted. 😝😜🤓 Just gave it a Tap ...grrrrr ...was a tick tick sound. I am selling so great for your advice. Subscribed and support from GlowUrbanX.
Glad you found it useful - audiophile as in someone who is looking for the best in music reproduction - these NADs were liked because they gave very good reproduction for an affordable price. The 3120 does not have tone controls - many audiophiles prefer not to have tone controls because they prefer a "pure" (un-messed with) tone. Thanks for the sub!
@@audionautica6843 No need to thanks for the SUB , The sub was because of honest good content. UA-cam needs YOU. Yes I agree the 3120 gave its users a simple functional cost effective amp, but did not reduce the quality of sound , Just like your
video. Super cool Thank YOU. ;)