Why NAD's Flagship 3155 Integrated Looked Like a 1980s Budget Amp, But Didn't Sound Like One
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- Опубліковано 2 кві 2024
- In this episode, Mike and David remember NAD's top integrated from 1985 to 1987 - the 3155. A symphony in sombre grey paint, its unassuming case hides a powerhouse of a Class AB amplifier that sounds like a 3020 on steroids. That means sweet, warm, expansive and punchy. The guys agree that it's a delight, and wonder why it's largely been forgotten.
Each episode of Hi-Fi Riff features Mike and David's unedited, unexpurgated views about all manner of weird and wonderful hi-fi designs. Business executive Mike has a wealth of knowledge from previous hi-fi retail experience, and David has written about hi-fi for thirty years. Now Editor-in-Chief of StereoNET, he's picked up a few things along the way.
So relax and enjoy some one-take hi-fi riffing - and please leave your comments below. And don’t forget to hit the Subscribe button, this one goes up to eleven!
The eighties-tastic title tune is called ‘UFO/Mike’s Jumper’, and used with the express permission of our old pal and rights holder Simon Lythe.
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I sold many of these when I worked in a hifi shop back in the 80s. NAD has always been one of my favorite brands. I still own a 3020 and a 7225. BTW, I was riding a '76 Honda CB-400F back then. What fun!
For many years the NAD 7080 was the heart of my system. Extraordinarily clean and powerful...
Had the excellent receiver version with Schotz tuner circuitry - 7155. Sources were Rega 3 w Grace F9e and Nakamichi BX150. Speakers were DCM TF350. This system is still in use with a friend who bought it in 1996.
My start in Hifi in the early 80s was with a Creek 4040, but I always thought that NAD exemplified the austere look of UK Hifi back then. No expense wasted on appearance. I still use a C370/C270 combo now. The Creek never really recovered from my student days 😮. I must say, I enjoy all your videos, but especially the nostalgic ones. Great work, thank-you.
'He won't think we are cheating now, we gave him a plug. No plug intended' Lol. After giggling for 5 minutes about Amplifier Repair Services acronym. Very British hifi buffs.
I picked up one of these last year. And from lack of info around clearly are pretty rare, so good to see another one out there. Its my first amp, so I don't have anything to compare too. So have been intrigued as to how they are perceived by those in the know. The guy I got to service it, who has been restoring amps for decades was incredibly positive about it and its build quality.
My first separate system was a NAD 3020i in 1989. Sold it a few years later to “upgrade” to the 302. This was matched by the Wharfedale Diamond IV speakers.
Fast forward 35 years… sold the 302 in 2021 and bought a 304 in 2023. The Diamond IV speakers got damaged and I bought the Diamond V’s to go with the 304. Add some High-Res input and way you go. Oh and I also have the NAD 6325 tape deck. High-Res does make the cassettes sound as good as CD’s.
A real nostalgic journey.
Those switches sounded awesome! Great riff.
I had a 3020i paired with a Tannoy E11, loved the sound of that set.
Yes, I bet that was fun.
I brought a 3020 in 1981, my son has this and still sound great 😊
I also have one that I bought in 1981 , still got the original box as well , along with KEF speakers and. dual deck , all mint .
One of the best ever made!
What a pair of NADS fans ,oooer the banter 🤗
GO NAD!!!
I picked up one of these for free in about 1988 or 89. It was bought for use in a store but they couldn’t figure out how to use it and gave it to me. Unfortunately it’s physically kinda beat up but has almost no usage time on it. I keep it as a spare but when I’ve used it, it sounds excellent.
Ooooh I want one. I always loved the NAD aesthetic. Love the square green button. Also loved the old CD players with the beige rocker buttons and the red LCD.
Hard to come by now , great Riff always look forward to them
Cheers guys, always fun. Much as I enjoy your vintage reviews, I'm missing your thoughts on more modern units and would wish for more of these. The newer NAD amplifiers are definitely worth a look at, and would certainly be of more interest to me... Take care till next riff! :)
We had a nad 3020 in the 80s excellent . A few years back I bought a reconditioned 3020. It really is super stuff
still using my 2nd (recapped) 3020 and loving the sound - with the right source can be very detailed.
Not that I need anymore encouragement but I will go ahead and blame you guys for expanding my insatiable appetite for seeking out and experiencing yet more classic Hifi equipment.
I had two NAD 3020s & linked them together, sounded excellent.
as a dealer in the 90's I remember NAD being a great company to work with, too.
I also had a 3120 back in the day, basically a 3020 without the tone controls. It had a very low profile back in the day which surprised me as it was more “flat earth” without the tone controls!
Had a 3120 myself. After listening to it for twenty years I gave it to a relative after I "upgraded" to a newer and more powerful amp (also NAD). Letting that 3120 go is my greatest hi-fi regret.
@@Joe_Montfort My first proper 'hi-fi' amp was a 3120. Loved it!
Excellent, carry on Hi-Fi Riff !
Great riff keep them coming!
CHEEEESY! Hahaha. Good one! Was in a short film “Tunnel of Love” in Chelsea in the early 2000s. Played an agro motorcycle courier and the bike was a Kwaka 400 Four. It was a real couriers bike with a twitchy as heck throttle and would wheelie like crazy. Fun Times. Hope you’re still riding Mike!
My amp for a long time, matched to denon turntable and bronze cartridge. Very happy
I bought a NAD 3020 back the day when they new coupled up to some Mordaunt festival 3 loudspeakers i still got them ,there now in the garage for when i am working on the bikes
I also bought a brand new Suzuki Gs 4000b ….the year was 1977 …….ah the memories
Now I have upgraded to a Vincent SV-327 mk with a set of paradigm speakers
Thanks a lot. Very informative and meaningful.
Yous are right about the nad sound, I love it
I have been around 2 channel audio since my early teens but only got my first piece of NAD gear around the time I turned 50.
That was a decade ago and now I have a whole gaggle of them including a 3140, 3150, 3080 and 7080, all of which I have had restored.
I'm keeping them all; if one meets its maker then I'll just pull one off the shelf. Or maybe I'm just too old and too stupid to know any better 😉
Love NADs - Go NADs, sorry but you started it 😂.
Never had any NAD kit at all. Great stuff as always guys.
I run a Marantz PM 75 100w which has also an in built DAC with the famous Silver Crown version Philips TDA1541 chip. I bought it secondhand for £175 and have just had it recapped for £225. So for £400 I now have a wonderful sounding vintage Amp. A not too dissimilar an outcome to your NAD 3155.
Picked up a used 3155 around 1989 after hearing a friends 3130, liked it enough to keep it for 11 years until my next upgrade (Linn Kolektor + LK85). Now have an AVI Labratory series S21, which I think could be riff-worthy as it's undervalued on the used market compared to amps of similar spec and sound quality, e.g. ATC SIA-2 150.
Got a AVI S21
Great little amp.
How am I not surprised that David rode a 250 super dream 😅
I had a 3240PE many years ago , now I wish I had kept it.
What a weird coincidence! Inspired, at least partly by your retro riff’s, I have been pulling out old hi fi equipment from the closet and connecting it into new systems. Just today, I had built a system around a 3155 that I purchased around 1990. It sounded great but very different from the late 70’s Sansui AU317 that I put back into service last week. Neither needed recapping. It is kind of like having an audio time machine.
How do the NAD and Sansui compare?
Yeah. They have a magnetic switch inside that activates the chronovision.😮
The Sansui is a much warmer sounding amp than the NAD. The Sansui has a very tube (valve) like sound. The top end is very sweat/romantic sounding while the bass is somewhat round and a bit imprecise. The top end of the NAD is more open, cooler sounding but less tonally accurate in my opinion. The bass on the NAD is much tighter and solid relative to the Sansui. I’ve had them hooked up to the same pair of Phase Technology PC60 mk II speakers that I purchased along with the NAD around about 1990.
@@user-ez3uq1uu4m Hm, interesting. I would have thought it to be the other way around, for the most part. I understand the bass difference, what with that era of Nad being known for its powerful bass. I would have guessed the NAD to be veiled/ rolled off/ less open by comparison, though, but then again, I'm going based off memories of a 3225pe that I had when I was a kid (I wanted the 3240pe, but couldn't afford it then).
Anyhow, thanks for filling me in. Appreciated.
@@BadMonkeyFinger_Audio As a former AU317 II owner, I can second user-ez3's comments. The Sansui is like a NAD taken to the next level, in terms of tonality. Very warm and fluffy, too much so I think. Very soft and lazy but pleasant sounding amp. NAD is gutsier, tighter and more dynamic - but still way warmer than any modern solid-state amp. Modern Exposures are the closest thing you can now buy to the classic 1970s/1980s NAD sound.
Mike,keep up the childishness. As a purveyor of Dad jokes and being appreciative of innuendo I'll be entertained, giggling along with you.Carry on films did very well with that flavour of humour.
Yes, I thought old Pricey was a bit snotty in that exchange.
As Kenneth Williams might have said: oh matron, do give over. Carry on up the Creek. And careful with our precious knobs.
@@vandemon9643 "Filth!"
I had some DL4’s. They were super, really involving exciting listening.
I had an NAD play very good at low volume and at the same time can be driven with my little KEF and B&W subwoofer.
Looking fwd to the planned test review of the amp connected to Epos ES14s as mentioned!
I remember really "lusting" after the 6300 Monitor cassette deck as a teen in the late 80's but it was too expensive for me.
I still have the NAD 6325. Records so well you can’t tell it’s cassette.
Thanks guys. This reminds me that I need a (working) NAD amp again! I have a 3130 with a blown preamp section at the back of the cupboard, probably not worth repairing, so perhaps a 3155 is the way to go!
Great video guys, thanks. By the way, the last version of the 3020, the 3020i was introduced in 1991 so it continued for quite a while. Meanwhile I just got an original 3020 from the early 80's fully recapped and restored from a brilliant seller on E Bay who seems to be on a mission (no pun intended) to rescue as many of these as he can. There's another one on there right now if anyone is interested!
Happy with anything NAD and Motorcycles - a natural mix "IMHO" I also Like that you are presenting from a log cabin which is where I keep my Motorcycle memorabilia and my Hi Fi system (NAD C370, NAD C270, NAD 6325 CD deck, Michell Mycro Turntable, Pure Tuner DRX-702es, NAD 613 Cassette Deck ) and here I break with convention and run three sets of speakers - Tannoy DC6tTSpecial Edition for precision plus good hi frequency but a little clinical and Tannoy Mercury MX 4s for Solid neutral sound softening the clinical DC6Ts then vintage Bang and Ofusen Beovox s30's for depth, warmth and deeper base. So I am so in phase with this review. I really like NAD and how it delivers sound. I am no expert and have not sampled many products as I am having to cope the World International Finance Enforcement (W.I.F.E. for short) so cannot spend much at all. All I can say is that 40 years of well known on line auction bargain buy's has ended up with a system I love and predominantly NAD - so keep doing what you are doing. Thanks
Just liked and subscribed! Great video
Fantastic! Thank you so much.
Mike
Ok, giving away my age here but I bought mine new. Just replaced the caps last year. Amps have came and went but the 3155 still is my reference. I used to run the 2155 and ran them bridged, but that was unnecessary. A great sounding integrated.
I would have enjoyed recapping that myself. I recapped a Crimson Elektrik amp 15 years back with Nichicon reservoir caps and Black Gate for the smaller caps, and really enjoyed the process. The designer of Crimson amps was kind enough to email me the circuit diagram.
I visited. A high fi store to hear different speakers that I was interested in, in the late mid 1980s.
"What's that sound that they all have?" I asked. They all had that great something special.
NAD electronics!
Another fantastic hi-fi rift and All things 1985 I would appreciate if you guys could review a naim DAC and if possible with the naim XPS Dr PSU
Looks almost identical to my dad's old 3240PE.
i had a NAD integrated amplifier from late 70´s(new acoutic dimension ,at the time written) ,it was as good as others but looked very good with needles as power meters ,don´t know if there was a less good brand but i ended up later to buy exactelly that amplifier was the last thing i bought from NAD, later it seemed built with the cheapest materials, a friend of mine saw a complete system by components in a store, when checking a new cassette deck a key fell to the ground ,the owner of the store said "no problem is happening all the time" . In the 70´s it looked real nice, i should had bought a entire system from New Acoutic Dimension. The one you have there is a nice sounding amplifier ,with all options one could want, and most of the speakers i tried on it, they would sound amazing good and i do like a punchy bass, i ended up conecting to it a pair of Mssion 761 4 ohms that i had bought and later put some SB-F3 from technics(79 model) on top of a CS pioneer speakers for the bass
I had the Taiwan made Proton version of this exact Integrated Amplifier back in the day. It was a very competent unit in its time with an excellent MM phono stage, and a warm and wide soundstage. I traded up to a used Yamaha CA-1000 from this unit (that I still have), but I do miss it and wish I'd held onto it.
Oh i had a Proton 510, a very good alternative to the ubiquitous Nad 3020 and the better for it i feel.
Another great vintage review, thanks :)
Always loved NAD, and I remember viewing that early series in the only serious hi-fi shop in my town. They looked amazing!
I currently own what I believe it is the last serious Class AB amplifier from NAD, the C275BEE. Do you have an opinion on this amp?
Nice one chaps!
I went Cambridge A60E, friend had 3020. Both fun.
I'm trying to work out the NAD / Proton thing. The "green button" NADs were mostly contract-built by Fulet, a Taiwanese OEM who also sold their own very NAD-like products under the Proton (nothing to do with the Malaysian state carmaker - make mine a Jumbuck!).
I stand to be corrected, but the received wisdom was that production of the original 3020 was subbed out to Tatung, also Taiwan-based, and owners of Decca's UK consumer electronics interests from 1981. The Taiwan-built Decca TVs fell well short of Japanese quality standards, and the 3020 was a rough old thing which would never have passed muster at Pioneer, Sansui, JVC et. al. I'm not persuaded by NAD's "performance before presentation" argument. By the late 1970s Japan couldn't NOT do quality. It was built into the mindset and every part of the production process. Taiwan was at least five years behind, but they were cheap. The original 3020 had impressively hefty steel casework, but the buttons were sub-Amstrad.
quality. And yet it had five totally otiose power LEDs which were unlikely to impress anybody. Still can't work that one out...
My 3020 had two rebuilds before I applied the "Two strikes and you're out" rule, and consigned it to the to the loft. The 4020, a tatty second hand purchase survives, as does my 'green button' 5425 CD player, a very neat and good-sounding item for very little money - the precision and quality was a revelation.
Finally, it looks like Onkyo may have been NAD's Japanese sub-contractor for the 3155. Again I stand to be corrected.
Great video and a great amp, I like these vintage components much better than modern stuff which has all this digital gubbins thrown in. Keep up the good work on vintage gear!🙂
Very cool 😎
I bought a NAD 3150 new and still have it love the sound. There is a little difference between the two the 3150 have two power transformers instead of one for the 3155.
Great amplifier these. Sold a load of them. Better than the later Power Envelope, which we re-named Potential Explosion. Astonishing phono stage for the money with plenty of gain. I still have a 3150 and a 7120 receiver, which I used to partner with my long departed Heybrook HB1's with a SEE Revolver/LVX turntable. We were so spoilt for choice back in those days. Great riff lads. 🙂
I think the Revolver is a hidden gem, I have an Ittok on mine as a second turntable but I have just bought a Linn Basik so I am going to try the arm on that.
@@tonyjedioftheforest1364I agree. Very good turntable for not a lot of money. I thought it was better than the Rega 2 at the time. They sold very well indeed. Never heard an Ittok on one, that must be interesting. The Linn Basik was a very good deck too, not sure which one will win that battle , but my money is on the Revolver.
@@analoglooney I will keep you posted as I am going to do it this week. I would think that the Linn would be better due to its better bearing and platter and the feet are larger and softer.
@@tonyjedioftheforest1364Yes, please do I would be interested to know. I used to sell them side by side. The early Revolver was better with the MDF platter rather than the later Rebel. The Revolver bearing was something else. It was so well machined and tight that we has to put phone books on the platter over night so the platter would sit down. The Linn will most likely image better and be warmer and richer sounding. The Revolver is a punchy up front performer, close to direct drive. I suppose it depends what you like. 🙂👍
The eighties for me was Honda XL250R, Rega Planar 3 with Nagoka MP11, Mission Cyrus One and Mission 737 Rennaissance Speakers. Still have the stereo gear but had to take out the input selector switch and hardwire the input to phono.
Class! As far as dirt bikes went, in the eighties I had a Honda XL185 and a Suzuki TS185ER. Mike had a Yamaha DT100 and a DT400, plus the XL185 before I had it. We were riding The Ridgeway practically every day on those. Later in life I bought a BMW F650, and now I have a Honda MTX200R. Mike has a big KTM now.
I have compared so many preamps against my NAD 1155 and it just destroys them one by one.High Output is just mind blowing.People say you need to recap old units,but don't believe them! NAD 1155 is from the 70's and still sounds cleaner and more musical than so much more expensive new stuff!I am done comparing preamps though !😅
Thanks chaps for this, as the 3155 was always a bit of an enigma for me as both a 3020 and 3130 owner. We used to sell loads of 3130's in the Buckinghamshire hifi dealer owned by Bananman I used to work part-time in. I think the equivalent Rotels were 'better' amps than the NADs, but I along with many others just warmed towards the NAD sound. They were punchy, dynamic and just enjoyable to listen to. The Cyrus range always seemed slightly up-front and anaemic in comparison, to my ears anyway. Just a bit less, well, lovely.
I'm not sure which viewer you were referring to re. the Epos 14s, but it may well have been me? I'd be happy to loan you mine, but they're in a storage unit & I'm rarely in the UK and without a car, so that's a bit problematical. If you get hold of a pair, partner them with an Axis/NAIT by all means, but at the risk of being overly enthusiastic about the capabilities of my beloved 14s, Mike's Exposure IV's would really make them sing? Not an unreasonable combination in light of the garbage in garbage out mantra of the day. In fact I've no intention of ever replacing my Epos, the only upgrade I'd look to is a pair of NAP 135s driving them with my NAC 32.5/HI-CAP, so Mike's Sondek/Exposure rig is very much in the same ball park?
The NAD 3130/3155 were perhaps kind of an introduction to the Naim/Exposure ladder, although I enjoyed many years with a Myst TMA3 in between the NAD and Naim years, and that little Myst was a stunningly capable little amp with a big, big heart and a cracking MC stage.
I'm thinking, and this goes for all our upgrade histories and perhaps to all folks out there, does my Naim 32.5/Hi-Cap/140 actually bring me any more joy than my old NAD 3130? The Naim's better for sure, understandably so. But does it bring me any more joy? I was lucky enough to have the 3130 as a 14yr old lad. Wow, what pleasure I had in those early days! Just about the time a guy called David Price emerged onto the scene, and I thought 'Yeah? Who's this young whippersnapper then?'
I’m a fan of amps with character over total accuracy, like the 3155. All my amps play music differently (JVC S200L, NAD 3020, Quad 34/405-2, Leak stereo 30). The Quad’s are the most accurate but I enjoy listening to music on all of them and I find tonally accurate amps a bit dull to listen to 🎶🎵😎
I definitely don't care for the end class D amps compared to the a/b of the past. That is why I went with the Cambridge CXA81 over the latter NAD equivalent. I may look to see if I can find one of these. Thanks guys.
I have a CXA80 for my main unit. I have a 3155 for my garage.
This and many other NAD amps/receivers from the 80s are filled with ICs. The 1979 NAD 3020 however was all discrete. That was one of it's secrets why it sounded so lively and pure and not "shrink wrapped" like hoards of other consumer gear. Don't assume all NAD amps are alike... the 3020 had different designers (like APT Holman) and stood apart from their other products.
Ah, Rambling Sid Rumpo! How many of the youth of today....[continued on page 94]
i had one for years and only changed as i got older and was relegated to TV surround so went arcam much to the misses dismay so sold it to my mate who lost it in a burglary
Going back two your riff would you sell your videotone speakers
My NAD 7100 Receiver actually powers my Apogee Calipers that are about 79 db /W/ m with nominal 3 ohm rating. P.S. It was made in Taiwan I think.
The 3150 version is dual-mono with 2 power transformers! That's why it is heavy.
I have a 3155 given to me by my friend, the original owner. It just crapped out on me, one side of it, and I just bought a new Cambridge to replace it, my first new amp since I always had my old ones from high school in the 70's/80's. Is it worth fixing the NAD 3155?
Yes I assume.
How fo connect a fx o3 chinese litlle tube preamp tol the nad 3155? ,can you help tks.
You can feed the 'preamp out' RCA sockets of the tube preamp to the 'power in' input of the NAD 3155. Should work nicely.
I have the Nad 3155 paired with B&W DM4 and the Bose 501 (completely different sounds but both great )
Go NAD!
Now there’s a man who doesn’t talk b*ll*cks……
I find it strange how popular these early NADs were. I had a listen to a 3020 and an Arcam Alpha. I bought the Arcam as at the time sounded much better than the NAD.
Yes i too compared the 3240pe which i owned to an arcam alpha 5 & it was clear as day the alpha 5 was more refined, transparent, detailed & more beautiful sounding. Later i had the Arcam delta 290 & compared it to an accuphase 203 & i still preferred the Arcam.
What does that 'Impedance' switch do? Does the unit use output transformers like McIntosh?
No. The power transformer had two tertiary windings. In 4 ohm mode it would switch in the extra windings so the amp could deliver more current/voltage into 4 ohms. Harman Kardon done a similar thing on the 645vx.
@@analoglooney Is that true? Why would you do that? If the voltage was the same but at high current, you don't achieve anything. From my memory and something that makes sense, into 4 ohms you use a lower working voltage and into 8 ohms you use a high voltage. It's a cop out really so it does not overheat. A better way to do it is to use the high voltage and rate it correctly like this. Say 50watts into 8 ohms and 100 watts into 4 ohms. This would cost more because you will need to double the heatsinks and probably the power transistors, maybe even the drivers.
As no speaker is either 4 or 8 ohms. An average speaker could well have an impedance maybe dropping to 3 ohms to over 12 ohms or more ohms at different frequencies. So, a GOOD amplifier should deliver a rising power as the impedance drops. Not the case with this amplifier. Many AV amplifiers do this so-called impedance switch. One reason why so many AV amplifiers sound like shit. Just an excuse for poor heatsinking and small power transformers.
Don't even dream of an output transformer, a good one will double the amplifiers size and cost. It will also have a large effect on the sound and distortion. Leave such thoughts to the valve people.
@@MichaelBeenyYou are correct on all your assumptions. Why would you do it? to save money and fudge the figures! You can clearly see it on the schematic. As you say, it's a cop out to save money on heatsinks and a bigger transformer. All this guff about 'NAD Watts' is a myth. I've measured them all and they just about make their power ratings but get very hot doing so. They clip hard too. The specification into 4 ohms is a bit foggy in the manual! The magazines would swoon over the power ratings of some of these amps into 4ohms, 2 ohms etc but they didn't tell you that it wasn't continuous power. Some of the heatsinks fitted to these amps was a joke and could never maintain those power ratings for more than a few seconds on the bench. That is one thing I always admired about Technics amplifiers. They always had a bloody big heatsink, even the budget ones with SVI output modules, some even had a fan. I used to laugh at some of the power ratings of these amplifiers when I saw the lack of heatsink being used and the winky mains transformers.
@@analoglooney After making my little rant here I thought, ohh dear Mike, you have opened a can of worms. Like you I have measured many amplifiers in the past. I still do on my now closed UA-cam channel. You will notice that many of the British amplifiers of the day were often much smaller than the, then mostly Jap amplifiers. While many UK amplifiers did sound very good, they often got very hot when driven. Mostly because of poor heatsinks and little ventilation. Nothing much has changed, most HiFi is now from China, very little meets the rated power output sometimes by up to 50%. Class D are mostly a joke, most overheat, many have NO ventilation at all. Most contain output filters that give HF lift at 8 ohms and HF cut into 4 ohms. You could never get reviews in the magazines unless you paid for pages of adverts.
Still running a NAD 7020e receiver (basically a 3020 with a digital tuner)
Its never been touched, still going great, i find it lacks detail and resolution and the low end is like a marshmallow.
Ive actually just bought a Loxjie a40 because im ready for a different sound, something a little less warm and laid back.
btw David did you work as a bike courier at the time? That Honda 250 was at the time the stereotypical London courier bike if I recall.
No, but it was my only transport, so it served a similar role - it did regular motorway runs between Oxford and Bristol. A great daily hack.
Mine had fresh Avon Roadrunners and was tuned up by Dream Machine, and was a very nice example.
Sold it years later and bought a VF-500 F2 Interceptor, which I adored.
23 minutes to tell us you like the amp, but nothing about WHY it sounds good, as the title promises. Nothing about class g, which it is. (Edit: I checked the schematic. 3155 is not a dual rail class g amp like the ones I have). I have 3 nad's from this era, all made in Japan. I serviced them and recap only as needed. Pull caps from these and most will test ok unless the unit was abused. Not true for the taiwan and malaysia units, which gave nad a bad reputation. I agree with the comment about rock solid bass from these, which is where they beat a lot of competition. Mids and highs i think are comparatively easy to get right, but i have yet to figure out exactly what is in the power amp circuit that sets these apart regarding bass. Incidentally the class g rail switching technology was around before the mid 80's, but the diodes weren't fast enough for transparency. You are really paying for the circuit with these, and they are worth it.
I had a similar a amp the nad 3100 monitor series it was a great amp but sounded amazing when i had it recapped
I'm sure it did! Mike
Mike & Dave 2 Go NADs😂
I’ve a 3130 and a 3155 there great amps
looks amazing!!! I don't like integrated's If they release a power amp with these looks I would get one hands down!
What's not to like? The "soft clipping" light, indeed the whole soft clipping idea. As you say, it sounded awful if you tuned it on. In my opinion it didn't sound that good with it turned off. I never saw the attraction with NAD stuff
Still using a NAD 3150 (recapped) in a third system.
Have a version of this branded Proton. May be found at a discount
9:40 so are NAD mono blocks known as a giant pair of NADs? 😆
Preceded by the 3140! The big brother of the 3020...same vintage/styling! The 3155 looks mostly like cosmetic changes to the 3140!
Sorry this is not relevant to this video, but it is audio related. I have a pair of ATC studio monitors that Peter Gabriel had in his Real world studio.[ Wilts They are quit big extremely heavy mainly Due to all the drivers. You need 4 stereo power amps that needs to push around 300w per channel and 2 or one big crossover. The equipment I use doesn't do them the justice they deserve. even at around 33 years old they still warrant good equipment. Having having said that, they still sound amazing.
Brilliant 😂😂😂
Great amps
wonder if they are using better parts than they used too...
I find it hard to believe that this thing when bridged could be really stable at 4ohm not to mention operate at 2ohm at all. Doubling its power when doing so is also hard to believe.
I agree, it's a bit of a stretch. Although to be fair, NADs of this era were better driving into low loads than most.
@@MrVinylista Low load driving ability gets worse when bridged.
@@razisn The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away!
I had a NAD receiver back in the 80s, same design series as shown here. It ran for more than 20 years. Replaced it with a similar NAD, which unfortunately did not run for very long. I am sorry to say that I have not trusted the company since then.
Mike, you haven't had the pleasure of using a real foot and knee buster if you've never had a Honda XL600R.
Had a Nad C340 amp in the 90's. Loved the sound through the speakers. Unfortunately I disliked the tinny casework and the really annoying low level hum from the transformer!
Better old Style than marantz carbon aplication on the Front!!!😅😅😅
Not seen on videos much; how about the 3400?
Sadly that's one NAD that I'm not familiar with!
Taiwan is very educated
Metal .
Well built
a beast
Wow Sockets
Brilliant.
Thoughtful
Awesome..
Thou id like to challenge you to sit there that long with my Ashly FTX1200 on your lap
( Man i struggle just to get the breast out of the rack, need help to get it back in )
You know, i always regretted getting the Denon ( not the NAD 3155 )
Good to see the 3155's are still out there. 🤗
Regards, John in Cheltenham
How it sounds???