NAD CD players

I am seriously considering getting a high-quality outboard DAC to work with my vintage made-in-Japan Sony C75ES changer, assuming there is a digital output on the changer. IMO, only very pricey CDP's are well-made nowadays ...

 

99% of everyone thinks a $299 “entry level” CDP is an insane amount of money to spend already.

That’s the same price as a PS4 or a 42” 4K TV

 

Two participants of the classical music forum have the following Esoteric SACD player K-03 ...



MSRP $13,000, made in Japan and weighs at least 30 lbs.



This is one serious machine and the last CDP anyone would ever need.

 

Yep.

 

Yes I believe the whole Silverline Series was built in Gryphons factory in Denmark. I had (and still have but now in storage) the NAD S100 pre amp and S200 power amp, both very well built units working flawless all the time.

 

Wish I knew where I could get mine repaired. One of the best cds players I ever owned. Not sure what the problem is, but it takes forever to power up.

 

Actually weighs over 60 lbs.
For those of you playing along at home that's nearly $ 220.00 a pound.

Esoteric : the Kobe beef of CD players.

D.D.

 

Another reason I do not care for a minute about those 10 lbs CDP made in certain country ...

 

I have been quite amazed at the errors detecting/correcting circuitry of the Sony C75ES changer. While I bought the machine in early 90's and pretty much stopped using it after the mid to late 90's, I have never heard any mistracking ...

 

Isn't the NAD S100 essentially the same as the NAD 116 except for the chassis?

 

The S100 is more well built with high quality components, the S100 and 116 have a similar look but are a little different.

 

The NAD Silverline was the last NAD premium line that was made outside China. NAD used to make its premium line in Japan or Europe. I still have a few NAD Monitor Series components, which were all made in Japan ...

 

Yes I remember the NAD Monitor Series amps and receivers were very, very good.

 

I have both NAD 1700 and 2100. The 2100 needs some service as one channel cuts out on me intermittently ...

 

This has been refuted several times by the founder of Gryphon (can't find the articles at the moment), but it begs the question - who made the Silver Series? I can't think of any other high-end Danish mfg's who could have done it for NAD. Also, the S300 integrated amp looks a lot like the Gryphone Tabu and NAD's S400 tuner like Gryphon's Primare.

 

So Gryphon builds components for Primare, a Swedish audio company?

 

My C 516BEE has never skipped or otherwise malfunctioned. It doesn't sound as good by itself as when paired with an Emotiva DC-1 DAC, but it sounds really good nonetheless.

China gets a bad rap. They can build anything you want to any quality level specified. If you don't like a made in China sticker, blame the complex international economic realities of 21st century commerce, the nefarious machinations of crony capitalism, the self-defeating tendencies of organized labor, the competition sapping crush of government regulation; greed, laziness, the tooth fairy, or whatever. But don't blame "China."

 

^Good post. If you dig early Analogue synth sounds, you have to give props to Asian manufacturing.

 

Quick question about the 523. Just picked one up for the wifie-type-appendage's office system but it doesn't have a remote. The picture of the remote in the manual is crappy and I can't make out all the buttons on it nor what NAD remote model number it is. Does anyone know what NAD remote model number it is and/or know where I can find a picture with all the button labels readable on the remote? I want to program the buttons into the Harmony remote I already have set up for her to run her system which is why I'm asking. Thanks in advance!

 

Have you checked on the NAD website? It may have owner manual for this changer in PDF format to allow you to zoom in. Is the Harmony remote some kind of universal remote?

 

I did check the NAD website and could not locate the manual there. I've been able to download the manual from 3 different sites including Hifi Engine and they all have the same crappy diagram of the remote to spite the balance of the manual being clear. I'm almost thinking the picture of the remote was just crappy in the manual.

The Harmony remote control I'm referring to is, in fact, a universal remote control. They are fairly costly but in my experience they are worth the $$$ as they are highly customizable and simplify multi-remote-control situations quite well.

I'm good to go on this as a very helpful member sent me a message that pointed me in the direction that got me what I need. Thanks to that member

 

I bought a lovely NAD C542 CD player in the mid 2000s. Made in Japan. Burr-Brown multibit DAC. Decoded HDCD. Sounded very nice indeed. It was my first deluxe CD player--cost about 500.00 IIRC, and I bought it from Sound & Image Design, a NAD retailer in Richmond VA. Worked great during the warranty period (one year) and then started generating "disc read errors" on both CD-Rs and commercially pressed CDs. If I turned the unit off and then turned it back on, and then tried the disc several times, it would usually lock on and read the TOC. But the problem got worse and worse.

I did a lot of web searching and finally discovered it was a known issue at NAD. I believe there was even a service bulletin. But by that time I was well out of warranty, and NAD wasn't doing the repair for free so far as I could tell. There was a DIY solution floating around the web for awhile but I never had the time or gumption to try. That said, I've never gotten rid of the unit, and I would like to get it working again, so I keep it and crawl the web every now and then, and think about the DIY project I'll do someday, someday, manana for sure.

 

CD player has never been one of the stronger NAD product lines ...

 

I had one of those around the same time. Fun player.

 

Had one of these also. INCREDIBLE.