[Review] NAD S300 First impressions.

NAD S300 First impressions.

With reference to this thread...

The S300 has now arrived, after failed delivery by the courier yesterday.

The very first impression on removing it from the box was....

"omigodthisis****ingheavyimgoingtohaveahernia"

It weighs more than half of what I do...

Construction is seriously solid everywhere you look, except for the lid, which seems a bit thin compared to the ultra-chunky front and heatsinking. The lid is also slightly off-centre which is disappointing in a product of this calibre. The heatsinking down the sides is extraordinarily hefty. It remains to be seen whether it is overkill, but I very much doubt underkill.

I managed to maneouver it somewhere near the hifi. Power cable in first, and it springs to life. I had got the impression that the LEDs on it were green, but they're blue. All the rage don't you know. The power LED sits flashing ominously for some time (about 30 seconds...) then goes out when the output relays click in. There are four red LEDs on the pcb, visible through the lid when powered up. I assume that these are status LEDs for the two channels.

Very nice speaker terminals and input socketry. The speaker terminals do, however, bring up one annoyance, in that the spades of my Tara Labs RSC barely go into the shrouds of the terminals, and the terminal just screws down onto the ends of the prongs.

And onto the sound....

Nope. Going to keep you waiting on that, as it's been powered on for such a short time. Promising, but I will withhold final judgement for a while.

 

Re: NAD S300 First impressions.

I hate you...



hehe, but seriously, i can't wait to hear what you're thinking. don't keep us in suspense for too long

 

GRR the suspence, Damn you Isaac.

does it fit on ya hifi shelves? or is it too big?

 

Well now it is warm (literally... it idles at about 35C)...

Pretty much it is exactly what I was hoping for and expecting based on the reports I'd read.

It has awesome bottom end control. Not quite bel canto, but seriously tight and deep.

Separation is superb. The overall balance is very even... more forward in the mid than the rotel, but that's not a bad thing, as previously my system sounded somewhat recessed. Rather more open now. Treble.... I've seen it described as "acid" in the treble. Not the case in my setup... less so than the rotel. I do have soft-dome tweeters in the meadowlarks though...

Overall the character is very nice. It's even handed, detailed and separated, but it's far from devoid of life, although not as all-out in your face as some stuff is. It's very easy to listen to (not tiring as my old marantz/b&w setup was).

Well, I'm

 

Does it fit....

No. It will have to go onto the top shelf of the rack, which means the rack has to come out from under the desk, which makes positioning difficult, especially considering the constraint of the length of my speaker cable.

Since the rack requires dismantling before moving (since it's over 100kg by itself), that will wait until sunday...

 

This is a bad thing, Isaac! If it's flashing it is in speaker protection mode. It should come on solid for about 10 seconds and then flick off once it's initialised.

Get this checked out - it's exactly what happened to me just before my output stage went tits up.

 

The best way to know if the s300 is defective is to watch the leds inside the chassis, they must be red (they are four of them, two per channel), if they are in another color, there is something defective. This is a typical gryphon way to do things.

Mine S300 last at least 15 seconds to power on, flashing light is not an issue I think.

 

They are indeed red. Nothing seems untoward, but I will check to see what the manual says.

Two things I have noticed...

It hums. Quite loudly. Mechanical hum, rather than electrical.

No pre-outs. Ok, so you wouldn't buy an integrated of this sort of money to stick a power amp on it, but for maximum versatility they'd be nice.

 

The manual says:

(the emphasis is mine).

I wonder if a fault in the output stages could also cause this problem....

Michael.

 

Probably there is a big problem here, I have heard two S300, mine and another from the store and they never hum by any chance.

Try to turn around the main cable, polarity can be in the opossite. I think this is the last test you can have before you go to the store and check for the warranty.

By the way, the S300 needs a lot of air, they must be placed in an open rack.

Good lok.

 

You can't put a UK-IEC mains cable in the wrong way around.

I'm going to look into this...

 

Isaac, there could be the possibility that the IEC plug or 13A plugtop have been incorrectly wired, IE reversed polarity. Just a thought

 

does it hum all the time, or only intermittently? Could be the mains.

 

Would that make any difference at all given it's delivering an AC supply? Not all of mine are wired the same way and I'd assumed it couldn't possibly matter...

 

yep it does
means your neutral and live are reversed
also means the neutral is fused and not live, thats bad mmm'k

 

I guess, although with a figure of 8 type connector you don't know which way is which so the fuse thing can't be too important?

 

Isaac,

Why not do what a reviewer from the internet review site The Stereo Times did :-

 

Getting the mains polarity right is important and can make a difference to the sound. In Europe where it's possible to put plugs in either way all the obsessive hifi nerds (like me ) use a polarity checker screwdriver to detect which is live. I now have all my sockets and plugs marked for polarity :MILD:

The fuse doesn't really matter that much. European plugs don't have fuses in them anyway - one of the reasons they sound so much better :JPS:

Michael.

 

Forgot to add: when I had the S300 in my system it had no noticeable hum at all.

Michael.

 

The hum is mechanical, not electrical. Through the speakers it is dead quiet, even with regard to the thermal hiss mentioned in another thread lately.

Also, it is not of a level that most people will notice in most situations. You are certainly not aware of it in normal operation, but my situation is unusual in that I sleep in the same room, so I notice pretty much any noise. The 50VA toroid in my superDAC psu is almost as loud, but since that's at the back of its rack shelf rather than out in the open, it does not propogate as much. I am sensitive enough to noise that I have to unplug my mobile phone charger at night because of the racket it makes (it whistles). It has quietened somewhat.

Regarding the flashing LED, the manual confirms that is a speaker protection indication. I'm presently discussing with the supplier of the amp what to do about it.