NAD Receivers

NAD; equipment for real men

NAD is one of the best named electronics manufacturers ever. Some have said it stands for New Audio Dynamics, some may even tell you it stands for New Acoustic Dimensions, but ask anyone who uses a separate pre-amp/power-amp package and theyll simply tell you they have a very potent, high current pair of NADs. NAD equipment is a workhorse of acoustic engineering; theyre the working class hero a veritable James Cagney among a sea of preening Orlando Blooms.

NADs latest receivers are just as high tech as any of the mainstream brands, giving its customers all the digital perks from a multi-channel receiver, such as multiple digital input/outputs, surround formats and digital/analogue decoding. But NAD specializes in implementing its gear using its age old philosophy of simplicity in engineering.

Its a philosophy thats worked well for the company over the decades and has made NAD into one of the finest hi-fi manufacturers, aiming at consumers who work for a living in the real world. As such, NAD is committed to affordability as well as quality; they carefully engineer receivers to give maximum quality at mid range price points that real people can afford. They achieve this by dispensing with many of the bells and whistles that lesser manufacturers feel look good on their specs sheets and features lists.

The T773 is NADs flagship Home Theater receiver and may be the finest made for just under $2000. It offers seven discreet channels at 110 watts apiece with all the processing you need for todays DVD surround sound formats including two channel formats like Dolby Pro-Logic II and DTS Neo 6. This big bad NAD weighs in at a beefy 52.8 pounds.

On the low end of the NAD spectrum is the T743 receiver that runs around $700 on the street. Although this one only specs at 5x50Watts per channel this is high current 50 watts and will provide most speakers with lots of high impact sound. The step down to 50 from 100 watts is only a difference of 3 decibels according to Ohms Law, so its actually refreshing to read specifications from a real audio manufacturer who wont let marketers mince numbers to make them sound good on paper or in a sales pitch. You can bet that a NAD receiver will probably out perform their own specs if really put to the challenge.