My new amp vs my old amp

PSOVLSK

Well, I've had my new NAD T-955 for a couple of weeks now so I thought I'd go ahead and post my impressions. This will be pretty short and very non-technical.

I'd been running an XPA-5 in my HT for the past few years and decided to sell it and give something else a listen. I ended up with the NAD mainly due to the combination of price/new. It seemed to be priced in line with comparable used amps.

My first impression was not too good as I turned it on to find five blue lights shining from the front of the NAD...with no way to turn them off. The Emo had the same blue lights, but at least there was a switch to turn them off.

I find the sound very comparable to the Emo with my LSi setup. I think the bass is a little tighter, but nothing else stands out. I just don't hear any significant sonic differences one way or the other. My DSOTM blu-ray sounds fantastic with either amp in the system:cheesygrin:

The NAD runs very hot. It is hot to the touch and really helps my PJ heat of my modest little HT.

This experience cost me about $225, but I figure part of that price is hearing two different amps in my HT. The other benefit for me is having a new amp. The downside is of course spending $225 for little/no improvement...and retaining the annoying blue lights

thsmith

That is surprising Paul, the NAD stuff I have owned sounded really good and would have thought the would be a bigger difference between the 2.

BTW, really enjoying that black keys cd

Kex

When I first added a NAD receiver to my HT setup (having also owned Emotiva, very briefly, in the past), I also thought that I was noticing tighter bass initially ... and more of it. In fact, I lowered my crossover preference from 60Hz to either 50 or 40Hz as a direct consequence after an hour or so of experimenting with different settings.

After a week or so, my impression became more of a certainty, especially when I once found myself thinking how much I really did prefer it to prior setups. I wanted to turn off the subwoofer and make a few adjustments for experimentation purposes, when I found that I had forgotten to turn it on in the first place since my last adjustments. I had been listening to music for several days without a subwoofer at all, and found the bass output to be more satisfying than before.

I'm surprised by the heat "issue". My T754 receiver always stays cool, even at reference levels, running speakers rated 3-6 ohms with just 83dB efficiency. It does use four underside PC-like cooling fans, however. My next NAD experiment will almost certainly be a two channel amplifier, the C275BEE.

Out of curiosity, maybe you could remind us of what speakers you are using, listening levels, and room dimensions.

Here's an interesting review of the NAD, in case you hadn't read it already:

http://www.hometheatersound.com/equipment/nad_t955.htm

PSOVLSK

Kex wrote: »

Out of curiosity, maybe you could remind us of what speakers you are using, listening levels, and room dimensions.

LSi 15's, C, 7's

Listening levels have been varied, but probably about 70-75db during movies, a little less for music.

Room is about 12 x 13 with 10ft ceilings.

I have seen that review, but thanks for the link. And thanks for your experience with regards to the bass, seems as though we both discovered more/tighter bass.

For anyone interested, here's The Black Keys cd Tracy is referring to. I'd never even heard of it, but I stumbled across it at a used cd store. Good stuff!

And I don't want my "review" to come across as though I'm not happy with the NAD. I'm happy with it, I just really feel as though there wasn't much improvement.

michael1947

Thanks guys, this is all very useful information.

PSOVLSK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chulahoma:_The_Songs_Of_Junior_Kimbrough

Forgot to paste the link in the earlier post.