Nad C372 Amp

glennn

Hi, new to all this audio stuff so just hopping to get some advice so I don't purchase the wrong amp.
Currently got a set of Polk audio Monitor 10's (vintage speakers) and now need a decent amp to run them.
Only realy need a stereo amp, as I wont be using it for surround sound and HDTV home theatre at all just music,

So far in my price range ($1200-$1800 AUS) NAD C372 seems to have some decent specs but have read various reviews on this amp and a few have been disapointed with the sound quality (muffeled bass and a lack of high's)
Is this the concensos with this amp, average quality sound?

Also have been looking at Denon entertainment system amps, but in that price range it would only have 100-120 watts RMS, the shop assistant assures me that theres no way I need 150-200 watts to drive monitor 10's and get great clear sound out of them. But then the shop assistant for the NAD gear said 150 Watt upwards would be ideal


The setup I will eventually have is
1 pair of Monitor 10's the specs say 30-250 watt amps
1 pair of monitor 12's The specs say 30-400 watt amps
music listening only, so what amp do you recommend.

Thanks in advance
Luke.

John K.

Luke, welcome. The first point is that the 372 has flat frequency response from 20-20KHz, so any "muffled bass" or "lack of highs" might be in the material being played at the time, but in no way could be the fault of the 372.

In addition, don't be concerned by trivial differences(such as you've mentioned) in maximum power output of different units, regardless of what salesmen may claim. Power output causes increase in sound level on a logarithmic, not linear, basis. Doubling the power output only increases the sound level by 3dB, and this is exactly the same regardless of whether the increase is from 1 to 2 watts, 10 to 20 watts, 100 to 200 watts, 1000 to 2000 watts, etc. Exaggerated claims of benefits from a higher maximum capacity may be due in part to wishful thinking, or a failure to understand that different amplifiers have different gain levels and it's entirely possible for one to be actually putting out more power, be louder and therefore sound better than another equally good unit(which happens to have lower gain), even if the volume control is set the same(or lower).

glennn

John thanks for the info.
So you think a 120 watt amp will happily run the combined monitor 10's and 12's without any fuss ?
I have tried a 70 watt amp marantz I think it was just for the monitor 10s and it sounded pathetic compared to what they sounded like on a much more powerfull amp I heard them running on before I bought them.

avguytx

I have a pair of Monitor 10B's that I primarily run on a Carver M-1.0t (200wpc) amp that sounds outstanding. You might search for a used Carver and then send it to Rita at Sunfire and have it gone thru. I had some outputs replaced, etc and it sounds amazing. But...now that I go back and re-read, I see you're in Australia and that might be costly to send it to the states for re-working!

But NAD is good gear and it's hard to go wrong with it. Plus, you get the handiness of a remote control with a MUTE button! lol. I think NAD gear is very musical and doesn't "add" to the music.

cfrizz

Welcome Luke. I agree with AVGuy. If you can get your hands on a 200wpc amp I think you will be very happy.

As for the shop assistant, he's right you don't NEED 200wpc to drive your speakers. However, they will SOUND better with more power. They will have greater clarity, bass, depth, vocals & instrumentation.

So look around to see what you can get. A few amps that are popular around here are Rotel, Parasound, Adcom, Outlaw, NAD etc.

Good luck, let us know what you end up getting.

dkg999

Don't even bother with any amp under 200 wpc :rolleyes: Either go big or don't go at all

I wouldn't want all you people to discover all the great sounding amps in the 60 wpc to 150 wpc range and start buying them up! That would just raise the price of them, and ruin it for all of us that know the secret

cfrizz

Been there & done that. I'll keep my 200wpc & 405wpc amps. Thanks anyway!:p

dkg999 wrote:

Don't even bother with any amp under 200 wpc :rolleyes: Either go big or don't go at all

I wouldn't want all you people to discover all the great sounding amps in the 60 wpc to 150 wpc range and start buying them up! That would just raise the price of them, and ruin it for all of us that know the secret

BottomFeeder

I've got an NAD C320Bee w/a measly 50 wpc & I'm powering some Polk Audio RTA12C's. I've compared it to an NAD w/200 wpc and, at least to my ears, heard no SQ difference.

LuSh

This forum is turning into a mid-fi playground again with people throwing about insanely high wattage numbers.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Krell-Ksa-150_W0QQitemZ120099879403QQcategoryZ3280QQcmdZViewItem

That Krell can pretty much power anything on the planet. It's about quality and not so much about quantity. In a 'perfect world' numbers would mean something, sadly the world is far from perfect and thus you're better off using your ears. I find NAD stuff to be excellent sounding for the money.

The KRELL KSA 250 might have been the most dynamic amplifier ever created which had a 250 8ohm spec. It could however handle impedance swings as low as 1ohm.

reeltrouble1

The NAD will easily drive your speakers, I would consider it an excellent choice. Although I have not owned that particular model, I have owned many of their products including their amplifiers and pre-amps, I can tell you from experience the company makes quality products which are well engineered containing quality parts. NAD was among the first companies to bring High Current to the market at reasonable cost. The NAD soft clipping feature is very nice and will keep you from ever frying things. The piece will take you well beyond the Monitor 10B. I used their amplifiers (rated at 150 wpc into 8 ohm) to drive the Polk SDA 1C, a high quality vintage speaker rated to 750 watts, the amps are musical and deliver nice highs, powerful bass slam and liquid sounding mid ranges. The headroom they have for transient sounds is astonishing.

I would also second the Krell noted above. Fortunately, many quality audio products are now available to audio enthusiasts with one to fit most any budget.

RT1

glennn

Thanks for all the info,
I will see if I can hook the monitors up to the nad pre purchase just to make sure, But from the further reading I have done on it it seems nearly the best bang for my buck in regards to quality/quantity.

Just out of curiosity does anyone know what the RMS rating is for the
monitor 10's
monitor 12.

snow

reeltrouble1 wrote:

The NAD will easily drive your speakers, I would consider it an excellent choice. NAD was among the first companies to bring High Current to the market at reasonable cost. The NAD soft clipping feature is very nice and will keep you from ever frying things. The piece will take you well beyond the Monitor 10B. I used their amplifiers (rated at 150 wpc into 8 ohm) to drive the Polk SDA 1C, a high quality vintage speaker rated to 750 watts, the amps are musical and deliver nice highs, powerful bass slam and liquid sounding mid ranges. The headroom they have for transient sounds is astonishing.

RT1

Agreed the nad should be plenty for your speakers. There are a few maufacturers out there that even though the watts per channel may be less than 200wpc which i normally think of as a minimum. isnt required.

krell, mark levinison, nad, proton which actually made most all of nads oem parts. the amount of headromm is astonishing as he mentioned upwards of 7 db on most if not all of nad/proton amps.

I had a little proton D540 amp once that was rated at 40wpc and it beat an adcom 100wpc amp hands down everytime. the adcom would go into protect mode every time when pushed hard on a track with heavy bass. the little proton never flinched. and was actually stable into a 2ohm load which is pretty incredibile for a 40wpc amp. even though I feel adcoms are very nice amps also. especially the bigger ones. so sometimes numbers dont mean a lot. and the nads have a good following so resale should be possible too. REGARDS SNOW