NAD T752 & C270 opinions. (1 Viewer)

[Micheal]

I'm thinking of going with a NAD combo of the T752 & the C270. Is anyone here familiar with NAD Electronics equipment? Either that or I could jump up to the new T762 Thoughts/Opinions?

 

[Mark Dickerson]

Yep. I went to a dealer's demonstration about six weeks ago. Heard the NAD (without the separate amp) compared to "more powerful" H/K, Onkyo and Denon receivers. The NAD simply blew the others away. Not only did it sound more powerful, but the sound was cleaner, more accurate and more detailed than the competition. Using the same source material, and the same surround speaker system, I could hear more sounds in the movie soundtracks than I could with the other receivers. I was so impressed, I am getting a 752, myself. I have shopped everything in the $800-$1200 price range and the NAD was easily the best sounding amp I heard. Adding the C270, would really be an incredible system.

BTW, in my research, I came across a review of the 752 in an English audio mag that claims that the 752 is made in the same assembly plant as the Arcam receiver. It even claimed that the two are indistinguishable on the inside. The Arcam, which I have not seen around here, is something like $1200-1300, but is very highly regarded. For what its worth

 

[Micheal]

Thanks Mark, I'm really thinking about getting the T762. I'll just have to demo it first.

Thanks again for the great information.

Mike

 

[JamesHl]

I have a T762 and would recommend it, since they seem to have ironed the bugs out. Early production units have a crummy noise floor. Since I live in an apt, I didn't notice until recently because I'd never turn it up past -8 or so. However, that's supposedly been fixed.

 

[Jonathan M]

I have a T752 - if you are getting a separate power amp for the fronts (C270 for instance), you won't benefit all that much with going for the T762. The only things it has that are extra are an extra channel of amplification, more power, and a more inputs/outputs. You could reassign the front channel amps of the T752 to drive the surround rears and use a C270 for power for the mains.

The preamp sections of these units is virtually identical, and with the new software, they have the same features (***** SEE MY POST BELOW FOR THE EXTRA ZONE FEATURES + HDCD *****). Definitely get one with the v1.20 software (It's a free upgrade if you get an earlier one) - this irons out a few bugs that were present.

The only other thing to consider is if you require analog bass management - both the 752 and 762 have digital only implementations of the bass management.

You can see the innards of my T752 on my website (Click the www link above, or the link in my sig).

Cheers,
Jonathan

 

[Micheal]

Johnathan, would you suggest getting the T752/C270 combo or just the T762?

Thanks again!

 

[Jonathan M]

Hmm - I guess it depends on how much power you need for the fronts and surrounds. If you're wanting to go 7.1, then you'll need at least another channel of amplification anyway, as the T762 only gives 6, and the T752 only gives 5.

If you only need the 92x5 supplied by the T752 for the centre and surrounds, then you'll be fine. I seem to recall that a user over on avsforum.com is using a T752 and C270 for his system - it seems they go together well. What sort of speakers are you running, and will they be set to SMALL or LARGE?

Cheers,
Jonathan

[Edited to correct # of amps in the T752 - thanks Mark]

 

[Mark Dickerson]

Jonathan:

Just a correction to prevent confusion. The 762 has 6 channels and the 752 has 2? Don't you mean the 752 has 5 channels?

Mark

 

[Jonathan M]

Thanks Mark - I'll edit and correct the above post. Also, I have recalled the rest of the differences between these models:

1. Extra amp
2. More power (100W instead of 80W)
3. Main Ins for all 6 channels (Instead of just the front 3 on the T752)
4. Dual-zone
5. Extra component video input
6. Speaker A/B switch
7. HDCD compatible
8. Beefier power cord (Due to higher power consumption)

If any or all of the above are worth the extra $$, I'd go for it.

 

[Mark Dickerson]

Jonathan:

You only forgot that the 762 has 2 cooling fans instead of one, and it also has an RS-232 port (although for what, I don't know)! Great job. I would tend to agree that the 762 is worth the difference if you have the cash.

I think the 762 is a very impressive machine and when I went to my dealer to ask about a Magnepan HT setup, he pointed me to only two receivers, the T762 for $1300, or the McIntosh for $4K, to drive them. Pretty heady company. When I asked about the Yamaha ZX-1, he shook his head and said I would be paying for a lot of things I would never use and it simply didn't have the guts to pull it off.

However, your list did make me think of a question. I did want to ask what is the difference between HDCD, SACD and DVD-Audio. A DVD-Audio is in the DVD format and the SACD is a layered CD format, but what is HDCD? I know the 752 has 7.1 analogue inputs for DVD-Audio, but what is the difference between that and what the 762 offers?

 

[Micheal]

Hmmm.... I'm (probably) going to buy the Mirage Omni/OM series, Omni-260 mains, Omni-CC Center, OM R-2 rears and the OM200 Sub.

So..., I take it that you guys would agree that the T762 would be a slightly better purchase than the T752/Amp combo? I'm going to be setting up a 6.1 system (although 7.1 would be nice down the road...).

Thanks again for all your help, please keep it going.

 

[EdNichols]

Anybody compared the sound of NAD with Marantz?

 

[Mark Dickerson]

Ed:

Yes, I have. The Marantz is very nice, but its sound has no where the detail of the NAD. Again, the only way to compare is head to head through the same speakers and with the same source material. In my view, I would take a Marantz over any of the other receivers from the Japanese audio cartels (Sony, Pioneer, Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo, Kenwood, Panasonic, etc), but it still has many of their design limitations (power supply, processors, output transistors). Consequently, the Marantz (the 7300, which has the same MSRP as the 752, so it was the one I demo'ed) does not have the same detail in reproducing the source material as the NAD. I could hear things clearly on the soundtrack when played through the NAD that were either muffled or non-existent when played through other receivers. That is what made me an NAD fan. In fact, the salesman argued with me that the NAD had too much detail! Personally, I want to hear the soundtrack as the artists intended, which is why I favor the NAD.

Michael:

Last night I remembered one other feature on the 762 that both Jonathan and I failed to mention, but it really caught my eye--the 762 has a Holmgren Toroidal Power Supply. This is high rent stuff, usually found only on high quality separates (May explain why it has two cooling fans instead of one). I think you have a tough choice (no wrong answer), but you may want to go with the 762 if you have the money. You can always add the C270 if you go to 7 channel sound. Because of the design limitations of my room, I can only do 5 channels sound, so that is why I have ordered a 752. But I really like the Big Dog.

Mark

 

[JamesHl]

The extra component input alone would have almost made it worth the difference to me.

 

[Micheal]

I think you guys are right. I'm probably going to go with the T762 and set up a 6.1 system. I'll worry about 7.1 later.

Mark, Johnathan, you guys have been very helpful. I'll let you know what I decide when I listen to the entire setup. Anyone else wanting to chime in, feel free.

Thanks again!

 

[Jonathan M]

However, your list did make me think of a question. I did want to ask what is the difference between HDCD, SACD and DVD-Audio. A DVD-Audio is in the DVD format and the SACD is a layered CD format, but what is HDCD? I know the 752 has 7.1 analogue inputs for DVD-Audio, but what is the difference between that and what the 762 offers?

HDCD is a proprietary 20bit encoding scheme for standard audio CDs (And DVDs now too I think) - you need a decoder to get the benefits, although HDCDs will play on standard players - they just don't have any of the benefits of the extra dynamic range the 20bit resolution gives. It's now owned by Microsoft, and they're no doubt perverting it for WMP and so on.

There's a good post over at avsforum.com outlining the bugs that have cropped up - to many these are either non-existent, or not a problem, however a few find them unacceptable. I have no trouble at all with my unit - I have never heard the fan come on (And my unit has a CD player sitting on top of it, and is in a cabinet with less than 1 inch all around space, although it is open at the rear, with about 6 inchs or so back to the wall.) Here's the link if you wanna read it (It's about 13 pages long)

AVSforum thread

 

[Micheal]

Thanks for the link Jonathan!

 

[Carlo_M]

Hi All,

I'm also seriously considering the T762 for many reasons:

1. My Sony 555ES just isn't driving my new MB Quart speakers like they were in my dealer's showroom (where he had an NAD stereo receiver, which cost only $500, 1/2 the price of my 555ES!).

2. The extra component video input - Not only for DVD player, but for XBox and potentially may be subscribing to HD service later this year.

3. The sound! (I guess this should be #1) I went back to my dealer and heard a 752 and some other NAD amps driving speakers similar to mine (MB Quart 1030) and even some lesser speakers, all with material I was familiar with! Let's just say I know how bad my Sony receiver is now and want to get something that will do justice to my new speakers.

4. The extra amp - I'm thinking of going full 6.1 now since I can buy just one matching extra rear surround from my dealer for a good price.

I read that AVS Forum link and got a bit concerned, so I emailed NAD. Within 1 day I got this response (cut-n-pasted from an email):

Thank you for your recent request via the NAD Electronics web-site.

I spoke with technical services regarding your concerns with the T762, and they have advised that there was a very small batch of units that did have a hiss. However, this was traced to a vendor supply of an older version of the volume IC. There is a modification to fix it, and subsequent production has had no problems. This affected a relatively few amount of units.

So I'm real impressed with the Customer Service and the word-of-mouth seems to be really good for NAD. But nothing beat actually hearing their equipment. Yeah, I used to be a Sony fan, and had heard the criticism and just considered it Sony bashing (they do make a lot of good products). But in the receivers market, there is certainly something NAD knows about that Sony doesn't, and that is how to make an awesome receiver that does 2 channel music justice as well as movies!