The sweet spot for home turntable enthusiasts on a budget seems to be the $200 mark. This might be the best of the bunch.
One can only imagine the sake-fueled club hopping that led to the development of the Seiko Frequency drum machine watch.
NAD Unveils A Classically Styled Budget Amplifier
By James Grahame
NAD recently slipped a budget model into their 'Classic' amplifier lineup. The C315BEE stereo integrated amplifier is conservatively rated at 40W per channel, with a street price of under € 300 in Europe. This amp is a direct descendent of NAD's famed model 3020, which became well known in the late 1970s as a bargain-priced entry into the world of audiophile sound.
I've always been a huge fan of NAD's low-end amplifiers, because they offer solid sound at a reasonable price, without any complicated DSP, surround sound processing or confusing controls. In fact, there are only four knobs on the sparse front panel: volume, bass, treble and balance. There's also a convenient EQ bypass switch and buttons to select from six line-level inputs, plus a front-panel 1/8-inch mini-jack for plugging in a portable MP3 player. There's a headphone jack and tape loop, but no phono input and only a single pair of 2-8 ohm speaker outputs. And, unlike my old NAD 314, this model has a remote control.
The NAD site explains the philosophy behind the new design: "The NAD Design Team faced a difficult challenge: to maintain the same performance specification as our more expensive amplifiers while removing cost. All the hallmarks of NAD technology are present, from the generously sized toroidal power transformer and low ESR smoothing capacitors, to the multiple regulated secondary supplies, to the heavy duty discrete output transistors, the C315BEE is every bit as refined and sophisticated as other NAD amplifiers."
I'm looking forward to spending some time with one of these little amps, and I sincerely hope it lives up to its pedigree.
