Nad C390DD

[jai1611]

Anyone heard this amp?

I am quite intrigued by the dac/amp combo - seems well suited for an unobtrusive system.

 

[jai1611]

I got a chance to hear this a few days back at Lakozy Mumbai. Setup was a network player connected using optical to the amp and speakers were PSB T2. The T2s have the typical PSB house sound - clean sounding but with a slightly bloated bottom end (both Synchrony towers also have this trait).

Some observations about the amp/dac combo:
- Extremely revealing and transparent
- No harshness, edginess etc. None of the digital hash I felt with the Nuforce monos I'd heard a couple of years back
- Does the audiophile things well: soundstage/imaging, dynamics etc
- Tonality seems quite natural

I didnt really notice any obvious negatives and was overall quite impressed with the C390DD. If I were building a setup from scratch today, this would be something I would look at quite seriously. Speaker matching is very critical with this as you dont really have the option to tweak anything except power and speaker cables.

The list price is somewhere around the Rs190k mark I think. Also, it doesnt come with analog inputs. Basically meant as a DAC+Amp solution. Uses the same tech as Nad's flagship M2.

 

[Vidya46]

I am hoping to audition this dac/amp tomorrow at a dealer..and a weekend of auditioning at home

Hope it sounds as good a my dac + nad c26beecombo..

Cheers
VS

 

[Vidya46]

Got the C390dd home and have been playing it for the past of couple of hours.
The dealer believes this unit has only 40 hours and needs another 60 to rally open up.
First impressions:
-Wide soundstage.
-Good details ..especially ARR songs sound pretty good..
-Bass was booming and i had to set it down 3 notches.

I wish there was more details like my wyred 4 sound Dac2 did..

PLan to run this through my itunes for 2 days continuously,to see if it "open up"
Cheers

 

[jai1611]

@Vidya46, also make sure that the impedance control is set to match your speakers.

Good luck

 

[Vidya46]

Thanks Jai..Set it to 6 Ohms for Monitor Audio GS20's


After having run almost 40 hours ,I do not see any difference..Meaning its sounds as good as when i got it home 2 days ago.
I compared Optical and USB and these sound the same.(my files are all from Itunes..I don't have any .wav or .flac).
I tried the crossover to my Sub(SVs SB12Plus) and the rolloff was not smooth and the bass was not controlled..so I switched back to running my fronts as full range.

The Dac in the C390DD is supposed to be the same as the NAD M51 DAC(same Chip and Direct digital properties) and it sounds just as good as Wyred Dac2(well,comes close..I should Say..:indifferent14.NAD has this ability to sound awesome at low volumes and that is so welcome when I am listening late nights.And at low volumes the signal is not attenuated and the nuances of the instruments are not lost.(especially AR Rahman's background scores)

I also connected my cable and DVD (as a return digital audio output from my TV..panasonic GT50),so TV shows sounds pretty decent .Haven't tested with good movies yet,but the dialogues are well presented even without a center channel.

Some questions/cons:
-Not sure if the HDMI MDC module will do some sort of upconversion.
-I would like to see my volume levels on the TV(as the amp is behind frozen glass doors)

Cheers
Kalyan

 

[Vidya46]

Thanks Jai..Set it to 6 Ohms for Monitor Audio GS20's


After having run almost 40 hours ,I do not see any difference..Meaning its sounds as good as when i got it home 2 days ago.
I compared Optical and USB and these sound the same.(my files are all from Itunes..I don't have any .wav or .flac).
I tried the crossover to my Sub(SVs SB12Plus) and the rolloff was not smooth and the bass was not controlled..so I switched back to running my fronts as full range.

The Dac in the C390DD is supposed to be the same as the NAD M51 DAC(same Chip and Direct digital properties) and it sounds just as good as Wyred Dac2(well,comes close..I should Say..:indifferent14.NAD has this ability to sound awesome at low volumes and that is so welcome when I am listening late nights.And at low volumes the signal is not attenuated and the nuances of the instruments are not lost.(especially AR Rahman's background scores)

I also connected my cable and DVD (as a return digital audio output from my TV..panasonic GT50),so TV shows sounds pretty decent .Haven't tested with good movies yet,but the dialogues are well presented even without a center channel.

Some questions/cons:
-Not sure if the HDMI MDC module will do some sort of upconversion.
-I would like to see my volume levels on the TV(as the amp is behind frozen glass doors)

Cheers
Kalyan

Update:
1.HDMI MDC card is only a pass through.It will provide a 2 or 2.1 stereo and pass thourgh the video signal to the HDMI output.
2.This I have to wait and see
Cheers