CA azur 540A,audio refinement,NAD320bee,opinions

Howdy, a couple of weeks ago I spent a few hours at my local dealer (SpearitSound in Boston) auditioning the 2 components you speak of plus the Rotel 02 integrated. For my money, the CA came out on top. More open, articulate, detailed and clearer than the other two. The Rotel was the clear "looser" in this shoot out w/ the CA edging out the NAD. I'm not saying the NAD or Rotel were bad, but the music just opened up nicely and drew me in a little more with CA 540. 50 wpc to boot. I was using B&W 303's and the NAD 521 CD player for most of the audition. FWIW, the owner, Ralph Spearit complements the build quality of the CA and Rotel components over NAD. Whatever, my NAD-3020 20 wpc integrated is 25 years old and still works fine. My opinion, your money.

Mr Smile:

I have used the NAD C320BEE for more than 2 years now as the integrated amp for my 2 channel HT system and I have had zero problems with it. I have been so satisfied with this purchase, I can not even imagine changing it.

The NAD sounds musical and detailed and a bit dry. It handles most music and movies well. As long as you use decent level cables and interconnects (Signal Cable or Better Cable) the NAD will perform well. As an aside, I think the NAD sounds a bit more focused with silver interconnects, as opposed to copper interconnects.

Interesting enough, where I think you will spend some time with the NAD is in matching equipment to it. For example, I originally used a Pioneer PD 65 cd player with the NAD and it sounded fine. When I swapped in a Music Hall MMF CD25 cd player, the sound became absolutely 3 dimensional and just came together very nicely ... some of the best system synergy I have ever witnessed. I currently have a SONY SCD 555ES SACD player with the NAD and it sounds great, but it is still not as magical a pairing as the NAD/Music Hall.

At the NAD's price level ($400) and assuming a new purchase, you would be hard pressed to get a better performing or reliable amp. To top the NAD and get to the next level, where refinement and other factors come into play, I believe that you are talking over a grand (new) and are looking at Musical Fidelity; Creek; etc. Note: I tend to buy my equipment new, so I do not know from the used market.

Regards, Rich

oh, and i'm also looking into a monarchy amp with an axiom pre, and just plugging interconnects as necessary(the axiom has only one input). but the sub conection is throwing me for a loop with this set-up. thanks again.

I own NAD C320BEE powering maggie MMG and vouch that they do be great job. At times I feel that I can do with more power, but for my kind of music (classical, classic rock), NAD is up to it.