New NAD 326 BEE Owner -Disappointed Help

Shinealight:
I've owned the NAD C352 for many years and only recently replaced it with Ayre components. It's very similar to your C326 in design, and it's anything BUT strident, overly bright, and lacking bass. I'm also using 90dB two-way speakers. The NADs typically understate their power ratings.

IMO it's entirely possible that your new NAD will provide you with better fidelity and performance that you may not have "dialed in", yet.

Assuming you've already double-checked these items:
- Make sure your speakers are not wired out of phase (a classic for "tinney" sound and losing bass), reclean all your terminal contacts, and double-check integrity of speaker wires.
-Revisit your amp settings for tone controls, soft clipping, etc.

If you have any flexibility on location, go thru speaker placement exercises again. Maybe speakers closer to back wall will give you some of the extra bass response you need.

When we upgrade to better resolving systems, sometimes room acoustics issues that didn't really matter before now become apparent. So it's a good exercise to also revisit the steps for optimising listening position, room bass effects, etc., after significant upgrades.

If it still reeks and you've already allowed a long burn-in, then suggest taking the amp to your dealer and A/B this amp against one of his 326's in a demo system setup.

Other options: the NADs are truly the Swiss-Army-knives of integrateds. Easy to isolate the pre- and amp sections to
test with other amps, or to bi-wire, or bi-amp, or to add a powered sub to your system.

Whatever the outcome, good luck!

Jult,
John posted his first new topic on Agon, after finding that a current model of his amp's line sounded much worse to his liking than a much older version, after only 15 hours or less of burn-in.

"this integrated basically s***s"
Interesting, in that it's one of the more popular amps out there. Paul Seydor at TAS and many on this thread would disagree with you.

http://nadelectronics.com/reviews/TAS-Reviews-the-C-326BEE-and-C-545BEE

John,
IMO, it's a good enough unit to take the time burning it in, dialing it in (esp. for better bass response), and finding out if there's a unit defect before then evaluating and deciding for yourself.
-Even if you eventually decide to move on. It's likely that no matter what you do, it will still be more revealing and tonally neutral than your older unit.

The point is, if one doesn't go through the drill to troubleshoot and integrate new components properly into a system each time, you never really know for sure what you've missed. I usually seem to learn something new, and for me it's also a good antidote to the time and expense of "component roulette" that is sometimes contagious on the boards.

OK Jult, good enough, but I think you'll agree he should burn it in and set it up properly, before considering.

And as John mentioned, there's still the question of whether his amp would be the next upgrade needed. Maybe one of our vinyl experts could comment on his phono setup, and how the Jolida or other suitably priced phono pre might help.