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Recommendation for inexpensive integrated

I'm trying to help out a friend who is finally willing to put a toe into the audiophile world. He picked up a pair of NHT SB3s on sale at Audio Advisor on my recommendation. Now he needs a new integrated amp or receiver, but doesn't want to spend a bunch. I was thinking of the Cambridge Audio Azur 640, but I see that Sam Tellig gave it a mixed review in Stereophile. Do others like that amp? Any other recommendations in the $500 or below price category? (I own a Creek 5350SE myself, but that's too expensive for my friend.) Note that the NHTs are not very efficient so some wattage is needed.
Thanks a lot!
dbz

Showing 4 responses by rar1

rar1's avatar
rar1
1,745 posts
 
Hammer ...

Not surprised and hope your son enjoys the set-up ... it's a sweet one. Cambridge Audio (and Rotel for that matter) pair together very nicely with B&W and the pairing comes up frequently enough in the British hifi magazines. NAD tends to pair very well with PSB and NHT (amongst others ... obviously).

Regards, Rich
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,745 posts
 
I have the NAD C320BEE ($400 list) paired with the NHT SB2 and to my ears, it is a great combination ... very musical with an enjoyable sense of detail and I can listen to it for a long while at a time. The NAD plays much louder than its 50 wpc would normally lead you to believe. I posted a review of the NAD here in the Audiogon Reviews section that you may wish to reference.

FWIW, the Musical Hall MMF CD25 is a superb CD player to team up with the NAD & NHT. Absolutely magical.

Regards, Rich
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,745 posts
 
I would not view a Jolida and NAD comparison as a "which is better" type of question. It is more a question of do you prefer the sound of tubes over solid state electronics? Answer that and the rest is simple.

Regards, Rich
rar1's avatar
rar1
1,745 posts
 
My comments will be VERY general in nature. Also, I have not used tube equipment for a good while and I may not be entirely up to speed on SOTA tube equipment. With that said ... tube equipment can provide a greater degree of lushness, warmth, and liquidity to the overall sound than solid state equipment can. Solid state amps have their advantages ... they are typically more detailed sounding with less total harmonic distortion (.08% THD is common for solid state as opposed to 1% THD for tubes)and they run much cooler. Tube advocates will claim that the higher THD is of a pleasing nature and does not distract from the sound. And just as solid staters are modding their equipment, tubers are rolling/rotating tubes and debating the virtues of new old tubes (NOS) versus new tubes.

Tube equipment is typically way more expensive (hand wiring, etc.) than its solid state counterpart ... which is one of the reasons why the Jolida is so attractive ... an entry level way to enjoy tubes.

Hope this helps.

Regards, Rich
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