Late to the party, as usual (sigh).
I bought an NAD 3050 and it arrived a few weeks ago. Sonically, it is much better than my C325 BEE and C356 BEE in "categories."
That is to say, a much better reproduction of the high frequencies, lower distortion, more transparent, etc., etc, etc.
BUT.
I noticed that voices do not sound as "magical" as they do on the C325 (aided by the Center Stage 2Ms). I can’t explain why, but they just don’t. I had recently bought the Critical Mass Center Stage footers, which are pretty dazzling (and I’ve had considerable experience with footers, going back to 1999). On the 325 (with the CD player sitting on the Center Stage 2Ms), singers (and I mean only on well-recorded music) have a "see-into" transparency that lets you know how the singer is marshalling his/her breath to create the sounds. I purposely read a comic book (one of my other intense interests) and found myself looking up - involuntarily - at how say, Cleo Laine (a quite famous British jazz singer) sounded. I’ve had the CD (and lp) for 30 years, and as good as it sounded (recorded live in Carnegie Hall in 1973), her voice never truly sounded "alive" the way it did when I heard her live! Not even on Jadis equipment!
But now, with the Center Stage in the system (underneath the Arcam FMJ CD23 CD player) and the 325 sitting on a Townshend Audio Seismic Vibration Platform, I could hear exceptional vibrato, intake of breath (and even though that can be achieved by having an excess in the 1-5k range, this was not that!) of the kind that happens when a singer sings live. My eyes bugged out, and I’ve had the best equipment (Jadis, VAC, Audio Research, VTL, Goldmund, all top of the line back in the 90s) and her voice never sounded like the way it did on the C325 (WITH THE CENTER STAGE 2MS) even on the VAC or Jadis amps (and the rest of the system was far, far superior, and cost-wise, in the 50k range ( back in 1990). In todays dollars, that same system would cost $135k).
Now, granted, this does not mean the staging, or detail was of the highest quality. Only her voice and John Dankworth’s sax (he’s her husband). The sonics went past mere "sound" quality and into the realm of realism.
So, naturally, when I got the 3050, I swapped out the two amps and listened again. Hmmm...her voice doesn’t have that sound that you would have if you were in the mixing booth listening to her sing. Nah, I thought, it must be that the amp’s not broken in. So, I gave it two weeks and still...no cigar.
I have no idea if this is the chipset in the class D 3050 or what, but I prefer the C325 when it comes to voices. If I was only listening to instruments, I might have missed that particular quality, but since I listen to Ella, Frank, and a whole lot of 50s, 60s and 70s bands and singers, it then became hard to miss.
On the other hand, if I was listening to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, I’m not sure I would have realized the difference between the two amps, so good did the strings sound, the soundstage clearly better with the 3050. But I want "magic" and while the Center Stage 2Ms will take a $600 amp and make it sound closer to a 3k amp (and I’ve had plenty of those), it did NOT do the same thing when I got a second set of the 2ms and put them under the NAD 3050. The 325 won, hands down if voices were involved. You'd have to hear it yourself to understand.
Again, I don’t know if it has anything to to with class D. What I do know is that the 3050 could not best the C325 in the reproduction of voices. That was a surprise, but not exactly: I wondered if the technology (and Nell Gader reviewed it late last year in TAS and loved it) had some kind of weakness on really stellar singers. I could even hear the difference (meaning the Center Stages) on a compilation of a disco era CD. And that on each and every cut. The 3050 sounded quite ordinary.
I’m willing to believe - given it’s a new room - that I might’ve moved a speaker 1/16" too far to the right/left. But clarity and transparency are not the same as "magic".
I sure hope someone else who has the Center Stages tries this experiment: use exceptionally well recorded classical music (I use Mercury Living Presence, Deccas, and RCAs) and then say, Peter, Paul and Mary (Album 1700) or some other very well-recorded singers and finds otherwise.
But the 3050 is going back. It also didn’t help that there is no way to hook up my Nola Thunderbolt subwoofers (I have 2) to the amp. No point in having 2 and only being able to hook up one.
My amp is going to end up being the Aesthetix Mimas, which was my other choice.
I’m sure this is an isolated case where class D and my speakers (Nola Contenders) just are not the motto of the Army: Be All That You Can Be. But there is no magic between speaker and amp in this case. I should point out that Carl, the designer, used tubes with his speakers. But I’ve had 6 different Nolas, and paired them with tube and solid state and it always sounded gorgeous. And voices always sounded true-to-life. Just not this combination.
I’m not advocating against NAD (heaven forefend! I have 4 of their integrateds, all the way back to 2002), or Class D. I am merely appending a warning to hear them in your own system (NOT the dealer’s: YOUR room. YOUR system) and see how it sounds. I’ve not doubt that if Listened to ’80s vinyl or ’90s vinyl (both decades produced the worst vinyl. It would "twang" like a rubber band), I might not have noticed, given how overproduced so many records from those decades are (and one of my jobs was as a DJ back then, so I got a LOT of promotional copies).
Don’t take my word for it. Try it out for yourself. This is just my own experience.
