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Recommendations: poor college kid; NAD?

I have always been into music and movies, expescially when it comes to home theatre. That should be the first thing i say: I am looking for this more for Home Theatre than pure music. That said, I was looking online for a receiver, when i ran across a Denon THX Dolby Digital, etc, etc that got my heart pumping. In the computer lab where I work (and where I was veiwing this piece of machinery), a teacher came up and was telling me about the system he has built thus far, and then recommended NAD to me as a high quality, low frills reciever. I checked out their website and found something with THX, but still that looked like an excellent receiver. What I am wondering is if you guys have any advice on a nice receiver that will support what I want to do, which is mainly watch DVDs. I would prefer if it had that "optical digital input," since from what I hear that is the best way to transport the information, but i might be wrong on that too. Any advice you guys have would be great! thanks!
nateziarek
trelja
3,223 posts
 
I don't think you can go wrong with NAD. My first "real" high end amp was an NAD. I too, was a poor college kid at that time. I STILL have it 13 years later, in my 3rd system. The sound is very good, much closer to the real good stuff than it is to mass-fi garbage. And despite a couple of clowns saying it stands for Nearly Always Defective, I have NEVER had a problem with it. Go for it!
phild
603 posts
 
NAD does make good sounding stuff, but the above joke about them being defective does have some basis in truth. A friend of mine is a dealer and has plenty of units returned for repair. The Denon receivers would probably have more focus on home theater, more features, and depending on the model...they can be very well built (and also have good two-channel sound for the price). They also have decent D/A converters in their units. The NAD stuff would have a warmer sound, but I wouldn't risk the possible trouble. Yamaha and Onkyo also build decent, practical, reliable home theater/audio receivers (for the price). I suggest you try looking up consumer reviews on www.audioreview.com.
trelja
3,223 posts
 
I looked at the reviews @ AudioReview.com. If there is one adjective to describe the people's feelings on NAD, it would be "glowing". I looked at many a model, and saw VERY little in the way of negativity. I saw only one person with a problem, and he routinely used to throw it in the back of his car. This is remarkable, considering the amount of products and reviews contained therein. Their regard of the products are higher than mine. As for me, I experienced NO problems in 13 years, the amp was always flawless. I used it to drive some difficult speakers REAL hard, during auditions, parties, etc. Sound was always very, very good. Check the reviews yourself. Like I said, go for it!
john_l
782 posts
 
heh heh, heh heh... he he said NAD.... Seriously, you can't go wrong with their equipment. Also check out parasound, adcom, sonographe (my fav), and rotel. The adcom 555mark2 is a really nice amplifier. That stuff goes for 100-300 per component, and it's pretty good. Make sure you listen to all channels. Equipment sometimes gets noisy with age.
sugarbrie
3,854 posts
 
Taking the "Poor" student to heart, if the NAD blows your budget; for a well made, good sounding Home Theater receiver that won't break the bank, pick up an Onkyo.
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