{"id":7048,"date":"2013-06-27T10:40:50","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T14:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tedpublications.com\/?p=7048"},"modified":"2014-10-22T14:35:18","modified_gmt":"2014-10-22T14:35:18","slug":"nad-c316bee-integrated-amplifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tedpublications.com\/en\/?p=7048","title":{"rendered":"NAD C316BEE Integrated Amplifier"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NAD-C316-BEE-Graphite-Noir\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Being a tad smaller and sleeker than the Pioneer<\/b> Elite A-35R<\/i> and with a more modest, more attractive non-shiny front panel, the NAD<\/b> C316BEE<\/i> integrated amplifier at a measly $349 measures about 17\u2033 W by 3\u2033 H by 11\u2033 D and weighs 12 lbs. I love the size and shape of this little integrated amplifier. The rear panel is cleanly and logically arranged with five inputs, tape ins and outs, a rocker switch for main power, and a single set of user-friendly binding posts for easy connections. On the front panel there\u2019s a small standby push-button, input-selector buttons, a headphone jack, a 3.5mm stereo minijack, and a large-ish volume knob. Smaller knobs for balance and defeatable (via a push-button) bass and Treble are also offered. The included remote control is unfortunately a joke. Its small, light and contoured to fit comfortably in the hand looks and feel nice but only work less than 50% of the time even with a new battery (and even after I exchanged the remote). I have to resort in buying a Logitech<\/b> remote in order to make the integrated amplifier work via remote 100% of the time. Oh, on an more interesting side not, the C316BEE<\/i> is named for Bjorn Erik Edvardsen<\/b>, NAD<\/b>\u2019s director of advanced development, and descends from Edvardsen<\/b>\u2019s famed 3020<\/i> integrated amplifier, which is considered to be one of the most important hi-fi components of all time. The 3020<\/i> sold well over a million units in its time and still demands good money on eBay<\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"charice_cvr_final[1]\"<\/a>I returned to my trusty reference quality Charice<\/b> album and played \u201cYou\u2019re All That I Need To Survive\u201d <\/i>from Warner Music<\/b> (unfortunately the same Warner Music<\/b> that releases the atrocious MP3-sounding Michael Buble<\/b> \u2018s \u201cTo Be Loved\u201d<\/i> album). The C316BEE<\/i>\u2019s performance freed Charice<\/b>\u2019s voice and her spacious recording that much more than my Pioneer<\/b> Elite A-35R<\/i> (both retailed at the same price with the same weight and similarly sized transformers).<\/p>\n

The NAD<\/b> seemed to have more \u201coomph\u201d and \u201cair\u201d at the same time. Maybe the C316BEE<\/i> usage of the new variant of the PowerDrive technology<\/i> found in NAD<\/b>\u2019s Master Series components, which is said to maximize the short-term dynamic power sent to the loudspeakers causes this. I don\u2019t know. While the C316BEE<\/i>\u2019s continuous power output is a claimed 40Wpc into 8 ohms, NAD<\/b> says that its dynamic power\u2014measured on 5ms peaks\u2014is around 100Wpc into 8 ohms. However, that only explains the \u201coomph\u201d. The NAD<\/b> C316BEE<\/i> had \u201cair\u201d, too. I again played the same track from Charice<\/i>\u2019s album and from the NAD<\/b> I find a more fully expressed frequency range with a graceful yet authoritative performance. It\u2019s fluid yet capable of bringing the crescendo the way it\u2019s supposed to without a hint of out-of-breath feeling.<\/p>\n

So although I still love my Pioneer<\/b> Elite A-35R<\/i> as much as before, I loved the NAD<\/b> C316BEE<\/i> more.
\nThank you my darling Pioneer<\/b> Elite A-35R<\/i> for all the good times, but I deserve to have a much better time in my old(-er) age.<\/p>\n

Equipment used for this review:<\/em><\/strong>
\nKimber Kable<\/b> digital and analog interconnects
\nNAD<\/b> C326BEE<\/i> integrated amplifier
\nParasound<\/b> Zdac<\/i> Digital-to-Analog converter via S\/PDIF input
\nPioneer <\/b>Elite PD-D9<\/i> CD Player (used as transport only)
\nPioneer<\/b> Elite A-35R<\/i> integrated amplifier
\nSystem Audio<\/b> Aura 30<\/i> speakers
\nVermouth Black Curse<\/b> speaker wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being a tad smaller and sleeker than the Pioneer Elite A-35R and with a more modest, more attractive non-shiny front panel, the NAD C316BEE integrated amplifier at a measly $349 measures about 17\u2033 W by 3\u2033 H by 11\u2033 D and weighs 12 lbs. I love the size and shape of this little integrated amplifier. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,21,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tedpublications.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7048"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tedpublications.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tedpublications.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tedpublications.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tedpublications.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tedpublications.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tedpublications.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tedpublications.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tedpublications.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}