Try feeding the power amp section of the 3020 with a tube preamp. I'm using a high gain tube preamp into the 3020 driving a pair of LS3/5As. It's shockingly good. Lovely review. Love my NAD 3020a.
I think you're right that's the way to go! what preamp have you got. I think the 3120 is a better amp changing the transformer on yours for 650VA or 700VA I don't know what it's got but probably under 500VA.
The preamp section of the NAD 3020 is also good. I did the reverse... I used the NAD preamp to drive a tube amp. The lovely sound of the tube amp was preserved along with the higher gain the 3020 provided. Plus the NAD's phono stage is no slouch either.
@@hamzatatta952 I'm using a Chinese headphone amp (Dark Voice) that has preamp output. I'm using an Arcam rBlink Bluetooth DAC and an old Rotel CD player. I have an old Radio Shack RCA connector switch box to select either of the two inputs.
🎉NAD is CRAZY, how good they sold MARANTZ to Japan and from there NAD was born... I have touched PROTON equipment that is not visually pretty but they sound wonderful without costing a fortune, greetings Master Pedro
The best use for the pre/post ins and outs is that you can add a crossover and use the 3020 as the mid highs amp and the other amp (presumable more powerful) for the bass end. That will get you a lot more effective power out of the 3020.
As you may already know... to make a NAD 3020 sound better... Switch the soft clipping off. Also connect the pre out and power amp sections on the back using lab input instead of the normal. Improved performance at no extra cost.
Is that so? I was informed the LAB input was for testing only. Ill give it a go. I doubt it will remove the hum from the speakers though. Can anyone advise on decent RCA cable specifically for this model. Its a tight fit unless i use cheapo ones. Cheers
@@neointeractiondesignuxdesi8445 unless you really love this amp and cant be without it, go and get it proffesionally suped up with added protection switches. While your at it, get the spring clips changed to except banana plugs. Your prob looking at £300 in UK money. But thats finding a NAD repair/service person who knows what theyre doing, i wouldnt skimp a few quid going to someone who doesnt see NAD's a lot. Thats my 2 scents worth anyway.
I used the W Diamond IIIs with a NAD3020e for 30 years along with a Pioneer PL3000. Call it a fluke, I really enjoyed that sound and have never managed to get that feel from modern equipment.
i think the NAD 3020 is a lot more powerful than one would think, happily running B&W 120 watt speakers off one of these! the NAD has an excellent phono/ preamp section. Treble is slightly rolled off compared to modern amp (Rega Brio) so is good with older albums which sometimes can sound very bright .
I owned a Nad 3020. My first proper separates hi fi. It was paired with B&W (610 from distant memory) Forward solid sound with strong bass which suited my dance /pop music & very good with my 1st cd Dire Straits Brothers in Arms on my Yamaha cd player purchased at the same time 🎶 Many years of happy listening - never used above 9 o'clock. Sold it for £100 to a highly delighted student who kept being outbid on ebay at a large charity shop I worked in 2014 🙂
I could hear the difference. With the meridian attached a bit nicer cleaner less muddy. Probably the NAD could do with new capacitors, maybe even use some film caps in parallel. I believe it has an extra pair of power capacitors that come into play when larger loads are drawn to temporarily increase the power to double the rating. It makes the amp more dynamic. NAD calls it power envelope. I have a NAD 3240 I wanted to try as a preamp, but someone had bypassed it's pre-out/line in so I couldn't, so now it is just standing there for me to decide what to do with it.
Surprised you said the Nad is low powered. On paper, I suppose it is, but mine runs a pair of 200w pa speakers and makes the ceiling shake. I’ve owned it for 40 years and see no reason to change
I don't think necessary though I would use dummy load resistors if unhooking the speakers while in pre-amp mode. Possibly more difference with hard-to-drive speakers. Rotel PA's seem less sought after & make a good 2nd hand choice. What a good upgrade path those links make - would have made more sense for me to go this route rather than the slightly sideways move upgrading my own 3020. A good cap upgrade however may offer better sounds for £s particularly if giving the pre section a going over too.
Quad 404? I'll have to find that one lol. You should bi amp the Spendors with the two Meridian amps. Try " In your care" by Tasmin Archer, great test track
my original set up was a nad 3020e and wharfedale delta 30 and philips cd610. i never was satisfied with this set up.the only time i got things souding quite good was with vinyl on a rega planar turntable.i tried changing speakers and other components but i was never happy.it always sounded abit "cold " to me.detailed sure and tight but never had that warmth and nice midrange to my ears.
Try and get your hands on a pair of new Monitor Audio Monitor 50's.....very interesting small speaker and very Diamond 3 like.....and good price too! Would make an awesome budget review
100 Watts should be fine with sensitive speakers at 91 db+ as I said need to use it the other way around, a good preamp into the poweramp of the nad. you never tried it with the spendor speakers? why not??
Weird. I have completely missed this video until Thursday night, when it appeared at the top of my RU-vid feed. Saw the other one the other day, but probably not fully aware of what you were doing here. Makes more sense now mate, lol.
Good stuff as always, mate. The NAD 3020 is a bit of a legend. One of my uncles bought one in 1982 and I think one of my cousins still has it. In fact the first amp I bought was its spiritual successor, the 302 which was a great little amp too. I'm also in the camp that pre-amps are important and coincidentally also recently read about someone that found the performance of the Benchmark LA4 to be superior to using one of their DACs as a pre-amp.
Interesting little test. Firstly, did you try the banana plugs in the clips? The ones I’m using fitted fine, but perhaps you have fatter bananas 😁. Secondly, as one of your contributors has mentioned, if the amp is still using its original capacitors it will be seriously hampered in its peak output. Changing them yourself for a matching set of Elna Silmic IIs will set you back a fraction of the cost of a power amp like that Meridian. Finally, for someone looking for an entry level turntable based system, a recapped NAD 3020 with a second hand Rega Planar 3 and choice of mini monitors will still sound phenomenal. Add an Audio Technica VM95E straight into the in built phono stage and you’ll be amazed at the sound. Just as a point of note, Quad pre-amps have a very low output so the sensitivity of their power amps is much higher than usual. They don’t play well with pre-amps of standard output unless the input impedance is modified.
I had a NAD 3020B as my first semi decent Amplifier when I left school. Back then though Rotel and Cyrus sounded much better but were just more expensive. The speaker cable is irrelevant unless your amplifier is vey fussy about capacitance so silver, copper or any other snake oil cable will make no difference what so ever except to your pocket. Listen to the music not the black boxes.
Bot of a pointless show. Of course replacing the budget power amp will improve the sound. But how about swapping out capacitors or transistors or other components with more modern low noise ones? In other words bringing it up to date.
Thanks for watching. Some believed it didn’t improve the sound.. my test is valid. As are your comments. Did I do the caps? No, it’s a dinosaur of an amp beloved by many but served its purpose as an item for a pointless video 😊
