At NAD, too, most of the new amplifiers are somehow digital. But only most. With the NAD C 316BEE V2, the inventors of the budget amp are once again presenting a classic, purely analog entry-level amplifier – even with a phono input. And with an unbelievably juicy, aromatic, and substantial sound.
Some hi-fi testers eventually become too sophisticated for amplifiers in the so-called entry-level class—great, as this means there’s no need to tussle with them for the first test devices. For the author of these lines, it’s almost the other way around: when he hears about a new affordable amp with real hi-fi ambitions, he picks up the phone almost reflexively.
Especially quickly, of course, when the device comes from a brand that is as traditionally gifted in terms of value for money as this one. Because the brand new NAD C 316BEE V2 is not just any cheap amp. The youngest incarnation of one of the most important hi-fi devices of all time, the NAD 3020, revolutionized the audio world in 1978 by making good stereo sound—complete with dynamics, naturalness, and musicality—accessible to music-loving freshmen, not just professors
Sound NAD C 316BEE V2
The main merit of the NAD 3020 Amplifier and its even more prominent successor, the 3020i, was not the low price of around 350 marks at the time. There was cheap stereo stuff back then, and it looked a lot more impressive than the flat, bland gray NAD power bars with plastic buttons.
What was special about these amps was that they seemed to use their naturally limited resources more cleverly, namely musically more effectively. Smarter than the competition in its price range, and often smarter than the music laboratories of the hi-fi establishment of the time, staring at buttons, pointers, and sometimes even digital displays.
This would at least prove: that one (at least the author) simply cannot describe a small NAD amplifier without first paying homage to the 3020. It just doesn’t work and god knows there’s been plenty of opportunities, which is pretty much every NAD amp since the mid 90’s when the author first started professional testing.
So let’s tear ourselves away from the overpowering ancestor and jump straight into 2018. And what do we see? On/Off, a row of input selectors and a volume knob. So not what technology insiders in tight shirts with pilot’s glasses painted on the wall and in the newly founded hi-fi magazines as the future of hi-fi.
It’s a basic layout that hasn’t changed for 40 years. The 3020 had already defined very well what a stereo-integrated amplifier needs and what it doesn’t. Only a few things have been added over the years, but many have been refined and perfected. And the small NAD also lost a few things, at least temporarily: At some point, the planners thought the time had come to save on the phono input because hardly anyone needed it anymore. The few remaining vinyl users had to resort to separate preamp boxes, which NAD always had in good quality.
But look: The C 316BEE V2 now has a built-in phono stage and a good one. It might seem like they just put the guts of a separate phono preamp inside the integrated amp, but that’s not true. NAD designed the small square circuit board specifically for the 316.
In any case, the effort goes well beyond those minimal solutions consisting of an OP amp and a handful of Cs, Rs, and Ls around it, which one otherwise found finds in phono-compatible entry-level amps. And even those didn’t have to be bad, as other minimalist classics taught us: The Rotel RA920AX, for example, was now available for less than 200 marks and could make incredibly beautiful music with a small Thorens player and a pair of cleverly selected two-way speakers.
However, what these very small favorite amps usually had very clearly were dynamic limits. Aware Rotel, for example, had an ideal volume range somewhere around 10-11 o’clock on the suspiciously smooth-running (because it was small and unencapsulated) volume control. Below that, the warm-musical magic quickly disappeared into randomness, above that the warmth gradually became a slightly throaty sound and then pure, bubbling mud. That’s why hardly anyone missed a remote control: Once you had adjusted the ideal volume window at the beginning of a record, there was little room for maneuver anyway.
The larger one, on the other hand, is always ready, but only for a short time: impulses from snare or
bass drum, clicking double bass strings, or crisp piano strokes can draw on the full. The heavily
compressed mainstream rock clipping sausage turned up to party level, on the other hand, has to
make do with the reduced operating voltage … which of course is still sufficient for a very decent 40
watts at 8Ω.
Technically, the double supply of the NAD C 316BEE V2 is very simple and at the same time ingeniously implemented. The turbo voltage comes from a second secondary winding of the toroidal transformer including a separate rectifier and is connected to the output stage via two halogen lamps (one each
for plus and minus voltage).
The filaments of the lamps serve as a current-dependent resistor: high continuous currents cause them
to glow and thus make them highly resistive, the voltage drops – in extreme cases down to the level of
the normal, directly connected voltage.
On the other hand, during short current peaks, the tungsten filaments remain dark, their resistance low
and the voltage tap wide open, allowing the amplifier to deliver unusually high pulse power without any
risk. At typical hi-fi levels, the lamps were completely off, the images in the following slide show were created
with a 120 Hertz sine wave at a permanently higher level on a 4-ohm box. And this is what it looks like:
The user does not notice anything from this “Power Drive” power supply apart from the already mentioned, remarkably high dynamics. The lamps are encapsulated light-tight and last practically forever in normal operation. And even if they were to burn out one day, the NAD C 316BEE V2 would remain operational
until they were replaced, just as a “normal” amplifier without a power drive.
The NAD C 316BEE V2 in a listening test
Even then, his loving fine-tuning would still come into play, which gives voices just the right amount
of articulation, breathes volume and intelligibility into them at the same time, and, when in doubt, always
prefers to deviate in the direction of warmth and fullness. In this way, even problematic recordings can
be listened to without any stress, and the really good productions grow to an amazing format.
“Amsterdam Stranded” by Midnight Choir, for example, with its believable piano standing in
the room, the acoustics neatly circumscribed around it and Paal Flaata’s voice, in all its noble lamentation, captured with absolutely no effects.
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You just wanted to keep listening and not even think about possible improvements. Which of course were possible – if only for at least twice as much money.
If you increased the price to three times that by connecting the 1,300 euro Marantz PM-8006, the focus
no longer improved, but the tonal colors now seemed even richer and Flaata’s voice in particular seemed
to sound even fuller and more engaging.
So the NAD means no danger for well-made amps that cost twice or three times the price – at least as
long as you have the possibility of a direct comparison. But what he manages to do is to come
astonishingly close to these amps on a lot of records – much closer than you would have ever thought
a 400-euro amp could do.
Indeed, the author would recommend this German, completely transistor-free 2,600-euro preamp to
an LP-heavy listener as the first upgrade based on the starting point NAD- Heco – Planar 6. Because, as is
so often the case with phono stage upgrades, the sound gain here is clearer than if you put a comparable sum into a larger integrated amplifier.
Oversized phono preamps are and always have been a hot tip for record listeners. With amps as affordable, as stretchable as the NAD C 316BEE V2, they are more than ever. Nobody believes the author anyway, but maybe there is an intrepid dealer who can demonstrate it.
The connection options
In terms of equipment, the small NAD leaves nothing to be desired. Balance and tone controls are of course available, whereby the latter can be completely swept out of the signal path using the “Tone Defeat” button.
The NAD C 316BEE V2 has more than enough inputs. It has five line inputs plus a phono input. One of the line inputs is a 3.5mm jack on the front panel, which is convenient for connecting portable devices. The headphone output is a bit disappointing, though.
And you can connect a pair of speaker wires to solid, banana-sized screw terminals. That’s it. The C 316BEE V2 lacks recording or pre-amp outputs entirely, though the developers seemingly left the option for
pre-out and main-in connections when designing the circuit board. Correspondingly labeled taps exist on the mainboard, but they remain unused.
If you still need it today, you can get it from the NAD C 316BEE V2’s big brother, the C 326BEE, which
also has a little more power and an even more sophisticated power drive circuit, but no phono.
If you are already controlling a maximalist phono chain with a deliberately chosen budget imbalance in
favor of the analog sound, you can of course whistle on the missing phono input. On the other hand, the
best possible turntable and a non-consumptive pair of speakers are even more important in the first
step, and the resulting system has its charm in its clarity.
Conclusion
There are many reasons to buy a NAD C 316BEE V2 today: As a classic Class AB amplifier, it was penned
by the same developer who once launched the legendary 3020.
It’s the beef on NAD’s hi-fi menu, a hearty classic analog dish in an age that increasingly demands light, efficient digital fare. In this sense: order more beef. Just so that NAD doesn’t get the idea of removing it from the map.
Incidentally, there is also a “3020” in the current lineup again: the D 3020 V2, a robust-sounding Class D
amp with digital and Bluetooth inputs. A high-fidelity fitness salad with grilled chicken strips. Also delicious, but chicken.
With the NAD C 316BEE V2, the Exposure 1010 S2, the Rotel RA 10, and with a certain price increase the Rega Brio 2017, we tested the most ambitious entry-level amplifiers in terms of sound. The NAD is by far the cheapest, but it is by no means in last place in terms of sound..
