NAD C372

NAD is a name that has long been a byword for good budget hi-fi. The brand's fortunes were established with the famous (in some circles, notorious) 3020 amplifier in the early 1980s, which if not a truly spectacular audiophile statement certainly did a good, honest, simple job for a very affordable price. Since then the NAD reputation has been up and down a little but the downs have never been very severe and recent home cinema products have been very well received.

The company has not at all forsaken stereo sound however, and what we have here is the current 'statement' integrated amplifier, surpassed only by the lone pre/power amplifier combination in the NAD catalogue. On paper at least it looks more than a little attractive. For a start, it's monster powerful. Its rated power is 150W and we found it capable of delivering even more - and that's real, low-distortion continuous power, both channels driven, not your 'think of a number' PC-speaker watts. Amplifier power is an overrated statistic but there's no denying that double the output of a typical competing amp smacks of value, all else being equal.

All else isn't quite equal though, because this unit also, amazingly, offers more of most other kinds of features than you'll typically find at the price. Seven inputs (all line level, so if you want to listen to LPs you'll need an external amplifier such as NAD's own PP-2), tone controls with a bypass switch, balance control, two switched speaker outlets, remote control and headphone socket - not many amps offer all of those.

So what's the trick? Scrimping on the insides of the unit? Fair play, there's nothing remarkably fancy under the lid but there's certainly nothing shoddy either. In fact the large toroidal mains transformer is more the sort of thing you expect in quite upmarket specialist hi-fi, while relay switching of the inputs is considered by most audiophiles the smartest way of doing the job. Case construction and general fit and finish are good too, and if the cover is a little flimsy, well, it's less likely to resonate in sympathy with the music and colour the sound.

And we've not even finished with features! NAD's 'soft clipping' lessens the dramatic distortion that occurs when the amplifier is forced to its limits. You can switch it off if you don't want it. A 'pre-amp output' allows you to add a second amplifier for bi-amping. And then the final flourish: if up to 200 watts proves insufficient you can add a second C372 and operate each amplifier in bridged mode which will batter your speakers with over 500 watts each. Only for folks with distant neighbours...

Sound
If you're a seasoned hi-fi cynic you'll now expect the 'unfortunately it doesn't sound any good' write-off. Snap out of it! It does sound any good. Very good. Very good indeed, and to be frank potentially embarrassingly so for anyone who's recently spent large sums on audio amplification. No, it's not the best amplifier in the world. Yes, it's got a lot to offer for half a grand.

If there's a criticism to be made it's that, at moments of stress, the overall sound doesn't quite seem to hang together in the way the best amplifiers can manage it. The grip, the cohesion, the unanimity of the musical forces that come together to make a performance, call it what you will - it sometimes seems a touch frayed at the outer edges. Take cymbals at the climax of an orchestral work, for example. They're hard to reproduce accurately and with this amp they sometimes seem not quite to fit into the musical picture the way they do with really high-flying amps, and at the same time their sound can become a little coarse.

There are perhaps a few amplifiers around at this price that can manage that trick with greater accuracy, but not many and they are generally less well specified (less inputs, less power etc). What's more, not all of them can match the C372 for the all-round cleanliness of its sound, its finely-etched detail and its excellent bass and treble extension. And it's at home across the broadest spectrum of music, from Haydn string quartets to Pink Floyd via opera, jazz, funk and simple ballads. We played it loud - very loud - we played it soft, we found it civilised when it needed to be, raucous when the musicians demanded it and, importantly, at all times unflappable.

Interestingly, the measured performance is quite superb in more ways than just output power. Distortion of all kinds at all levels is extremely low, noise likewise (especially hum, which is really exemplary) and frequency response generous. These things don't always translate directly into great sound but there is a correlation and it's always comforting to know that in liking an amplifier one is not simply enjoying its colorations.