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Thread: Denon or Nad?

  1. #1
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    Question Denon or Nad?

    Which would sound better with Polk RT55i 5.1 system?
    Looking around 80 watts. I now have the Onkyo 484 55wattsx5
    Thanks,
    Marc
    Last edited by Marc B.; 09-25-2004 at 02:56 PM. Reason: forgot to ad something

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    I would go with NAD. The NAD will be better on music material, which is my opinion. Denon receivers have that "Japanese" sound to them that I don't particularly care for.

    You should listen for yourself before purchasing.

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    I purchased a c740 to replace a 20 year old nad receiver,I really love nad products,I powered a pair of polk rti8's,a week later I heard the same speakers powered off a denon dra 685 receiver,mind you both of these are good 2 channel receivers,the polks just sounded better on the denon,so I bought one took it home,did a side by side comparence,I took the nad back...I guess it was just a power issue.Ive never owned denon nothing,but I was really impressed,ya cant go wrong with either,my last nad reicer I had for 20 years,and I sold it to a neighbor,still works!

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    Quote Originally Posted by NickWH
    I would go with NAD. The NAD will be better on music material, which is my opinion. Denon receivers have that "Japanese" sound to them that I don't particularly care for.
    LOL...what distinguishes a $1500 Japanese receiver from a $1500 NAD?
    I've never heard the word "Japanese" used as an adjective to describe sonic characteristics before.
    Without knowing the models you're comparing it's tough to say which would "sound" better.
    My immediate guess is neither...provided the models you're considering are close in price and features offered, I doubt you'll hear much sonic difference between them.
    I would expect the NAD to pack plenty of reserve power and perhaps more dynamics, but it's very likely that this added potential over a Denon's available power will never be called upon.
    I love NAD's amps, but I find their receivers a bit too pricy for what you get. Denon's receivers are always feature packed, but you might not ever use them all. Might help if we knew which models you were looking at specifically.
    There gets to be a point with receivers where you're better off to buy a cheap, but feature heavy, quality Japanese receiver and compliment it with some good power amps by NAD, Adcom, Rotel, etc, rather than pay a high premium to have it all stuffed in one chassis.

  5. #5
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    NAD without question. I just had a Denon DVD player fail after 13 months old, just out of warranty. I have never cared much for their Amps either, and I think NAD is very tough to beat (integrated amps) at that price. NAD gives you full bodied, musical sound and ability to drive the toughest of speakers.

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    LOL...what distinguishes a $1500 Japanese receiver from a $1500 NAD?
    I've never heard the word "Japanese" used as an adjective to describe sonic characteristics before.
    To me, the "Japanese" sound represents weak bass, flat & lifeless midrange and somewhat forward highs to artificially sound detailed. There's little in the way of dynamic range, and when pushed the music loses composure. Most of these things can be attributed to weak power supplies.

    Most every Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha and Sony AVR selling for under $1000 sounds this way to me.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by NickWH
    To me, the "Japanese" sound represents weak bass, flat & lifeless midrange and somewhat forward highs to artificially sound detailed. There's little in the way of dynamic range, and when pushed the music loses composure. Most of these things can be attributed to weak power supplies.
    Most every Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha and Sony AVR selling for under $1000 sounds this way to me.
    Wow...I don't think I've ever heard anyone equate Denon and Yamaha with Sony. You could get flammed pretty bad here for saying that

    I think you're wrongly lumping Japanese manufacturers under one roof here. What you would describe as "Japanese sound", I would describe as typical of any av receiver $1500 and below. I haven't heard any perform as well as a "lower powered" Nad or Arcam integrated at the same price. And to be fair, NAD's receivers don't generally live up to the same caliber of performance their integrateds and amps do. I love every piece of NAD equipment I've ever owned, including a 3140 and a 3020 that were handed down to me from family that have been running perfectly for over 20 years. But they just couldn't convince me to pay such a premium for their name when I went receiver shopping, especially given all the quality problems they were having at the time.

    Last November I began testing out units for my purchase,
    H/K AVR-630
    Denon AVR-2703
    Yamaha RX-V1400
    NAD T752

    The NAD definitely had more power, but my speakers are relatively efficient and weren't demanding anywhere near its capabilities. I liked the H/K, but it was so feature absent and just ugly, and came dead last in my sound tests...not that there was night and day difference.
    The NAD, Denon, and Yamaha were all indistinguishable to me in terms of sound quality when I tested them out...I used 2 channel music as the test here, but also some multi-channel audio given that would be the intended use of the unit. Becaue of the better features of the two japanese units at almost 60% the price, the Nad was eliminated too.
    In the end I took the Yammie because it did the best job at what it was designed for - HT control unit. It doesn't sound quite as musical as my Rotel RA-1070 integrated, but it's surprisingly competent.

    I run 2 Adcom amps off the receiver since my room is quite large, but it had plenty of power, and probably could stand on its own. Given the street price of the power amps, if I didn't already have them I still would have been way further ahead to buy them used with one of the other receivers and save my money.

    I've always felt that NAD's strength (aside from the tons of power) was in their pre-amp sections...in their integrateds they make no compromises...in their receivers they're terribly average, I assume something's lost in the digital/analog conversion...but I'm not so technically inclined.

    My dealer at the time said I wasn't alone in this assesment. NAD uses many of the same components in their integrateds and amps in their receivers, but there's some components that are unique to the receivers. Considering the lower volume of sales NAD experiences compared to say, Denon, or Yamaha, it's not surprising they are far from being the "low-cost leader" in a/v receivers...they just can't do it. The receiver was great, just about $400 over priced.

    As for power supplies...well, Denon and Yamaha generally include some beefy psu's in their gear, especially when you get to the price level that NAD begins at.

    I think if I didn't have other equipment and was buying a one stop A/V receiver for both music and home theater, the NAD would be quite a bit more attractive, but perhaps still not up there in terms of value. Since I'm lucky enough to have separate stereo system and HT, there wasn't much point in buying the NAD.

    I think the problem here is that an 80 watt X 5 Denon is proabably $300 and a 80 watt X 5 NAD is $1300...not comparing apples to apples here...
    I'd put the Denon AVR-3805 up against the NAD T753 or T763 any day though.

  8. #8
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    Back in the 80's NAD's design philosophy was geared towards sound quality whereas Denon was bridging the gap between sound quality and features, and all Yamaha, Pioneer, Sony, Nikko seemed to care about was lots of light and buttons and mainly shared a lot of the same integrated circuits (the main cause of some people arguing all amps sound the same). I believe the same still holds true today, I'd buy a Denon before a Yamaho or Sony....but i'd buy the NAD before the Denon. Take a look at some of the new Cambridge stuff too, its affordable and the designers actually care about the sound.

    I'm not trying to bash Sony because they do have some nice upscale products, its just none of the Sony dealers i've been to stock any of it and even some salespeople are ignorant of its existance here in Canada.

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    Quote Originally Posted by NickWH
    I would go with NAD. The NAD will be better on music material, which is my opinion. Denon receivers have that "Japanese" sound to them that I don't particularly care for.

    You should listen for yourself before purchasing.
    Every amp has a japanese sound...just open up your amp and you will see what i mean Denon sound better in my ears...NAD has not got the sound like a denon av-sr1 for instance great amp 170wpc now thats a true powerbeast. We had a NAD for one week overhere [topmodel] this amp really sounds "dull" a tin-can-like of sound compared to the denon. 1300euros now secondhand...is a bargain iff you ask me. But the man is right listen for yourself

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