Well, let's puti t this way.. When i bought my first receiver two years ago (Onkyo 8511) I was not well informed and didn't know much about the subject. Granted I was 18 and wanted something that could power my small satalite speakers in a more efficient way... These were multimedia speakers. Since then I've bought two subwoofers, both custom built one with a $280 driver, Athena AS-F2's a 1,400 watt Pro audio "Mackie" amplifier for the subs etc.. Now my onkyo has fallen behind.. Quite frankly it's holding me back, I don't like the way it sounds with my speakers at all and i want to upgrade to something more mellow and powerful. Sales associates at places like cambridge soundworks and circuit city / bestbuy are rather useless for the most part.
"Hi, I'm looking for a stereo amplifier to power two towers." "um, we have this 7 channel bla bla bla...by yamaha" And granted I know that yamaha makes some good top of the line home theater amps.. but that's not what I need.
I've been researching this for the past few months and have pretty much settled on the Nad C372 or C370 depending on what I can find a deal on. I'll be waiting until I can find one for sub $400. I've seen a couple go for 300-400 but wasn't sure if I wanted it yet.
Before I completely settle on this amp is there anything I should know? Any other options etc? I've looked into the HK's and I think that I like the Nad sound more.. the deeper richer sound, slightly dark mids, powerful bottom end, rich highs etc more than the slightly brassy sound of the HK's / onkyo's.. Brassy is the best way I can describe my 8511.
If you like the way the NAD's sound, go with them. A lot of people bash their surround receiver's QC issues (deserved or not), but I haven't heard any compliants about build quality of their 2 channel stuff. I have owned NAD integrateds for about 10-15 years now, and haven't had a single problem with any of them. I think they make the best stuff at their price point hands down.