Can some one advice me which one to go for with my YAMAHA 630SE Amp and ACCOUSTIC ENERGEY Speakers, which is the best cd player matching NAD521 BEE OR CAMBRIDGE AUDI 640C.Please advice me
I think you have quite a price difference there. You should be able to get the NAD 521BEE for $299, but the 640C is like $475. The 540C is $350. I have no expeirence with either, but I have heard from more than one store that Cambridge Audio stuff has it's quirks. But then again, so does NAD.
I have a NAD C521BEE on my second system, overall it is quite superb for the money, smooth delivery, sweet treble and punchy controlled bass. It should work very well with your setup.
If your going to spend the extra $ for the 640 c then you should probably be looking at the nad c542 as opposed to the 521 bee. The cambridge and the c542 are in the same price range...
Oh, your in England, I should have noticed that, well then the nad c542 and the cambridge 640 are not quite in the same price range.... But as you may have read in what hi-fi they do say the c542 is overall better than the cambridge but costs, I believe 80 pounds more....
Why don't you pop down to Richersounds and take the 542 and 640c home for a two week demo on each. The price difference between the two is now only £30 (£250 for 640c and £280 for 542). The 521bee on the other hand is only £160 and is more comparable to the 540c at £200.
Sjarelke
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Does Richersound allow you to take players home for a demo?? I am thinking of buying a NAD 542 instead of using my pioneer dv575 dvd player for CDs, but I am not sure if the difference would be that important to me. Now, if Richersouds would allow me to test myself.. then they would have an extra customer! (I live in london too)
Yes, absolutely! They have a 14 day moneyback offer on all their stuff, I think mainly due to the fact they have closed down most of their demo rooms, but of course you have to pay for them..lol. I took home both C320BEE and then CA 540A amps, but I did decide to keep one so they didn't mind too much. However I did get the typical pitch that the Cambridge unit was alot better than the NAD (Rep: "I can't believe you're picking that NAD over the Cambridge. We've used them both extensively and the Cambridge is alot better". Me: "It's a very nice amp. I liked the Cambridge alot but I found the NAD to be more realistic. It was a very tough choice though". Rep: Face turns red as he's probably missed out on some commission.) so stick to your guns when deciding. You should ring one of your local branches to clarify though.
If you are using the pioneer straight into a HT receiver then I think the improvement will be minimal due to the signal being reconverted in the receiver using it's own DAC's so you may find the extra expense isn't justified. If however you use your dvd player directly with a stereo only amplifier then the NAD will give you a much better result.
NAD. Short and sweet. Am a BIT disappointed by the plastic faceplate, but my disappointment is more than compensated by the NAD's natural tonal qualities. It's so good, it makes me want to get better speakers....
Also, I got the 521BEE for $239 (+15 s/h) from SoundSeller in WI. Best price I saw for the CambridgeAudio was in the $430 range. Even at the same price, I think the NAD sounds better.