I've seen some number of the negative reviews above, but, my experience has been completely different. I bought my 522 new from a dealer in (I think) 1998 (can't believe it's been that long). Anyway, it was new from a dealer. It has performed flawlessly. I would say it's had relatively light use over the years, but it still operates like new. I think I recall some difficulty playing questionable cds, but never a problem with normal commercial ones. I think I read that this was one of the first players with a built-n DAC, and thought that was interesting. It got some very positive reviews when it came out. I've always liked the complete controls on the front (I never use the remote), including Repeat function. Used that a lot for dinner parties where I don't want to get up to change a cd.

Recently got together a vintage audio setup and have been enjoying the convenience of a NAD 5170 for some months now. Chanced upon a NAD 522 which was giving problems (similar to what has been described by other reviewers) its owner and was thrown in a purchase of a NAD monitor series pre-amp.
Since the unit has been unused for sometime I decided to have it stretch it's mechanisms for for while to wakeup gently from its hybernation. I also made sure it was getting enough stable juice to eliminate possibility of power related issues i.e. unsuccessful load.
Under 10min the 522 started to flap it's wings and started to sing and sing so much better than the 5170 my wife actually commented on how different the quality of a favorite selection I was playing. Given that the 522 has better components I wasn't surprised it would. For now I will enjoy listening to the 522 while it's flying - it is over 15yrs of age and it's doing quite well.
Current setup: NAD 3300, NAD 5170, NAD 522, NAD 4300, TMC speaker cables, Luna wire world interconnects, JMLABS Micron Carat bookshelf speakers.

Rubbish,c.d.player only works on some c.d.s,have to keep opening and closing drawer to try and get the bloody thing to play,have sent it for repair twice and it still does the same thing

Sound?

No digital output; mechanics; slow tracking; error-correction is far below normal.

Stay away from this one! Although the sound isn't that bad, the player has problems with any disc that is not just perfect. The time it takes in order just to recognise a disc is ... annoying. Slow in changing tracks too. It once was repaired after a month, and just recently I've repaired it myself. Mechanically it is just a disaster. In one of the reviews someone mentioned that the mechanics are from Philips. Well, except for the earliest CD players of Philips, their mechanics are the worst I've ever seen. There are a lot off CD players (for less money) that do have a much better error-correction and mechanics.

Similar Products Used:

Several Sony CD players, Philips CD players.

If you manage to buy a working one i bet they ar a lot of value for money, BUT DON`T TAKE THE CHANCE

DOESN`T PLAY CDs, so what is the point in buying this CD-PLAYER!

I would LIke to take this oppertunity to advise everyone who might read this to AVOID BUYING THE 522. My 522 only worked propperly for 6 months before it started giving med error messages. The chance of the 522 actually playing a CD all the way through with out an error is slim to none. How the 522 actually sounds is beyond the point NAD has no right to sell faulty CD-Players.

Similar Products Used:

NAD 5325 (MY fathers whitch has worked fine for several years exept that the display doesn´t work).

Player sounds great and value-for-money! It works well with Nad amps and Kef speakers... needs good interconnects and cable though. I'm currently using this combination - Qnect 2 from Qudos and Cable Talk 3.1.

NAD design attention to music

Won't play many CD-Rs reliably, ECC seems really bad.

I have seen a few postings re the NAD 522 and 540's inability to play CD-Rs without the pops/clicks. After several months of trying various combinations of speed (1x, 2x) and brands of CD-Rs, I think I have finally found a CD-R that works on the NAD C522 without the pops/clicks.

There are generally 3 dyes for CD-Rs. Cyanine, phthalocyanine, and Metallized Azo. The CD-Rs based on Cyanine seem to work the worst with the NAD C522. There are many brands that use cyanine, but listing them would be of limited use because manufacturers change dyes all the time (Memorex, FujiFilm, Sony, Samsung are ones I have tried that are cyanine based). The phthalocyanine seem to work the best. The 3 Mitsui silver/Gold I have burned (more details below) are click/pop free so far.

I have tried the Mitsui Gold/gold and it has a few click/pops. The HP brand is also based on phthalocyanine (type 6) made by Ricoh (at least the one I tried), but the playback is horrible on the NAD C522 (skips, pops/clicks, raspiness).

Details - Mitsui CD-R, 74min vendor code = AL707AI0A, ATIP = 97m, 27s, 55f, phthalocyanine (type 5) Silver/Gold UNBRANDED or BRANDED.

I am also going to try the Kodak brand since it is also based phthalocyanine.

A good URL for this info is

http://www.esware.net/empire/hardware/cdrom/cd_dye.htm

I would like to hear if anyone else has tried the Mitsui
Silver/Gold and/or the Kodak Ultima.

Similar Products Used:

none

Nice soundstage, fairly tight bass

Reliability is poor; mechanical difficulties; slow read times; lack of features

With great anticipation, I picked up a new 522 this past October. It was an upgrade from my 10 year old Denon and I was excited about getting a "better" product. Boy was I wrong. As much as I love NAD, I think this is an inferior product. The sound is fine, but I've heard just as good if not better sound from Marantz, Denon and even Sony. My biggest gripes are some of the little things that will drive you nuts: a) it takes the player about 10 seconds to read a disc; b) It has horrible (repeat: horrible) error correction capabilities; c) Sometimes when you skip a track, the laser can't pick up the new track and the display flashes "no disc" (HUGELY annoying)and d) I hear a horrible cracking/popping sound on a lot of discs that I NEVER heard with my Denon. Either the laser reader is inferior or is just too darn sensitive for older discs.

I'm a huge fan of NAD (I have an NAD amp/preamp I love) and hate to have to diss them like this. But a spade is a spade. Buyer beware...proceed with caution!

Good price, nice and clear sound with good recordings, neutral look.

Major functional problems, slow track search, very harsh and digital sound when you play loud music. CAN NOT read anything else than perfectly mint and non-damaged cd's.

I would not recomend this CD player, it's not worth the price ( relativ good sound, but too many drawbacks) go for denon insted in this price range.

Ergonomics, looks, reliability

sound, remote controll

Well...not to totally bash this CD player, but there are better players out there. I bought this to replace an aging pioneer CD player. I tried the harman kardon player, but it wasn't reliable, so this was my last resort. The sound is muddy and lacks the most basic amount of clarity and imagery you would expect for the price. If you want my advise, wait till you have enough money and buy a Myryad or a marantz, I traded into some used Arcam gear that I would recommend, otherwise this piece isn't worth your time or money. If you are thinking about tubes, JoLida's CD player comes highly recommended. It costs around 500 and would be another better option.

Similar Products Used:

Harmon Kardon FL-8350