Only had this pre-amp for a while but the difference in sound quality compared to my previous amp ( pioneer A400 intergrated amplifier, leaves the pioneer A400 standing. I could-not believe the vast difference in relation to - DETAIL, DEFINITION IN THE SEPARATION of differant instruments. I use my pre-amp with a NAD 320 INTERGRATED AMPLIFIER ,the over-all result is very much INCREASED ENJOYMENT AND PLEASURE IN REDISCOVERING MY ENTIRE CD COLLECTION ( 350) IN TOTLE.

Described above

No balanced in/out

The NAD 114 is quite nice, in that the circuitry is one of the cleanest I've seen. There is only one massive PCB that is almost the size of the chasis. Here things are well seperated, the power supply, phono-stage, main gain stage, and tone stage is all seperated. The signal tracks are seperated by ground tracks to increase channel seperation and induce noise. the input RCA are directly soldered on the PCB. Infact the only wire that U'll find in this pre-amp in the mains wire and wire coming from the transformer. Source select switches are far to the rear to minimise signal lose. Volume control is a Blue Alps at 20k, a precision laser-cut device to maintain accurate channel tracking. Basicaly the best passive potentiometer you can get. All resistors are metal film 1%, and capacitors are poly-caps. You'll find no IC op-amp here in the main stage, only discrete transistors. There's a delicated headphone amp, something that u'll never find in a pre-amp of this price. The socket is a 6.5mm gold plated. NAD even go to the trouble of shielding the transformer to minimise induce noise on the circuit. It's a pitty they didn't use toroidal transformer here. With no signal and at max volume the pre-amp is very quiet, no hum or hiss what so ever, this is mainly because of the use of precision volume control. Other things that they could have improve was to use gold plate rca for all input instead if just CD and Phono. Apart from this minor issue (which I'm sure you can fix) this is the best pre-amp you can get for this price range or even higher.

Similar Products Used:

Pro Series 4 Pre-amp

- Alps Precision Volume Control - No ICs in active stage. - Metal Film Resistor and Poly-Caps - Everthying's on the one PCB. - Source select close to rear. - PCB layout is clean and orderly. - Nice little headphone amp.

- Pick-up signal from source not selected - Input gounds tried together. Should have been seperated. - Channel seperation isn't as good as it should be. - Zout (220 Ohms) is a bit high, but good enough for non op-amp design. - Source select could have been made more solid.

NAD 114 is a decent preamp for its price, however the designers could have done alot better to further enhance the perforamce and ultimately blow the competition away. After a few modification, this preamp could be top of the line. But for now 4 out of 5 mainly for value.

Similar Products Used:

- Nelson Pass's "Balance Line Stage"

The NAD 114 was the second Preamp that I used in my system. When I first set it up I was impressed at how much more music I was hearing. Two months later I ripped it out of my system. Since at the time I bought it I was making the trasition from CASUAL LISTENER to ENTHUSIAST (some would call me an audiophile, but I think I understand the definition of that term, and I am NOT in that Income range). What I realised was: * Everything was muffled
* No low freq. extension or "Slam"
* There was NO real Air in the upper end
* Dynamics and Harmonic Nuance were weak/obscured
* There was little soundstage depth/width
* Non-linear balance at Low/Moderate listening levels
The bottom line: If you just want the look of a component system, but are happy with the sound you would get out of an cheap integrated amp system, this would be a good place to start. If, however, you are interested in dimensional sound, dynamics, and accurate reproduction, look elsewhere.

Good soundstage

Cheaper power cord

I have been listening to my set up for 2 months now and I am very satisfy with it. I think it hard to say specificly how good the preamp, amp or CD player is ... I listened to the whole set up as a whole. Also I truely believe that good speaker cable is a necessity while interconnect do make a different but not as much as speaker cable. I love the sounds of the set up. It's too bad it does not have a remote for the preamp and I like the clean design on the panel where the focus obviously is on the sounds. This preamp is cheap and will work well with any entry level setup ... the sound is very balanced I find. Not too much high and nice bass. Give it a try if you can get a hand on it second-hand ... I heard it has been discontinued.

Here is my system:

Cambridge Audio CD6
NAD 114
NAD 214
Audioquest Midnight speaker cable

Clarity of sound, spaciousness, direction, everything else too.

None yet, but don't figure on finding any...

I just got the 114 today and wow! I never thought I would hear my music so clearly. I know I could have better, but for the money, this is it. Controls are simple and tone controls are hardly needed, in fact I don't even use them. Kudos to NAD.

My system

Sony ES CD
Adcom 545 II
NAD 114
Monster M1.2 Speaker Cable
AR Pro-Series Interconnects
Cerwin Vega DX-7 (To be replaced)

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Onkyo

Decent build quality, good phono section

no remote

I use the NAD in conjunction with a Parasound 1500A to power a pair of Dyanaudio Audience 70s. I very happy with the clear and detailed sound I am getting, although admittly I have not had the opportuntiy to plug in other pre-amps and compare the sound. Nontheless, given that the NAD/Paraound combo compares well to an excellect Classes integrated I tried, shows that the NAD is a good performer. This is a nice pre-amp for the price

Two tape loops, two amp outs, gold plated Phono, CD & headphone jacks,phono input switch for MM/MC cartridges. Nice open soundstage, handles dynamics well. Simplicity. Price.

Lack of air in top end, although defeating the Tone Controls improves this gratly. (I was trying to boost high frequency response when I discovered this.)

I bought this product in an emergency; my wife and I were sitting around listening to a newly purchased CD one evening when Ella Fitzgerald's voice started to sound like Jimmy Hendrix's guitar. As it turned out something was terribly wrong with the B side of the preamp, sports fans. That's when I found out about the lack of phono stages in modern day preamps. I went to the nearest decent audio store in Yakima, about five miles from where I live (the alternative being at least 100 miles away.I auditioned a really nice McIntosh, which I couldn't afford and then the NAD 114 and 116. They both sounded pretty much the same to me so I bought the cheapest one and have been happy with it ever since.

I have learned a lesson since, though. Next time I will budget more carefully and get a preamp with an outboard power supply and a separate phono amp.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaco PAT 4.

I just got the 114 and am very pleased with the sound. I use the NAD 515 as my source and the NAD 214 to power Boston Acoustic CR9s. System is very crisp with deep bass and detailed treble. For the money I am very happy!

It's time to set the record straight on this preamp: There is absolutely nothing wrong with its sound, and its superior features and relatively low price make it an outstanding value. No, it's not a tube preamp, and its not the last word in transparency, soundstaging, air, etc., but it is very musical (especially with a tube preamp such as the Stereo 70), has plenty of bass slam, and very good soundstaging, depth etc. For phono enthusiasts, the MM/MC input is an outstanding feature. If this preamp had more bells and whistles people would be drooling over it, but its simplicity and straightforward performance make it a sleeper in the preamp category. Five stars for value, four stars overall