Cheap. Musically just about ok with an MF X10D.

Really bad build quality. Major functional problems.

Total agree with the previous review :
I think it's a horrible scrappy machine to avoid even if given free.
It refuses to recognise older or computer recorded disks most of the time. I was almost going to throw them away - so many problems and noises. In addition:
Tracking takes forever;
The draw scratches as it opens.
But, I just bought a Musical Fidelity Elektra E624 and the old disks, the computer recorded disks - they all sound greater than I've ever heard before and without all the noises and tracking problems.......Ok, it's a lot more expensive, but what a world of difference!
REPEAT ADVISE: STAY AWAY FROM THE NAD 522 CD player.
Personally I will never buy any other NAD product again.
This NAD 522 unit was a half price "special offer" dealer replacement for a NAD 502 that had the apparently typical display and drawer problems - which were too expensive to repair just after the end of the two year guarantee. After a year even brand new disks were unplayable. So no way NAD again !! Twice bitten is enough !! Special offers for NAD : NO THANK YOU !!

Similar Products Used:

NAD 302 amp / Mission 753 speakers

I just bought the new 522 for my dad today as a gift. He wanted to getinto CD after exhausting his record collection. Anyway I sought out to find
an inexpensive, high quality CD player for him. The NAD 522 was the perfect
choice.
First off, this is a high quality piece. It has a 20 bit Burr Brown D/A
in it and analog op-amps in the signal path. High tech for the price point.
Other specs include- FR 5HZ-20, THD 0.0025%, S/N 10db, dynamic range 96db,
and channel seperation at 110db. These are all excellent measurements for a
CD player of any price point.
Sound wise this CD left me begging for more. I could'nt get enough of it
during the in store demo. I demo it using a well recorded CD, mainly Tori
Amos's "Boys for Pele". This CD sounded very transparent through the NAD,
and Tori's voice seemed to vanish into the room. Upper detail was very much
there, as was a clean midrange. The bass on the song "Taula" was nice and
punchy and well defined.
Now for my few not so hot traits. It lacks the Digital output which I
would have liked to see. My dad would probably never had used it anyway.
The soundstage although present was still too shallow for my tastes. And
the dynamics were not what I had expected given it's high dynamic range
value. The bass was fairly tight and defined but it definetly was lacking
in extension. Otherwise, like I said the NAD had a very clean and tamed
sound to it. And overall the sound was very good and very listenable.
I sure hope my dad enjoys his new toy as much as I had tracking it down.
This is a very nice piece, and anyone who is considering a CD player in the
$200 - $300 range you can't do any better than this. I want to get my paws
on one now to replace my crappy old Pioneer. The NAD 522 looks high end,
and it performs high end. Highly recommended.
overall, and it is quite listenable.

It's a decent piece. A great, gray box like all NAD equipment, but solidly built. Remote's not full function; you can't program tracks with it (for example). Takes a long time to read a CD by modern standards. Still, in spite of some minor drawbacks, it sounds good in my bedroom system with some B&W DM302's and a Jolida tube amp. Plusses: Non-fatiguing sound, slightly laid-back mids, decent bass extension. Minuses: small soundstage, not the last word in detail, doesn't precisely locate images within the soundstage. When I stuck it in the big rig these flaws (compared to my Arcam alpha 8) were very apparent. Still, for a little over 200 clams there's probably very little at this end of the price range that can do such a fine job with similarly matched equipment. Very recommended for systems under 2k.

I was wanting to replace my HK7225 that turned up it's toes and would not read any CD's (a common problem with all HK's that I have seen and heard) I tried looking at a HD720 but no one would sell it or order it.
Next was the NAD, In my price range and with a better sounding sound stage than the $100 200 Disk monstrosity at Best Buy with better support from the dealer.

Only thing missing is the optical out and headphone jack.

great player for the price. great detail. surprisingly it does take a long time to break in. my player was a demo unit for a year, when i took it home, it took another 10 hrs to break it in! maybe its just the cables and new speakers though, im pretty sure its the player. i got for $250 at a local shop. its not the best sounding player, but for the money, its worth it i think. ps: ive never heard antonio vivaldi's four seasons sound as good with any other sub-$400 player

This little unit has a great balance of sweetness & detail lacking in numerous units twice the price. I swear the signal sounds linear (unphased analog) upto around 5kHz, where the begins showing signs of digitization. Thankfully, NAD didn't use any processing tricks to either artificially enhance this region nor stiffle it off, unlike many many others. I don't know what others refer to as laid-back, but the utter lack of phasing in an 8x unit is delightful. I tend to attribute it to a single series cap in the signal path. I only wish the 524 was available in the USA, but NAD tells me that a new 524-ish unit is due out this fall.

I wasn't really planning on up-grading my 1987 NAD single disk player (until I realised just how bloddy old it was), but an opportunity came up and the 522 was the right price ($350Can, tax in).
The player performs well, but with my current speakers (mission 731's) is probably not getting a real chance to prove itself. I've immediately noticed a substantialy greater amount of detail revealed in many of the recordings I considered myself to be previously familiar with. The player has also demonstrated the difference in production quality that exists between many disks. For me, purchase of this unit has represtented good value and it's giving me a taste of what lies in store when I can afford some better equipment; also I enjoy it's relatively plain looks and lack of useless features.

The bass tends to be warm but present and the highs are crisp and not to overbearing, I couldn't comment on soundstage though.

I think it's a great buy, however if someone knows of unit that will obviously out perform it for the same bucks let us know.

Long read-in-time and badly equiped (no memory, no digital-out). But in its price-range absolutely the best sounding player. Excellent
control and dynamics.

Nice unit for the price. Little to No frills player, but the sound is outstanding at that price. However, it only made me drewl over the 524 that's not available to the USA. The sound is perfect to around 5kHz, where the sound no longer is faithfully reproduced. Uptil then the sound is linear, but above that frequency the sound is digital in nature. The voice is less than round. The characteristic waveform sounds chiselled. It also makes me wonder what a 2nd-order butterworth filter would do. I'd like to vote 4.7 stars overall, but for the price it's a 7 stars.

Hey dudes,
You gotta check this cd player out! Great sound, low bucks. You can get it at netmarket.com for just $225. those folks treated me alright.