sound - revealing, detailed; design

none known

I had NAD 502/304/402/804 system some years ago. When I bought flat and moved, I sold it as a complet. Then we with my wife lived without goood mucis for more than two years (only micro JVC played something). Thi summer we have bought B&W CDM 1 SE speakers (one of two last pairs in CZ).
Then we wanted to buy CD/amp. Our first intent was to go NAD, but we have some CD-R, and we have read here about problems with them. Also lack of programmability was a big minus for me. Therefore we almost decided for Harman Kardon (706 and 690).

But: our 540 can read all CD-R we have (mostly Verbatim DataLife Plus).
And: 540 has the program function. We bought remote for 512 CD player where is the program button. It works (and looks more nicely then ugly 540 RC unit).

And sound? All has been said here. Superb. For the price, you hardly can find something to beat it.

Highly recommended.

My system:
NAD C 540 CD player.
NAD C 350 integrated amplifier (pity that this splendid unit doesn't have reviews here).
B&W CDM 1 SE speakers.
In the near future I buy active interconnect (maybe Dudek Sound Refiner) and some good spekers cable (Shark was recommended in my hifi studio).

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha something (590?), NAD 502

Same as other reviews

Same as other reviews

Very good price/ performance ratio.
Some problems with mechanics (disk skipping) maybe because of error correction (but not so dramatic as other revierws stated).

The low end just not as good as Arcam 7 (which is slightly expensive) but the clarity and dynamics is excellent.
For this price is damn good.

Similar Products Used:

Arcam , Technics

Musicality and simplicity

Bass

I've been looking for months to upgrade my current player.
Have been real interested in the Adcom, Arcam, and Musical
Fidelity; what I've not been interested in are the rather high prices they command. But that has to be kept in perspective: if there weren't so much uncertainty re format changes, I wouldn't have hesitated to plunk down the asking price for the 1K plus units. But with the likelihood of a "universal" player only a year or two away, I reasoned that anything beyond the price range the 540 commands might not be the smartest investment for me.

Paul from NJ actually summarized my thoughts pretty well -
music, especially classical, is priority for me, and this unit performs very well. What I look for first is a player's ability to tame the highs. Some highly ranked units have a high end that will cut glass. This unit is sweet and musical, highly detailed, and develops a great soundstage.
Where it is lacking, IMHO, is the stygian bass. Oh, it goes low, but doesn't define and produce pitch anywhere near what the Adcom does. But I've got a great sub (REL), so that doesn't trouble me too much. Music first and foremost is what I'm interested in, and this unit seems to do quite nicely. So far it has behaved. If things change, I'll make another post and keep any interested parties apprised.

24 bit DAC, Ease of use, Clean lines and simple asthetic appearance, Price for performance.

Transport could be sturdier (its very fragile), The historical NAD quality control issues, Optical laser is VERY sensitive (it will hesitate to play if the disc is violated with mild surface funk), Lackluster remote.

Ok, first of all, I used to think all CD players were alike. I mean: its a digital signal right? How different can one be from the other? My attitude was wrought from ignorance and the years of owning a piece of "shat" JVC carousel player (the model of which shall remain nameless).

Since then, I have educated myself in the realm of "digitalia", and have discovered that all cd players are NOT alike. From transport's to DAC's, I have read about the many combonations. From the low-range ($500-1000) to the high-end transport/DAC combos ($10,000-30,000). I have discovered that you must choose a medium that you can live with (especially those of us who do not have dead presidents to burn), especially if you really DO care about your music and how it sounds. But to achieve this medium, you will have to spend a little more for it. So choose wisely, shop around and read the reviews and you might get lucky. I did.

I won my NAD C-540 on an ebay auction for $315. Its a refurbished model and quite clean, looking brand new as a matter of fact. The company who sponsored the auction (www.spearitsound.com) handled the post auction process with expedience, and I had my player 3 days later..........

When I opened the box and removed the player the first thing I noticed was the asthetics: Nice an clean. Straight lines. No funky lights and distractions, just a functional lo-profile drab gray box. With a woody, I quickly plugged it in to my stereo:

Onkyo P-304 preamplifier
Onkyo M-504 Poweramplfier
Original* Monster cable speaker wire
Wharfedale Sapphire 87's (4)
Monster cable Interlink datalink 100 (for cd to pre)
Monster cable interconnects (for pre to amp)

I let the player burn in for about 48 hours, this was tuff to do since I was very anxious about getting to the music. I put in the 2nd CD from Rush's (yes the Candian rock band)
"Chronicles" 2 CD set, and just with the C-540 on, let it run on "repeat all" mode for the next 2 days............ (This is very important for you to do when you purchase a new piece of gear, especially a cd player or power amp. The piece will not show its true potential until the electronics and signal paths have had a chance to "meld". Its not BS folks.)

Finally, 2 days later: it was time! I turned on my complete system and let it all warm up for about 20 minutes. I figured since I had waited 2 days whats another 20 minutes? I really wanted an accurate idea of how the player would perform so I thought it only fair that all of my components be optimal for the listening test.

I put in a cd that I know VERY well. Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown". My favorite song on the cd is "The Watchman" so I selected it, turned up the pre-amp to about 3 and sat in my easy chair and closed my eyes.

When the first guitar chord was gently strummed, I knew I had something here. I continued to listen and my brain swooned, the sound was so clear and free of color. I could hear Gordon's fingers running up and down the frets of the guitar! The 24 bit DAC was very accurate, but did not over emphasize the sound like some DACs do. The bass was very smooth, and the stage was clear and distinguished. I could tell exactly where the instruments were positioned. The sound was controlled, and focused.

I was impressed! the C-540 was leaps and bounds better than the previous player I was using. I got excited and scrambled
for my classical cd collection once the Gordon Lightfoot selection ended.

I choose a Philips recording of the "Peer Gynt Suite" and was again impressed by the NAD. The DAC reproduced the female solo singers vocals perfectly. The sound was not nasal or muffed, by very pronounced and forceful, clear and regal. Wow!

To make a long story short this player is nice. Very nice. If you are in the market for one, go to www.spearitsound.com where you can find one for under $400 with a 1 year warranty to boot. They are refurbished, but they are clean and think about it this way: whatever NAD got wrong the first time gets corrected in the re-furbishment! The player I have displays none of the problems other reveiwers have complained about (except maybe the sensitivity of the laser to dirty discs) but none of the skipping and read errors(I will test a CD-R later). This player is good for anyone who doesn't mind spending $400 bucks for a CD player because he cares about how his music sounds, but can't afford to spend $1000 on one. You won't find a better player in this price range in my opinion, and its apparent from most of the other reviews from NAD C-540 owners that the feeling is shared amongst us all.

Similar Products Used:

None

Nice sound,

Primary weakness:It doesn't work from time to time...!
Secondary: The remote is a joke.

I just read the reviews below and must say that the quality of this piece seems not to be the best.
I've used this CD for 1 month and recently the player had problems to read my disc. I bought a brand new CD and put it into the stereo but it didn't work. "no disc" it said.
I have to open and close the CD to make it work, And that is after 5-10 tries.
I'll return this crap and will buy a Denon instead.

Soundquality

It only works for 1-11 months between repairs

I love the sound. Unfortunatly I am not in a position to hear this, as I´ve just returned it for repairs.

I bought the 524 model 18 months ago. It broke down 4 times i 6 months. Hifiklubben who sold me the 524 replaced it at no charge with the 540 model. It broke down 2 days ago.

I beleive this is some kind of record. The man at Hifiklubben sounded almost proud when he said "well this time it lasted almost a year".

Soundquality 4 stars
Quality in any other aspect 0 stars.

Hifiklubben is always dissing other brands like Sony. Well at least Sony keeps on ticking.

Nad, you make me sad.

Similar Products Used:

524 build almost like the 540

In response to Clarence's CDR skipping problem. I too have encountered this problem. Firstly its nothing to do with the burn in period. I just got Random skipping on all my CDRs. I took it back to the shop, they tried to adjust the laser: no good. So they simply replaced it. I've just got it, but so far the new one is working fine.

I emailed NAD and their explanation was that the C540 is not designed to play CDRs. This appears to be in contradiction to the fact that my current player is working fine?

As for the sound quality of the machine: excellent. But if the problem reoccurs, I'm looking for a different player.

Its mid range is warm. The low and high freq were well balance. The overall sound is dynamic and value for the price.

Lack of features. example there were no eject button on the remote.

Before I bought this C540, I have auditioned with the NAD C520. I decided to buy C540 not only for it better sound, but also for the digital output feature which the C520 doesn't provide.
Comparing C540 against my old Marantz 63SE, the NAD will definitely convience other Marantz's owners to change their CD players. The C540 gives a clean and natural sound, unlike the 63SE which focus on the high and may sometimes
sound a bit to noisy on selected CDs.
Connecting the C540, I am using the MicroMega DAC which has
improved the soundstage especially on live and classical music. Playing it together with Cambridge P40 and Rogers Studio 7 (my current amplifier & speakers) makes
C540 definitely an execellence CD player for it price.

very simple to use, clean, detailed, transparent sound, wide and deep cultured soundstage.

seems to be slightly week in build

pair it with NAD C340, open and detailed speakers (I use B&W P4), and be happy - at less than USD 400 (in Denmark). A bargain of high sound quality!

Very detailed an clear sound. Punchy bass.

Skips on any disc with surface dirt, it even skips on flecks of dust. Remote is a piece of junk and hard to 'point' correctly.

It does what it is supposed to do VERY well, producing a clean, detailed and open sound.

It does have a highly sensitive transport, but I can live, you just need to clean the disk beforehand. It will not skip on slight scratches, but it will skip on dust!

Remote is arguably the worst, but I would rather have a good cd player than a good remote.

Also, I swear it has changed slightly over the first 24 hours of use, maybe it was just me, its seems much 'smoother' now.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz 7000 dvd player, other marantz cd players, denon