Higly musical presentation. Can play all kind of music.
Detailed warm sound. Excellent value for money. The price in Norway is about USD 400.

Used with Electorcompaniet RCI-2 integrated amplifier,
Kirksaether Prisma 250 speakers, Tara Labs Phase III speaker
cable and Audioquest Turquoise interconnects.
The sound is great

sounds great

none so far

This replaced a 13 year old Kenwood. Difference was night and day. Will never again believe people who say all cd players sound more or less the same. Have read alot about tracking/skipping issues with this unit but haven't had a problem.

Weighty sound, clear soundstage

Sounds dark and uninvolving. Bass is powerful but ill defined, and it seriously lacks treble air

This player sounds impressive at first, but does not hold the attention the way the Arcam Alpha 7SE does. A bit disappointing.

Similar Products Used:

Arcam Alpha 7SE

Sweet sound, simplicity

construction

I have had the C541 (with HDCD) for three weeks now. The sound is very sweet and improving all the time. I like the simplicity of the front panel. The overall construction is just OK, hardly robust, just have to be careful with handling, which I always am when it comes to my equipment. Sound stage is excellent with this player, much better than my previous Sony and Yamaha players. The HDCD processor is very subtle but it is there. Most HDCD-encoded recordings seem to be very good recordings anyway and sound very good even without a processor. However, it is a nice bonus. I am very happy I bought this player. I see it as a significant upgrade for not a lot of money. It is not excatly feature-laden, but I just wanted a sonically accurate player and this one delivers.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Sony

Smooth, detailed sound, good price.

none yet

This review is for the new model 541 CD player.
I have been using this player for over 3 months now and have experienced no problems with it.
I used the Adcom750 cd before, but prefere the sound of the NAD much better..
/at less than half the price too. Much better inner detail and smoother also. My sytem has a Rogue 99 pre-amp/ Adcom 555 Amp/ and Paradigm Ref. 60 v2 speakers.

Similar Products Used:

Adcom 750 cd

Soundstaging, Looks!, Accuracy, Speed

I would like to see less plastic and more metal in the case.

I have only had this player for a little while, but I am really pleased. As aforementioned, burn-in/break-in definitely makes a difference. I have had no problems with CD-R's or skipping.
Some advice: Burn your CD's on 1x speed and use Memorex CD's, they seem to be the best.
This is a great CD player and is crystal clear and very revealing of recordings which is good and bad depending on how you look at it.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, JVC, Acurus

Bass response, HDCD, Clarity, detail

Remote is awkward

After too much reading on this board I finally made the plunge and upgraded my CD player from an ages old Sony changer. The NAD C541 sounded great out of the box and really came alive on Paul Simon's "Diamonds on the souls of her shoes", as well as the HDCD Keb Mo' CD. Much improved bass response to the point where the room and/or speaker placement may need adjustment. Older Cd's have come alive again, and my ProAc's have never sounded better. No problems with skipping. On the HDCD issue, I really didn't realize how many I had - and not all have a distinctly better sound. Surprising amount of country is HDCD. Wonder where this feature is going now that it was purchased by Microsoft.

My equipment, stil in upgrading status:

Yamaha A/V receiver (next to go)
ProAc Studio 125's
NAD C541
FFRC DIY bi-wired cables

The five stars on the overall applies to those who upgrade from ordinary Cd Players. Listened to a Planet but couldn't fit in budget - ditto for the Arcam Diva72.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 5 Disc changer

Good clarity; simple set-up; no frills

Flimsy drawer

I went for NAD because I have had wonderful service from my other equipment - an original NAD 3020 amp and a NAD 4150 tuner. I have not been disappointed. The first play showed its clarity and brightness and I have enjoyed it ever since.

It's been reliable. I have experienced skipping, but only once or twice and with specific CDs. It's not a widespread fault.

Some people may be put off by its lack of frills. Personally I like it. I buy NAD's story about putting the effort into what counts. And anyway, it has all the functions you need.

I would recommend it to someone wanting a budget player that combines quality and durability - and is a little different from the usual offerings.

Similar Products Used:

10-year old Marantz

Dynamic, pace, rhythm, imaging, slightly flat but natural

Compress soundstage. Weak transport. Skipping (remote cases)

I’ve been wanting to write a review about the NAD C540 for a while but time doesn’t seem to permit. I’m own the C540 for slightly more than 6 months now.

Going through past reviews, you see 2 camps. One group for the superb sound (obvious 5 stars) and the other for the flimsy transport and horrendous skipping (obvious 1 star). If you have heard the C540, you will understand. It is an outstanding player for players in its price range. At USD $220, it’s quite a bargain. The newer C541 (USD $270) comes with HDCD so that pushed the price for the C540 even lower for now.

My comparison of the C540 was with the newer Marantz range of CD players. The CD4000, CD5000 and CD6000, Rotel’s RCD-961. The C540 was more natural, although it sounded a little flat compared to the Marantz, which were bright to me. Well, I bought the C540 finally and that was the beginning of an enjoyable journey. The Rotel was over my budget.

The player was all sweet for the first few days. Tracking was perfect and everything else was ok. Then the nightmare begins. It began to skip at a particular segment of a track. The disc was new, and no, NOT a single scratch, whatsoever. I put the disc back in and it skipped on that segment. I had to resolve that…

I lined the transport bridge with bitumen pads and the skipping did not reoccur in 6 months. The following URL shows some pics of how I went about doing it.

http://www.geocities.com/nad_c540/

This is a pretty good player. With relatively good components. Delta-Sigma Op-amps (OPA 2604), Elna caps…etc. I modified the stock power cord and changed it to a pigtail (IEC adapter) so I can play around with power cables and found the Cardas Quadlink to open the soundstage by quite a bit (slightly better than my DIY beldens). The C540 doesn’t have a very wide soundstage to begin with. Imaging, pace and rhythm was pretty good on the whole. A good player for a beginner’s budget ‘hi-fi’ setup.

Other players I have heard on different setups: MF A3, Sony SCD-1, Sony DV-7000, Marantz CD63SE, Rega Planet. All are tremendous players to drool over. For the NAD C540:
Value = 5 Stars
Sound = 5 Stars (compared to players around the price range)
Finally, YMMV.


NAD C540
McCormack TLC-1 Deluxe
Jolida 202a (bypassing volume and selector pots)
Spendor S3/5
Kimber, UTP Cat5 and VdH I/Cs and S/Cs

Similar Products Used:

First CD player. Heard many others.

Superb sound (this is a review of the NAD C541)

None

I bought all new audio equipment within the last month:
NAD C740 receiver (it's 2 channel stereo)
NAD C541 cd player
NAD T550 dvd/cd player
Paradigm Reference Studio 20 speakers
Paradigm PDR-10 subwoofer

I purchased the components one at a time, so that I could hear the differences when adding/replacing components.

First, I bought the NAD C740 receiver, and played CDs using my old Sony CD player. The NAD C740 reciever's sound, compared to my old Kenwood reciever, was much improved.

A few days later, I bought the NAD C541 CD player. The difference in sound compared to my old Sony CD player was startling. Highs were high and clear, and I heard deep solid bass (bass instead of rumble) that I never heard before. Voices were clear. For the first time in my life, I was able to hear what they call "deep wide soundstage". And I could hear singers breathing into the microphone. It sent tingles down my spine. While listening to classical music with a chorale, such as Beethoven Symphony #9, I was able to hear individual voices instead of a single large voice mass. The C541 CD player definitely made an audible difference.

C541 has the HDCD filter. HDCDs sound great, if you can find them. I bought 2 remastered Doors CDs, Morrison Hotel and Strange Days. The packages didn't say HDCD, but when I played them on the C541, the red HDCD light turned on. The sound is outrageous when compared to the remastered non-HDCD versions of the same albums that I bought a few years ago.

A few days ago, I also purchased the NAD T550 DVD/CD player. My Toshiba DVD player's sound was unsatisfyingly flat when playing music on DVD video in 2 channel stereo, and when playing CDs. So, I fixed that situation by buying the T550. The sound on the T550 is just about identical to the C541. If you are on a budget and want to minimize the number of components, the T550 DVD/CD player is a good choice for your music. The T550 DVD/CD player does not have HDCD filter, and CDs load & read very slowly when first inserted in the T550, but that's a minor annoyance when you take into consideration the good sound. T550 picture is excellent. Now I own a C541 and a T550. If I would have bought the T550 DVD player first, I probably would not have also purchased the C541, but I have no regrets about owning both. The C541 is more "CD-friendly" than the T550.

I should say that this is my second C541 player...the first one was defective.... it would not play several of my CDs, and also would not play some some brand new CDs. But, the dealer exchanged the defective unit for a new C541 without any hassle and the new C541 works perfectly.

I won't say much about the C541's remote control, but it does the job. I can't understand why people make such a big deal out of a remote control's buttons or style.

In summary, the C541 is the probably best CD player you can get for under $1,000. It should make a distinct improvement in sound if you're replacing a mass-merchandise Japan-made CD player. I think that maybe the only other contender for a good, less-than-$1,000 CD player is the Cambridge Audio 500, but I couldn't find any dealers in Los Angeles that sold it, so I couldn't audition it.

I see no problems with C541 build or overall quality. Anyone can get a defective product now and then, regardless of manufacturer or price. NAD offers a long warranty period, too.

I auditioned other more expensive CD players such as Rega and Rotel. The C541 sounds just as good as Rega and Rotel but the C541 is 1/2 the price. I like NAD sound on all of their products. For a resonable amount of money I now have good audiophile sound system.

I recommend the C541 to anyone who enjoys listening to music.

Similar Products Used:

NAD T550 DVD/CD player