Great sound and DX abilities for very little money.

The backlight for the digital display burns out quickly enough on NAD products, however, from what I have read can be replaced inexpensively. The user can also just shine a flashlight at the display while tuning in their favorite 6 preset stations, which enables them to set the tuner up for long-term listening.

While I haven't used the NAD 412, I have used the NAD 402 for sometime and find it to be an excellent sounding piece of gear, with very respectable DX capablities.

The fact that it can be had for well under $100 in the present day (the tuner is about 12 -15 years old at this point) makes it an incredible bargain in my opinion, since the 402 has exudes the kind of warmth that makes it extremely pleasing to listen to for hours.

While it is not constructed nearly as well as some of the more esoteric tuners that I presently own, which include a ReVox B261 and McIntosh MR-65B, the 402 certainly holds its own soundwise.

I would highly recommend it to the any music lover who has come to the realization that the FM offers a tremendous source of free music that can compete favorably with other sources such as a turntable, CD player or tapedeck; especially when a station is doing a live broadcast where there's virtually no compression to the music.

The NAD offers tremendous value for your listening dollar, a clean visual appearance, and a simple enough ergonomic layout (once you get used to its ideosyncratic tuning arrangement.

Enjoy the music!
JimmyBlues

Similar Products Used:

ReVox B261; McIntosh MR-65B; Marantz Model 125;Tandberg 3011A

Can easily tell the sonic difference between carefully recorded programming and top 40 stations. But how hard is that? Reception is awesome when connected to roof antenna, middling when connected to rabbit ears. IMHO, spending $100 on the antenna, and lots of tuners sound good. Strong signal reveals details and soundstage you may not have known existed.

Display/controls regularly fail. Inside tuner you'll see a computer ribbon cable connects the audio board to the control board which is screwed into the back side of the face plate. I've unplugged the tuner, opened the cover, unplugged and replugged the ribbon cable then found the controls work again. The same has happened with the display lamp, which has it's own twisted two conductor cable.

Very listenable with NPR classical music programming. Great price. Did not compare it A/B with other products when I was shopping, so I don't have a calibrated sense of how it stacks up to other tuners.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha R300 tuner section. HH Scott 477 tuner section. Studer Revox receiver tuner section.

good sound

no remote

very simple operation.good sound

Similar Products Used:

rotel.proceed

simple attractive interface, price

maybe not the best sounding

I didn't want to spend to much on a tuner, but it had to sound nice, and not look too ugly; the NAD fit the bill nicely. I get great reception on a radio shack amplified antenna, and everything sounds good. Im guessing that it doesnt sound as good as the Magnum-dynalab's I read so much about but then I picked it up used for 150 so I am quite happy. It sounds better then any reciever/tuner I have had before, and better then an old Yamaha analog tuner I was using before it.

I actually own the older 402 model, acquired in Feb '96 when I traded in my old Sherwood receiver (plus 40 quid). Fed with the supplied ribbon dipole aerial back then, it performed well, if a little soft in the bass.
Later I was able to treat the 402 to its own loft aerial; it now shone, restricted only by local reception. Now I live in London, where there are far more FM stations (both pirate and legit) than the NAD has presets, and where the BBC Radio Three reception (sharing a rooftop aerial with the TV) is outstanding. The NAD retains its trademark warmth, but now exhibits greater clarity, particularly with the spoken word, than I previously thought it capable of. Even some of the local commercial stations are rendered palatable.

It does suffer from a terribly noisy transformer (which my adjacent NVA phono stage picks up) and, two months ago, the curse of NAD struck and the LCD display went out. Does anyone know of a quick fix for this ? (Lucky I know the FM preset sequence by heart). Oh, and AM reception has always been very poor with the supplied wire-aerial.

A bargain sound-wise though.

A good unit.

The display is prone to fade out

A good tuner and excellent value.

good for value

Bad display

Hi, I am using the NAD 402 not the 412. And I must say that this is a relay good tuner for the money. It's just that there is a slight bass and not that much dynamic as the 412 or as it could be. And the ordinary NAD problem. Guess... the display dioes has died, but I have repaired. For $20. Remember that it's not bad that a NAD has been to service for display repairing, it's verry good.

my nad 412 finally died after 3 years. it lost all sensitivity, i cant pick anything up at all. i went to buy a marantz st 4000 this afternoon. ive only played around with it for a while. its definitely sounds brighter than the nad. it looks better, steel front, rds, lets see what it'll be like

I was concerned when the dealer said the price tag was 300$ My jaw dropped and I said "I thought it retailed for 250." He said they raised the price so I bought a demo unit in mint condition for 260$. This is a great tuner which doesn't have any faults for it's good price. It might be limited in sound quality compared to more expensive tuners, but can it be beat for the price? It's a fun addition to any system.

I used to have a 402, which is entirely equivalentto the wider-case 412. While normally the sound of
cheap tuners irritates me, and not a little, the
NAD was very very listenable in my system of
fairly high calibre. And this even without a
proper antenna! Yet, is is of course no end-all
tuner. In an A/B comparison with an ancient Quad
FM-3, the latter sounded yet more refined and relaxed.
My current tuner, a Quad FM-4, again is better than
the old (but excellent, if you find one) FM-3.

The NAD's worst aspect is reliability: mine lost
its display after 3 years of light use. And guess
what, only last week in a bar in Madrid I saw a
412, also with broken display!

Ratings:

If you find a 412 at about ECU150 less, then #####
other wise #### (with the typicla cheap tuner
scoring ## or ###).
Reliability: ###