Hello everyone,
Came here not in search for an answer but rather to express my astonishment and to share my experience for anyone still asking 'how good does it sounds?'
I never wrote any review / impression in my entire life, but I'm really shocked!
I've been an enthusiastic listener and had the chance to own and hear some quality equipment like Violectric, Meridian Prime, Atoll, Lehmann, Heed, Grace design and others.
My main current dedicated headphone amp is a Benchmark Dac1 that I love.
During the day I like listening to the radio and I've bought a vintage Nad 7240pe because I very much loved the sound of the tuner.
Never ever I thought to try out the headphone output, but one day there was some disturbance in the... area, some construction noise pushed me to find a quick solution so I grabbed my senns 650 and stick them in the socket. Nice, good sound! Wait, I'm only listening to some dudes talking about the news... But the richness!
Of course I hooked up right away my meridian dac to the NAD and started shuffling my music library...
I was under the impression that someone is joking me and change the output, I'm listening and keep staring at the headphone socket and can't believe the sound comes out of this old piece... Completely flabbergasted!
I mean the details, the soundstage, oh my! But mostly, the voices... So organic, I'm really shocked!
Done some A/B between the Benchmark with my beloved Focals, Beyers, Senns and the Nad and I'm probably trying to justify the price of the Benchmark, I would say it sounded a bit more 'airy', 'clearer' to use a few clichés, but I mean just a tiny bit, splitting hair...
So, how it sounds? Fa-bu-lous! Never used so many superlatives in a couple of sentences, but I'm just blown away, I'm lost for words, a few weeks after and still can't believe that such an old piece of kit can deliver at this level, I mean I'm comparing it to one of the greatest and the difference is hardly noticeable. I'm simply mesmerised by the quality of the headphone output of the NAD, such a natural sound, effortlessly presented with great clarity and huge amount of details, and with all genres.
Astonished ! I really can't speak for other vintage equipment, Sansui, Marantz, Kenwood, Luxman and so on, but if you have the chance, grab a NAD 7240pe for pennies and enjoy the marvellous sound!