NAD C542

[jpr703]

Just pulled the trigger on a NAD c542. I've never heard the unit, which makes me a little nervous, but I've read a lot of good things about it and the local dealer recommended it highly.

I was tempted by the price of the c521bee but the c542 has Nichicon caps and a newer DAC. Supposedly they've lowered the jitter and improved the power supply slightly as well.

It should be here on Friday so hopefully I'll be a happy camper this weekend. Anyone else out there have any experience with this player?

 

[drarthurwells]

A good choice at its price range - I had one once myself.

 

[elmoe]

My personal fav CDP at this price range amongst the ones I've heard. A great little player well worth its price, you'll enjoy it

 

[HiWire]

Let us know how it sounds. It's my first choice for a source right now.

 

[Covenant]

I owned the C521BEE for quite a while, and if the C542 performs at its level or above you'll be happy with it - at least until you start reading about the E5, then all bets are off

 

[Garbz]

C542 is fantastic. I'd have one myself if I wern't saving up and going all out. It's by far NADs best player. Has HDCD decoding too, not just powersupply jitter etc. You can feel it in the weight too. Damn heavy compared to other NAD units?

 

[mrarroyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garbz C542 is fantastic. I'd have one myself if I wern't saving up and going all out. It's by far NADs best player. Has HDCD decoding too, not just powersupply jitter etc. You can feel it in the weight too. Damn heavy compared to other NAD units?

I second this, I enjoy it a lot specially at the +/-$450 to $500 price it sells for.

 

[cfo]

Has anyone compared the C542 to the C521BEE as a cd transport to feed an external dac?

 

[Garbz]

No but I have compared the NAD C542 + Electrocompaniet DAC to the Electrocompaniet CDplayer which to me is by far the nicest sounding thing i have ever heard. Given the ECDP a 10, the NAD + dac would score about a 9.5 from me.

Incidently the electrocompaniet dac is the same dac stage as used in their cdplayer just fed from spdif not i2s. They recycle a LOT of their circuits. Basically what i'm saying is for the $3700 for the $3000 dac and $700 NAD, it came within window fogging distance of the $10000 Electrocompaniet CDplayer. The NAD is a very capable transport too, not sure how the other one will fair, but since Jitter is greatly effected by the powersupply I assume it'll fair worse.

 

[Jigglybootch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpr703 It should be here on Friday so hopefully I'll be a happy camper this weekend.

Anything to report? I was kind of looking forward to your impressions.

 

[jpr703]

Nothing yet--unfortunately it didn't arrive on Friday. Looks like it will be Monday before it comes in.

 

[jpr703]

Well, the c542 is in the house. The unit isn't real heavy, but it feels solid. Color is typical NAD, but overall the unit looks sharp and the display is clean and well laid-out.

All the basic functions are available via buttons on the front and the bottom of the unit has thick, heavy rubber feet which seem to do a good job of controlling vibration in an economical fashion. On the back are optical and coaxial outputs. NAD says they've paid a lot of attention to these outputs and I've been told that unit will make a good transport if I decide to add an external DAC somewhere down the road.

The CD draw is plenty fast. I've read some complaints here and there about older NAD units, but this one is plenty quick. Start up and track jumping are also very quick and the unit feels very responsive.

Two complaints. The power cord is not removable so you're stuck with it. A minor quibble, but it would have been nice to have the option of replacing the stock cord. Secondly, the remote control looks like it came out of a Happy Meal. I don't know who designed that thing, but it's a big hunk of cheap plastic that looks like it would be used to control a child's toy. Don't get me wrong, it functions well, but you'll probably find yourself hiding it a drawer.

Despite those two gripes, NAD serves up a solid unit for the price. Everything feels like it's well built and I'm happy with the way it looks and functions.

It's still to early to comment on sound. I'll be burning the unit in a bit before I sit down to do some critical listening. I'll post some more comments when I do.

 

[strether]

I have the 541i and am wondering exactly how the 542 differs from it. The NAD site says there are differences, and that the difference they make is "dramatic," but I haven't been able to find a specification of these differences anywhere online (after 15 minutes of googling).

Does anyone happen to know?

(FWIW, I like the 541i a lot, though I only use it as a transport. I especially like how fast the drawer, cueing, and scanning mechanisms are. I don't have enough experience with different transports to know what the transport contributes to the sound: I tend to attribute distinctive sonic attributes solely to my DACs.)

 

[Garbz]

transports make the biggest differences in the trebble from what I gathered with a few tests of my own, mostly attributalbe to different levels of jitter.

Anyway yes the NAD makes an excelent transport.

Why would someone want to upgrade the power cord.

And finally why is it that everyone who buys hifi gear regardless of cost or type complains about the remot

The best quote I've heard is the Electrocompaniet ECI-3 Remote could be more elaborate. Elabowhat? There's a button for every function of the amp, couldn't add more buttons if you wanted to.

Anyway I've started to believe complaints about remotes is a good sign. It means people can't fault units and start nitpicking at anything.

 

[cfo]

I have owned or tried at least a dozen different tranports (I have 2 systems with dacs) and have found all of them to sound different. In some cases the differences were subtle and in others very noticeable. I have found not only the treble, but bass extension, clarity, resolution of details and soundstaging are all affected. I frequently use an Audio Alchemy Jitter Filter and have found that most (except for 2) transports I have tried benefitted at least a little from it.
NAD now claims to pay attention to the quality of the signal coming out of their digital output, which is why I was curious about them. This wasn't always the case as I owned an NAD player many years ago and it was not a very good transport. I would try one soon except their local dealers do not offer extended home trials.