NADD 3020 v2 Hybrid Digital Integrated Amplifier

The NAD 3020 v2 Hybrid Digital is a great little amplifier and DAC. Like all NAD gear, it offers good value for the money spent. With an honest 30 Watts RMS per channel and an oversized power supply it easily drives bookshelf loudspeakers to room filling volume levels. I've owned quite a few NAD stereo components over the years, including the original NAD 3020 produced back in the late 1970's, and the latest NAD Digital Hybrid amplifier is worthy of the NAD name.I purchased this amplifier for exclusive use with a SuperMicro PC running Windows 7 Pro and JRiver Media Center software. My Windows PC has an optical S/PDIF output on-board so I used that interface instead of the noisy electrical USB or RCA outputs. The optical S/PDIF interface effectively isolates the noisy PC chassis from the sound system entirely.My NAD 3020 v2 Hybrid drives a pair of ELAC B6 Debut Series loudspeakers and the amplifier's subwoofer output is connected to an ELAC Debut S10 200 Watt Powered Subwoofer.Sound quality is good, with no noise or any of the jitter normally associated with a USB connection. The amplifier's on-board DAC handles 24bit 192KHz Hi-Resolution FLAC files with no problem.The NAD 3020 v2 Hybrid replaces an older NAD C160 Preamplifier, NAD 912 Stereo Power Amplifier and Cambridge Audio DAC Magic 100 I had been using. Everything needed for stereo sound reproduction is now handled by this one small component instead of a whole stack of components and interconnects.I use my PC for ripping audio CDs in FLAC format that are then uploaded to a networked music server for use with an audiophile quality Hi-Fi system in my living room. The NAD is a great way to monitor CDs while they are being ripped and for general listening in my office while I work.The optional 6dB Bass boost at 80Hz is perfect for smaller bookshelf loudspeakers that normally roll off at the low end, but if your system employs a sub-woofer you'll definitely want to leave it turned off.If you're considering purchasing this amp make sure you get the newer v2 model, it trades the noise-prone USB connection for a Moving Magnet (MM) phono preamplifier and RIAA equalization circuit. The v2 model also has preamplifier outputs that allow you to connect a more powerful amplifier if you ever want to drive larger more demanding power-hungry loudspeakers.The NAD 3020 v2 Hybrid uses a Class D power amplifier circuit. Class D power amps have taken a beating in the audiophile press over the years, but the newest Class D amplifier designs have none of the sonic issues associated with earlier iterations of Class D circuitry. While Class D amplifiers used to be relegated to subwoofers only, they can now be used to power full range speakers without any sonic shortcomings.The NAD is rather unique at the $399.99 price point. There are other amplifiers costing the same, but they don't include all of the features the NAD offers. The 30 Watt per Channel amplifier, on-board DAC, MM Phono Preamp, Headphone amplifier, remote control, preamplifier outputs, Bluetooth aptX interface and multiple analog and digital inputs make this little integrated amplifier a bargain.It makes a great starter system for music lovers. It can serve as the hub for a dorm-room Hi-Fi, home office system, or computer sound or gaming system.The only caveat I have is the Auto-Standby power feature gets a bit tedious, but it can be defeated if you don't want the amplifier to constantly shut off when you use your computer for things other than music and only need to hear the occasional warning beep or error tone.There's a good equipment review of the NAD 3020 Hybrid Digital Amplifier in Stereophile Magazine. Google "Stereophile NAD 3020" to read the entire review online.

Probably the most disappointing aspect of this little amp is the false advertising in the description. The description of the amp states it produces 40w per channel- the box the product comes in states 30w- and that’s clearly how much power it has when listening.Don’t get me wrong- the power it makes is extremely clean and musical. If you have smaller, efficient speakers it’s enough amp to fill a home office or bedroom with sound- but you’re going to need to crank it to do so. I have it currently running a pair of Paradigm Premier 100b’s (90db sensitivity)in our bedroom and they sound really good- but if I want the most detail available and the music somewhat loud- it’s cranked to 9/10 on the volume. Fortunately at a more wife friendly/reasonable volume it’s about 6-7/10.The volume control is an issue however- there’s about 200 steps from lowest low to loudest loud- and the remote takes forever to make an adjustment because of it. It doesn’t make a lot of sense why they would put such a fine volume adjustment on a little amp that only puts out 30 watts in the first place…All of that said- for the right application this little amp is sweet! Not many smaller integrated amps give you a combination of 2 digital inputs as well as a phono preamp, subwoofer out and an additional rca input. Oh yeah- and Bluetooth too. This little amp allowed me to plug our tv, and a Logitech squeezebox into it digitally to make a really nice bedroom setup.Overall the sound quality is really good- frankly better than most home theater receivers in the same price range- but you give up things like video switching and ultimate volume. That said- I was able to get 90db of output at the listening position without pegging the volume knob- and while it’s not THX reference loud- that’s pretty damn loud, while remaining clear and musical.To sum up: it’s gorgeous, sounds amazing, and has a ton of setup flexibility. The only downside is that if you don’t have efficient speakers- it’s going to be underwhelming. If you have the right gear though- it’s difficult not to love it even with the few drawbacks. Thanks for reading.

Loved NAD for decades. This unit is a killer design. Sounds fantastic and gets loud with my bookshelf speakers. A quality control issue shows up as “crinkling tissue paper” noise on right channel. Unit returned. I’m ordering another assuming the flaw is rare.

I bought this amp because it offers the ports I need at a good price point. I care about sound quality, but I'm no audiophile. The amp does everything advertised but has some flaws. It takes a long time to start up (presumably because of the software is running on this thing vs. an old-school analog amp) which is annoying, especially since automatic shut off is enabled by default. You can turn auto shut off off (so, it'll stay on) but I can't do this because of another problem:Bluetooth mode has no authorization model. Anyone with a bluetooth device can connect to it. Not only that, but it will change modes if it detects that someone connected to bluetooth! So, you could be at the climax of an album or film and suddenly have your audio cutover to something else. This is inexcusably horrible, but admittedly only a problem if you live in an apartment, so I gave it two stars. If there's somehow a software update that prevents this, I'd give it 5 stars.UPDATE: You can enable "Auto Sense" which will wake up the unit when it detects a signal. This also causes the unit to turn on instantly, instead of taking a while as mentioned above. However, there is no de-bounce, meaning that unless you have a _very_ delicate touch, pressing the power button to turn it on will instantly turn the unit back off. Thus it usually takes me a few tries to turn it on with this feature enabled.