John
Yet more news from NAD (New Acoustic Dimension). This week the Canadian-owned company has announced the C 298 power amplifier that will likely spark the interest of those wanting a Purifi Eigentakt-based amplifier without the Masters M33‘s bells and whistles.
From the press release: “With our recent introductions of the award-winning Masters M33 and shortly afterwards the M28, we knew there would be great enthusiasm for a pure two-channel amplifier using Purifi Eigentakt technology”.
The C 298 promises 185wpc into 8 Ohms and a whopping 620 Watts (into 8 Ohms) when bridged into mono. The Class D Eigentakt modules are manufactured by Denmark’s Purifi with NAD adding the requisite power supply and input stage, the latter offering manually-adjustable input signal sensitivity via a back panel rotary and auto-sensitivity via a toggle switch.
Back to the press release: “NAD has moved away from the old fashioned and very power-hungry linear power supplies and Class AB output stages that waste nearly half of the energy consumed, producing heat rather than sound. Instead, the company has developed even better-performing circuits based on switch mode power supplies and Class D output stages. Once thought to be inferior to traditional topologies, NAD’s advanced work in this area has created some of the best performing amplifiers regardless of basic design principle. These new designs are very linear over a wide bandwidth and provide consistent performance into all speaker loads, providing a dramatic advance over previous models.”
NAD has also made subwoofer addition easier by adding line-out RCAs and a Ground Lug to the C 298’s back panel where we find both single-ended RCA and balanced XLR inputs.
The C 298 will start shipping in October with an RRP of US$1999.
That’s the news but what’s the story?
If we add NAD’s C 658 streaming pre-amplifier (to the C 298) for US$1650, we get an Eigentakt-based amplifier system with BluOS streaming, MM phono staging and Dirac Live Lite for US$3650. Add the full-frequency Dirac Live for an extra US$99 and we arrive at a total of US$3750 — a full US$1250 less than the US$5000 Masters M33. That’s interesting for those who can do without the latter’s touchscreen, balanced inputs and MC phono staging.
Further information: NAD
