The product name stands for "C320 Bjorn Erik Edvardsen": the improved versions of that C320 winner of the "Amplifier of the year" award by the British magazine "What Hi-Fi?", a machine that has been in the market since 1998. But what is NAD and who is Mr. Edvardsen? Well, for these among us that are novices at Hi Fi or very young, NAD (New Acoustic Dimension) is a British milestone in Hi Fi history. A thirty-year old brand that has become synonymous with excellent sound and no-nonsense projects: that means, people at NAD focus their resources in that parts of their machines that will make a difference in sound, not in the appearance. Mr. Edvardsen is the person at NAD who designed the 3020; it was the most popular amplifier ever with about one million units sold, and he is also the man behind this upgrade of the C320 that bears his sign. On a warm spring evening, a packed C320 BEE was delivered to my front door. Please bear in mind while reading this review that we are testing a 50 W-rated device sold for less than five hundred Euros. I often had to remind myself of this during the tests.

An understating look

The C320 comes with a fine remote control unit, suitable for most NAD products and with a user manual written in six languages, complete and easy to understand with some minor typing mistakes. The manual has been completely revamped from that of the former C320 and also looks a bit more "pro", even though important indications for beginners are not omitted. When your 12-year old son installs this NAD, neither the young boy nor your Hi Fi components will run any risks. The enclosed data sheet is remarkable for its completeness and impressive for the figures shown (see box). The C320 BEE proudly wears the traditional NAD uniform, charcoal gray with that green on / off button that has become a sort of trademark in itself. On the front panel, left to right, we find the green button that allows the user to leave the unit in stand-by (amber light) and to comfortably turn it on from the remote control (light turns into green). I was very pleased to find, below the switch, a gold plated headphones jack socket, that is always very useful not only for night or… egoistic listening sessions but also for a number of technical purposes such as tape monitoring or emergency checks. Manual switch-on is performed through directly pressing any of the small, round source buttons that are placed amid the front panel along with the IR receiver. The NAD has seven of them including two for the tape; the one marked "Disc" is intended for an external phono unit since no phono circuit is factory installed. A row of green leds indicate the selected input and the "soft clipping" circuit status. Then we find the tone controls with a tone-defeat button and the balance and volume knobs that close the list; touching them and some other parts on the front panel, one could have the sensation of cheap, plastic components. But cheap they are not: remember that the part that sounds is inside, and the guys at NAD wrote in their website "We put our focus on the inside where it counts, and you can hear the results". This is a good example of clever focusing of economic efforts in order to improve performance.

Do you remember "audio control centers"?

The rear panel shows an impressive parade of connectors and switches. At the far left, a trigger output and an infrared-repeater in/out port expand the operating possibilities of the 320BEE to these of an audio control center By this name were once called preamplifiers, especially the very versatile ones. The C 320 also allows splitting the pre and power amp sections through a RCA connection set, fitted with very good jumpers. All the eleven twin RCA connectors (five for the line inputs, four for two tape loops, two for the pre out and main in) are gold plated and have a good insulating core. Frankly, they are also a bit cramped together and leave little room for fingers; plugging in fat jacks could be uncomfortable as well. A switch for the "Soft clipping" circuit is also placed here. This circuit "gently transforms the music waveform as the point of clipping approaches, resulting in much clearer reproduction and simultaneous protection of speakers" as we learn from NAD. It may well be useful but not for my purposes, so I left it in the off position. By the way, I guess it's been placed on the rear panel to shorten the signal path, but it's obviously difficult to reach there. We have only one speakers terminal set. Surprised? Please rise their hand those among you that really need two speaker outputs. The speakers binding posts accept bare wire, pins (removing the IEEC-standard insulation), spades or whatsoever provided it's of reasonable size. Even though the unit comes with no IEC mains socket, the power cord can be replaced (opening the cover), since it is not soldered to the inside board but plugged into it thorough a white, small plastic jack. Frankly, being the cord supplied barely suitable for an electric razor, once the warranty had gone I'd unscrew the case and upgrade it. A much thicker common mains cable with a good Shuko plug at the wall end will probably do the job. I placed the NAD onto a MDF shelf, then atop my CD player, then down on the marble floor of my living room where it spent most of its test: no remarkable differences to note down. Same for spikes, feet, blocks under the chassis, mains filters. No problems either in handling the unit - it is a regular-sized box with no sharp edges or tips - or in placing it in your living room: it is rather compact and its gray livery is an interiors passepartout that won't get boring you over the years.

Quality where it counts

One third of the inside is occupied by the power supply components and by a properly sized, NAD-marked toroidal transformer, the other two thirds by a large, good-quality board bearing most of the circuits. The two parts are split by the heatsink pack of the power transistors, that also further shields the sensitive signal circuits from the transformer. A grid atop the chassis and another underneath ensure proper ventilation. NAD deploys a quality board with thick bars where crucial signals are handled; we can see quality components everywhere, and even though tone and balance potentiometers may have been better ones, the input selector relais are very good pieces. Now we fully understand that "we put our focus on the inside" motto.

A happy listening session

Ero I was curious of the power output of the NAD, that was assessed in a very cautious way at 50+50 Watts minimum in the factory datasheet (see box). Luckily the unit I received for this test had already been at work, so no run-in was needed and I could go straight to the point. Well, the gray box has no problems at all in delivering a lot of energy, even when it burst out in a sudden transient, and showed me the distance between that minimum and what it can punch into speakers during dynamic operation. To check this feature, after the main tests with my Klipschorns, I connected the British boy to my Acoustic Research three-way infinite baffle speakers that are known to be as sensitive as… a brick. I turned the volume knob clockwise and sit back. Woofers started moving punchy while Mr. Bon Jovi played "Queen of New Orleans", though this device is not intended for hard rock: it seems like if it tried to dull the sharpest parts of the message for the sake of harmony! The electric guitar missed some biting power that after all made it less disturbing than the author had probably intended it to be. I liked this interpretation. If you are a hard rock enthusiast you'd probably better look for some more rough and aggressive gear, but if you only pop in from time to time in the kingdom of Jon Bon Jovi, Steve Tyler and Ozzy Osbourne, well, this NAD will be more than enough for you. After a long listening session at high sound pressure levels, with such tough speakers to drive, overload protections had still nothing to say. Only the heat from the case grid revealed the generous current flow that the little English boy had been handling with no sign of fatigue. With the Beethoven's Ninth, I found some little imprecision in the soundstage when large orchestra masses where involved. I call this "lack of stage sculpture under pressure". When the "Ode to Joy" blows up you still have violins playing along with the overwhelming power of chorus and orchestra; well - this will horrify Beethoven purists - I've always had the sensation of that violins surfing over the orchestra like a surfer over sea waves. With the C 320 the poor chap took a dip in the water: I found it difficult to make out the violin that was moving around through the buckets of seawater the amp was throwing towards me. The whole soundstage became a bit dull. While I write this, I understand it's the only criticism I can move to the power section - and it is the kind of criticism you exercise towards products that cost the double of the C 320. This slight lack of control is not present in normal-level passages: in the same symphony Placido Domingo's voice is well placed on the stage and so are the ones of the other vocalists. One can always keep track of each single voice across a wide, deep and to some extent tall soundstage that is another pleasant surprise. In my opinion, power and dynamics here are more than enough for any domestic purposes. The solo guitar of Antonio Forcione is reproduced in its full harmonic richness, with every single shade but without that excess of details that makes the reproduction of some other gear so unnatural. After all, you don't push your nose into instruments at a concert, so why should recorded music give that sensation? Great dynamic bursts when the artist forces some notes on the strings. Firm and detailed soundstage and great energy with track three and four of Takeshi Inomata's CD: a percussion session that is really unforgiving with lazy or rough devices. Very good high frequency range with rolls of drums and cymbals, brilliant like fireworks but very refined. The voice of Tierney Sutton is so technically sophisticated in "Unsung heroes" that with some gear it tends to seem the product of a synthesizer. The NAD gives to this great vocalist a completely human dimension, though her talent is fully enlightened by the extremely neutral timbre of the NAD in the middle range: the performance in track ten "Con alma" deserves an applause. In 1965, Arthur Rubinstein recorded Chopin's Nocturnes for the third time in his life. It was the great performance of a mature maestro with lots of introspection and a slight note of melancholy. The recording by RCA was a masterpiece itself, and BMG's digital remastering an example of correct intervention. The NAD is capable of recreating the piano in all its tone nuances with a keyboard that is very realistic in dimensions and placement. The balance across the frequency range is rigorous, and one can make out each single key even though all of them melt together in the flowing of the score. After few minutes, I don't listen to the system any more - I just follow the music.

The preamplifier

Impressed by the fine musical performance of this grandson of the 3020, and in consideration of the "HT secret life" that most audiophiles run nowadays, I decided to take advantage of the pre/power amp jumpers to test each section separately. I started with the NAD pre section driving my power amps, curious of checking these features the factory proudly declared for this preamplifier (one for all: low-noise, class A FETs). I was simply astonished: the gap with my own preamplifier was unexpectedly narrow. Please notice that the latter costs alone a multiple of the whole NAD, and that it is considered to be very good value for money itself. I dare say that even without the power section the preamplifier would still be worth the money the C 320 costs. All the qualities of the integrated amp (soundstage, effortless reproduction and natural timbre) were further exalted.

The power unit and a short trip to HT

Then I changed the setup and tested the NAD power stages driven by my preamplifier. The improvement here was not so evident, though I got a very good overall performance and outstanding sound pressure levels anyway. Under stress conditions, I had the occasion to experience once again that "lack of definition under pressure" I mentioned above. Then I connected the power section of the C 320 to the front pre outputs of my Marantz A/V receiver. In a home theater context, that sort of imprecision I had felt in stereo just became far less important due to the different characteristics of movie soundtracks. In Moulin Rouge "Your song" came out as involving as usual, even if my Marantz costs a 60% more than the NAD, is considered to be among the most musical A/V receivers and is rated at one hundred watts per channel. Skipping to some action scenes, I was surprised by the amount of energy that the little boy was capable of delivering to the woofers of my front channels. In the scene of The Matrix where Morpheus is rescued from the skyscraper, sound pressure and dynamics were surprising for a 50+50 W continuous power unit. The (precious!) musical attitude of the NAD came out anyway under the form of a slight softening of the hardest passages, that after all I liked even with action movie soundtracks. To summon up my sensations, this is a very good power stage indeed whose only limit it is that of … sharing its case with an exceptional preamplifier section!

A… "sound" bottom line

Are you audiophile-listening addicted? Just place the C 320 over a firm, rigid surface, spend some more bucks in cables (no US Defense-like budgets needed here), push the tone defeat button on, switch the soft clipping circuit off, then go: its good balance and neutral attitude will delight you. Matching other gear will not be a problem. Fond of night headphone magic? Enjoy its phone output. Do you want to upgrade with another power section? The pre can follow you for many steps upwards. Want to use the NAD to drive your HT front speakers? No problem with sound pressure, output level is not a problem. Are you a recording freak? Five inputs and two tape loops will fill your needs (even though a separate recording selector would have been the top). Please remember that amplifiers were once called "audio control centers", and this is one. Servicing? Trading in? The brand name is a warranty itself on both sides. At this point, at an official price of 477.21 Euro in Italy that might even be lower, the only I can do is including this device in the shortlist of machines to recommend.

An excerpt from the manufacturer's datasheet:

Continuous output power: 50 W
IHF Dynamic Power at 8 Ohm: 110 W
IHF Dynamic Power at 4 Ohm: 160 W

Frequency response at -3dB: 3Hz - 70kHz

Power unit THD 20Hz - 20Khz: 0.03 %

Pre unit S/N ratio, A-weighted: 106 dB

Power unit S/N r., A-weighted: 100 dB
at ref. rated power: 117 dB

S/N ratio, A-weighted,
from CD input to speaker output,
at 1W/8 Ohm: 93 dB

Input impedance: 200k Ohm / 320pF

The NAD C 320BEE has been tested with:

The system

CD player: Audio Analogue Paganini
Pre amp: Galactron 2161 solid state
Power amp: Galactron 2151 A-class solid state monoblocks
Speakers: Klipschorn, AR IV Red Box
A/V receiver: Marantz SR7000
TV set and DVD Player: Philips 32PW6826 with built-in DVD player
Acoustic traps: DaaD
Dedicated power line
Cables: Cambridge, G&BL, several DIY pieces.

The software - CDs:
Jon Bon Jovi, Destination Anywhere Polygram
Tierney Sutton, Unsung heroes Telarc Jazz
Antonio Forcione, Live! Naim Audio
Takeshi Inomata & Separation Ex-Spiral New Sonic Dimension
Beethoven (Wiener Philarmoniker) Symphonye No. 9 Deutsche Grammophone
Frédéric Chopin (Arthur Rubinstein) 19 Nocturnes BMG-RCA

The software - Video DVDs:

A. & L. Wachowsky The Matrix Warner Studios
Baz Luhrmann Moulin Rouge Fox Home Entertainment