urgent hi-fi advice sought

[cardiff jon]

I need a decent budget system so I can properly hear the CDs I'm recording. I've settled on some B&W DM303 speakers - excellent at £180 - now the shop's trying to sell me a NAD amp and CD player to go with it. I've read reviews that say Sony's entry level amp (TAFE 230) and CD player give as good a sound at half the price. Is the quality difference between Sony and the cheapest NAD that great? Trouble is, I can't listen to the Sony stuff with the B&W speakers.

[ZOWIE!]

Go NAD.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Jon of Wales:

Sony makes ES quality products and they are more expensive.

Nady or NAD [if they are the same?] got poor reviews here on this site and by me. I twice bought a Nady amp and it was defective out of the box.

If you can see a Yamaha AX592 amp, you might like it. I use one to run the boxes in my studio. This amp has a switch to cut off any coloration from the amp. It will plug in two sets of speakers, CD, Phono, AM/FM if you want, and has an AUX plug in.

It will support two tape decks and you can record from CD to tape or tape to tape with a push of a button.

The 592 is one fine amp for the money.

Green Hornet

[Blue Bear Sound]

NAD Audio and Nady Systems are not the same at all....

NAD is a reputable high-end audio manufacturer, while Nady is a budget (and fairly crappy, IMO) sound equipment manufacturer.

[cardiff jon]

Thanks for advice so far. I've no question the NAD equipment is good - it's just how the entry level Sony stuff (as mentioned) compares. Anyone know anything on this?
How much does that Yamaha cost, by the way? I can get the Sony for about £85 (I think that's about 120 dollars)

[Blue Bear Sound]

I would go for NAD over the budget Sony stuff... IMO, Sony audio doesn't get good until you hit the Esprit series (ES)....

[TexRoadkill]

Are these going to be your monitors for tracking and mixing or just for listening on the home stereo?

[cardiff jon]

Just home stereo.

[Garry Sharp]

Definitely the NAD, Jon. Regarded as mid rather than high end by the anoraks, but excellent kit that'll be sounding true years after the Sony's in a skip. No contest.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Jon:

HEY BEAR! Thanks for the correction. NAD = good. NADY = MERDA.

Jon, the Yamaha amp runs around 500 US dollars in the states.

Don't know the pricing in your part of the world -- but, it is a dandy amp.

Green Hornet

[Lt. Bob]

NAD's definitely the way to go......there are other possibilities but NAD will give you entry level high-end sound for about the cheapest price...... so unless you're broke, I would pony up the extra dollars....er...uh, ah.....pounds.

[cardiff jon]

Thanks again folks. I'm not quite broke, but it does mean £500 instead of £350, inc speakers. Recommend those speakers to anyone, by the way - don 't know if they sell in the States.
The UK consumer association (Which) rates the cheap Sony as good as the NAD - don 't know what that says.
nb if you want gear that ends up in the skip after just five years, try Samsung.

[Lt. Bob]

Well....if the consumer association is like our consumer's union....then they aren't audiophiles and are simply looking at features and basic sound quality....they're just not gonna hear the subtleties......perhaps you won't either until you've listened for a bit.....but if you're getting some good speakers like the B&Ws...then they have the capability to be fairly high resolution speakers and you need a source that's equally capable to bring that out. Perhaps if you take a quick listen and just listen for loudness or basic decent sound they might be comparable.....but I guaruntee you that after listening for a while.....you'll hear a big difference. It's in the subtle things like reverb tails and such that the extra resolution is valuable and that's exactly what you need for mixing.....the ability to hear tiny small differences.............go with the NAD

[cardiff jon]

Thanks all. Bought it now. Just need to flog a hundred CDs to pay for it. www.nowhereradio.com/jonlenin/singles if anyone's interested.