Pigpen Posted March 4, 2021 Share Posted March 4, 2021 (edited) Just hooked up a NAD C298 to VAF I93 - so far so good - the attack associated with the opening bars of Living Colour's ‘Flying’ let the neighbours know I was home and only me and my dry cleaner will know just what a fright I got...... This could be a good amp, especially considering the price. Edited March 6, 2021 by Pigpen Grammar 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hi-Fi Whipped Posted March 5, 2021 Share Posted March 5, 2021 On 04/03/2021 at 6:39 PM, Pigpen said: Just hooked up a NAD C298 to VAF I93 - so far so good - the attack associated with the opening bars of Living Colours ‘Flying’ let the neighbours know I was home and only me and my dry cleaner will know just what a fright I got...... This could be a good amp, especially considering the price. Curious about this amp given the hype around purifi, what were you using before it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 6, 2021 Author Share Posted March 6, 2021 1 hour ago, Hi-Fi Whipped said: Curious about this amp given the hype around purifi, what were you using before it? Hi Whipped, was using SGR CX3B which are active - before that, an ME1500 (still have seller’s remorse - it served me well....). Early days yet on the 298 - I was going to get 2 and run them in bridged mode for stupid amounts of power, however, the i93 are 4 Ohms and NAD do not recommend bridging the 298 into 4 Ohms as it ‘may’ trigger the thermal (I think) protection circuit. So far, so good - around 340 Watts into 4 Ohms, so the neighbours may become aware of my existence..... Pigpen. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 6, 2021 Author Share Posted March 6, 2021 Well, this did not go well - the NAD C298 has developed a mind of its own and switches off when it feels like it....... Lets see what NAD say this week. Poop......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kukynas Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 18 hours ago, Hi-Fi Whipped said: Curious about this amp given the hype around purifi, what were you using before it? first thing... excellent dynamics, clean and clear sound, I would say not as neutral (analytical) as bare bone Purifi amp (kit version) would be or i.e. Boxem whose using very similar buffer stage to Purifi kit so I would say NAD is on warmer side of spectrum but just slightly, haven't seen measurements yet but I would guess it measures similar to M33 or any other NAD gear with slightly higher H2/H3 very high SNR/DNR and crosstalk translated into excellent instrument separation with no audible noise or distortion, this is the cleanest sounding amp I ever had (Marantz PM10 reference, Hypex NC500, Lyngdorf) coupled with high power and dynamic capabilities even for high demanding speakers (mine are down to 3ohm) , so far thumbs up 10 hours ago, Pigpen said: Well, this did not go well - the NAD C298 has developed a mind of its own and switches off when it feels like it....... Lets see what NAD say this week. Poop......... known issue for early units in da channel, your distributor should sort it out but it requires re-flash of the unit so back to box and off to distributor btw, did you enabled auto sense and auto standby? I did that as first thing after powering it up and so far so good but I also pre-warned friend of mine (distributor) about the known issue and if it does it goes back Dan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 6, 2021 Author Share Posted March 6, 2021 2 hours ago, kukynas said: first thing... excellent dynamics, clean and clear sound, I would say not as neutral (analytical) as bare bone Purifi amp (kit version) would be or i.e. Boxem whose using very similar buffer stage to Purifi kit so I would say NAD is on warmer side of spectrum but just slightly, haven't seen measurements yet but I would guess it measures similar to M33 or any other NAD gear with slightly higher H2/H3 very high SNR/DNR and crosstalk translated into excellent instrument separation with no audible noise or distortion, this is the cleanest sounding amp I ever had (Marantz PM10 reference, Hypex NC500, Lyngdorf) coupled with high power and dynamic capabilities even for high demanding speakers (mine are down to 3ohm) , so far thumbs up known issue for early units in da channel, your distributor should sort it out but it requires re-flash of the unit so back to box and off to distributor btw, did you enabled auto sense and auto standby? I did that as first thing after powering it up and so far so good but I also pre-warned friend of mine (distributor) about the known issue and if it does it goes back Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 6, 2021 Author Share Posted March 6, 2021 Hi Dan, thanks for the info - much appreciated. Had quite an experience trying to enable the Auto-Sense / Auto-Standby functions - despite following the manual instructions to the letter. I have firmware version 1.07 - one of the things I inadvertently stumbled across was getting the bridge light to flash 7 times (can’t remember how I did it) and found out this number of flashes is tied to firmware version. Awaiting advice from NAD Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kukynas Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 V1.08 sorting out this problem yeah, I tried it like 3 times to finally get it to work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil Caesar Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 2 x 298 into Kef R11’s. First tried one amp, then two in bridge mode and now bi-amping via my minidsp shd with Dirac. Will not find a better amplifier for the money. My last stop lest I win the lottery. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 7, 2021 Author Share Posted March 7, 2021 6 minutes ago, Lil Caesar said: 2 x 298 into Kef R11’s. First tried one amp, then two in bridge mode and now bi-amping via my minidsp shd with Dirac. Will not find a better amplifier for the money. My last stop lest I win the lottery. There is a comment on the NAD page somewhere re bridging and 4 Ohms - I will see if I can find it and maybe do some more investigation - I am a big believer of ‘if one is good, 2 MUST be better’. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyr Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 2 minutes ago, Pigpen said: There is a comment on the NAD page somewhere re bridging and 4 Ohms - I will see if I can find it and maybe do some more investigation - I am a big believer of ‘if one is good, 2 MUST be better’. AIUI, the view is that when a stereo amp is bridged into mono ... it does not cope well with a 4 ohm load. Andy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil Caesar Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 15 minutes ago, Pigpen said: There is a comment on the NAD page somewhere re bridging and 4 Ohms - I will see if I can find it and maybe do some more investigation - I am a big believer of ‘if one is good, 2 MUST be better’. For what it’s worth, the Kef R11’s do dip to 4 Ohms. I had no issues with the amps running in bridge mode regardless of the energy level featured in my playback material. I was more concerned blowing the woofers. I also did not have / do not have any of the reported problems with autosense and shutdowns some users have suffered. and yes, running two is a massive step up from running one amp. I found it was only slightly better when moving to bi-amping from the two in bridge mode. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 7, 2021 Author Share Posted March 7, 2021 Well the NAD C298 may well be suffering from suspected death - “have you ever known a good red light Mr Simpson” sort of thing........ Definitely not how I envisaged the weekends activities........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kukynas Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 15 minutes ago, Pigpen said: Well the NAD C298 may well be suffering from suspected death - “have you ever known a good red light Mr Simpson” sort of thing........ Definitely not how I envisaged the weekends activities........ what does it do or doesn’t? can’t switch it on or no response at all or? Have you tried pull it out of the mains? I think the arm processor messing up with protection circuit or something due to bad firmware Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 7, 2021 Author Share Posted March 7, 2021 Hi Dan, The unit now just stays in standby mode even after removing all power (and reconnecting), trigger input etc. Not too concerned as it is only a few days old and under warranty - more an inconvenience than anything else. Using the 298 as a test bed to see if this type of amplification is suitable for my speakers and worth pursuing either by adding another 298 or upgrading to M33 - time will tell. When it is / was working, I found it to be a pretty competent piece of kit. Pigpen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kukynas Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 Hopefully just the reflash of the unit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 9, 2021 Author Share Posted March 9, 2021 Next step - Klapp AV (who I purchased the unit from) have organised for NAD to pick the unit up, update it and return it to me - very efficient service on behalf of the Klapp AV guys noting I only emailed them yesterday and it was a public holiday in Victoria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kukynas Posted March 9, 2021 Share Posted March 9, 2021 At least something possitive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 9, 2021 Author Share Posted March 9, 2021 (edited) 12 minutes ago, kukynas said: At least something possitive It surprisingly flashed up again this afternoon for about an hour before shutting down again - time to box it up anyway. Edited March 9, 2021 by Pigpen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kukynas Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 do we like it? yes we do SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - NAD C 298 Stereo Amplifier Measurements as said earlier I was expecting similar figures, shame we can't compare it directly with M28 or M33 figures as SS measures it with 90khz bandwidth so it looks worse than it is in reality Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 2 minutes ago, kukynas said: do we like it? yes we do SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - NAD C 298 Stereo Amplifier Measurements as said earlier I was expecting similar figures, shame we can't compare it directly with M28 or M33 figures as SS measures it with 90khz bandwidth so it looks worse than it is in reality A “forward looking” review no doubt: Reviewed on 15 March 21!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kukynas Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 1 minute ago, Pigpen said: Reviewed on 15 March 21!! yeah, many spotted that, maybe someone've watched Tenet lately so got inspired SoundStage! Hi-Fi | SoundStageHiFi.com - NAD C 298 Stereo Amplifier 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 19, 2021 Author Share Posted March 19, 2021 NAD C298 now at the repair shop for an update of 1s and 0s to rectify the problem. Been some excellent service from: (1) Klapp AV who did not mess around getting the repair folks into gear. (2) Border Express who failed to pick up the unit on the designated day yet called to apologise profusely for the stuff up. (3) Paul at Convoy International for keeping me in the loop - unit due back next week. Lets see how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kukynas Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 good to see things are getting sorted, fingers x you'll get it back soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pigpen Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 Latest update from Convoy - the NAD C298 is indeed suffering from suspected death, with a new unit ordered, however, nil stock at the moment, due in April apparently. Even though it is a pain not having the amplifier, I will give credit where it is due - Klapp and Convoy have handled the whole thing very well - it is what it is. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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