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New member Username: 6stringslingIndian Springs, AL USA Post Number: 1 Registered: Nov-06 | Good morning! First of all, I want to say thanks for all the cool info on this site. I've been reading posts for well over 2 years, gaining wisdom every day. As someone new to Mid-Fi, it has been most helpful! I have been a music lover since I was a child. I have played saxophone for 20 years, guitar for 6 and mandolin for 2. My reasons for that info is to let everyone know that I have a little bit of musical knowledge and am fully aware of what I do and don't like in terms of sound/ musical/ tone quality. Having stated that, now on to my concerns (finally!). I purchased a new NAD C352 integrated amp and a used NAD C542 CD/HDCD player about a year ago. Over the summer, I obtained a pair of Quad 21L's. Fabulous speakers! I also have a Dual 1226 turntable that is almost as old as I and it plays wonderfully, especially after being recently serviced. I use a Bellari tube phono preamp, AudioQuest Sidewinder preamp to amp interconnect, Blue Jean Cable 1505 F for CD interconnect, stock power cords and 14 gauge Analysis Plus contractor grade speaker wire bi-wired to the Quads. With lots of careful spending and patience, I put my total system together for $1790. Anyway, I have enjoyed this system tremendously, listening on a daily basis. I also enjoy jamming and picking with my favorite recordings (great practice and has taught me more about improvisation than anything else). However, recently there is something that I feel is lacking, and I think that it is the amp. By "lacking", I mean a presence or "in the roomness" that is not there; maybe a lack of "depth". After rechecking all connections (speakers, interconnects, power), I don't feel that this is an issue. I have also played the Ayre burn-in/ demag disc (I.B.E.). No change. I also powered the unit down for a couple of hours (I always keep the amp and CD player on). Still something is missing. From the get go, the balance has been off in the integrated; L channel being louder than R at mid to low volume. Switching the speakers around continued to reveal this imbalance. Last night, while twisting a few knobs, I heard some bleeding of the CD player through the amp while I had the AUX, TUNER, TAPE and DISC sources selected (Is this called "crosstalk" or "leakage" or what? I did a search, but could not find an answer that explained it on my level). I have not noticed this before. As stated earlier, I am new to 2 channel mid-fi, so I don't know if this is a common issue or not. Does anyone have any insight to this issue or suggestions or tweaks to get my NAD up to snuff? I know that a service call may need to be done, but I would like to remedy this on my own, if possible. It's the only way I can learn. Please know that this post is not a slam on NAD gear, as I very much enjoy my setup. Nor is it an effort to garner support for a gear switch. I can do that on my own (I have been listening to some tube amps...dang me for stopping in that store while my wife was looking at stuff! But, man oh man, do some of those amps sound great. Pricey, but great). Thanks in advance for your help and advice. Jonathan |
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Bronze Member Username: Jingka99Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Post Number: 50 Registered: Aug-06 | Hi Jonathan, I have the same amp as yours and this is really a concern for me too, as this issue was brought up on several occassions here, see link below: https://www.ecoustics.com/electronics/forum/home-audio/205881.html Although, your problem is not exactly as described in that thread above(yours is left side is louder), I believe there is some relation in it... In my opinion(I am not in anyway an expert), it could be 2 things: 1. the potentiometer(volume control) could be the suspect 2. the CD input of the pre-amp... Have you tried using the 'disk' instead of the 'CD' input? Is it the same observation? You mentioned "bleeding", what do you mean by this? Are you hearing unusual noise/hum or something? regards, arnold |
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New member Username: 6stringslingIndian Springs, AL USA Post Number: 2 Registered: Nov-06 | Arnold, I have switched the CD OUT to the DISC IN on the preamp section of the NAD. The imbalance remains, but it is not as severe as when connected to the CD IN on the preamp. Also, the overall volume output is reduced when using the DISC input, but this is good, as it allows finer tuning of volume for late night listening. Thanks for the tip! By bleeding, I am referring to hearing CD source material playing while the input selector is on TUNER, TAPE, AUX. The obvious answer is to not have a CD playing, but I was just testing different combinations to work out a solution for the volume imbalance. I do know that I can use the BALANCE knob, but I believe that using it causes shifting of instruments/ voices to positions other than the one intended by the producer. Very small shifts, but shifting none the less. |
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Bronze Member Username: Jingka99Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Post Number: 54 Registered: Aug-06 | Hi Jonathan, I haven't tried putting the selector on Tuner, Tape and Aux while I am playing the CDP so I cannot tell you whether it's the same in my case...but I don't see the point in doing that! Another alternative is to connect your cdp to the aux....but just the same, it looks like you've got a problem there as you've said that you only noticed this degradation/imbalance recently and it was okay before.... Let's wait for the experts here to comment on your problem....they can give you more technical info and recommendations... |
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Bronze Member Username: Carlos_mGreat YarmouthEngland Post Number: 11 Registered: Oct-06 | Hi Jonathan, the problems you have mentioned, I think they are normal. Until now I had 4 amplifiers and all them had these problems. |