Amplifiers Deliver Superb Performance and Installer-Friendly Features
CEDIA EXPO, Denver, Sept. 6, 2007 — NAD Electronics, highly regarded as a manufacturer of high-performance audio components, introduces a trio of new audio separates, the T 175 Preamp-Tuner-Processor, and two multi-channel amplifiers, the Seven-Channel T 975 Power Amplifier and Five-Channel T 955 Power Amplifier, at CEDIA EXPO ’07, beginning here today.
Designed for demanding audiophiles, the new separates represent NAD’s core values of simplicity, performance and value and further reinforce its “Music First” design philosophy, which declares that state-of-the-art music recordings remain the truest test of any playback system. “The new products embody the best of our thinking and technologies,” said Greg Stidsen, NAD Director of Product Development. “Instead of surrendering to the ‘wattage wars’ or ‘me too’ features, we’ve focused on superb real-world sonics, honestly useful power, and valuable, forward-looking concepts.”
T 175 Preamp-Tuner-Processor
The T 175 boasts a more intuitive, less intimidating user interface than is typically seen today, reflecting NAD’s belief that many home-entertainment products have grown too complex and unwieldy. At the same time, the T 175 is a high-end, highly refined audio-video control center comparable to components three times its price. Packed with new features and technologies, it fully leverages NAD’s three decades of experience. The result: a breathtakingly advanced component. Its key features, which are more numerous than can be fully described in the available space, include:
A new modular layout that places key circuitry on five independent removable boards, making it easier to service the T 175 as well as introduce new or enhanced technologies, ensuring years of state-of-the-art performance.
Four HDMI v1.3 inputs that route HDMI signals with sufficient bandwidth to carry progressive-scan 1080p signals with unrestricted resolution.
An on-screen menu/display system on all the T 175’s video outputs that achieves the “holy grail” of a full-function single-cable link between the preamp-processor and its display.
Audyssey Auto Set-Up and Calibration, a uniquely sophisticated, DSP-based system that balances and adjusts a multi-channel speaker system using the small, calibrated microphone supplied with each pre-pro.
Audyssey’s highly evolved MultEQ XT Room Correction, which reduces the impact of room acoustics to yield a “family sized” sweet-spot and real gains in sonic accuracy.
Audyssey MultEQ XT Pro which, with the added processing power of a laptop computer, enables custom installers and system designers to obtain even more accurate, more extensive room corrections.
Aureus 7.1 Audio DSP from Texas Instruments for a complete palette of Dolby and DTS surround formats.
NAD’s acclaimed EARS II digital surround mode, which produces impressively natural surround sound from two-channel recordings.
Top-level Burr Brown DACs, with a 24/96 converter for each of 8 channels.
A high-performance, 40-preset RDS FM/AM tuner — plus XM readiness, requiring only an affordable third-party XM Mini-Tuner module.
A Universal Portable Media Player input jack on the front panel, plus dedicated connectivity and control with Apple iPods via an optional NAD iPod dock.
Several installer-friendly enhancements including, three additional zones, all with independent source and volume; an RS-232 serial connection for integration with whole-house control systems; a broad range of 12-volt-trigger and IR-connection tools; and a simplified, second-zone remote.
T 975 and T 955 Power Amplifiers
Both the T 975 and T 955 amplifiers provide consumers and installers alike with significant new choices for top-tier Home Theater systems. Each contains an array of identical modularized single-channel amplifiers, fully independent beyond their common power supply, making them effectively “multi-monoblock” designs free from the interchannel crosstalk and dynamic interaction to which more conventional amplifiers can be subject.
Both also employ NAD’s proprietary PowerDrive high-current design, which delivers maximum performance, independent of connected speakers, under virtually all circumstances. PowerDrive circuitry automatically adjusts power supply settings to best cope with a loudspeaker’s impedance characteristics for dynamic, distortion-free performance.
The T 975 provides 140wpc of continuous power with all seven channels driven simultaneously. The T 955 delivers a tremendously powerful 100wpc of continuous power with all five channels driven simultaneously, and serves as the perfect alternative when seven speakers are not desired or possible, due to space limitations.
Both amplifiers benefit from NAD’s conservative philosophy in citing output power. Their ratings express the far stricter, more conservative Full Disclosure Power rating standard, with all channels driven simultaneously, at a full bandwidth range of 20Hz to 20kHz, and rated distortion (0.03% THD) at 8 and 4 ohms.
The T 975 uses a variable-speed fan-cooling system introduced on NAD’s M25 Masters Series amplifier. This allows the T 975 to deliver massive power for hours on end, while staying both cool and silent. Except for the power supply, each element of the channel circuitry in the T 975 and T 955 is independent, eliminating inter-channel influences, as does their active ground isolation.
The power supplies in both amplifiers were designed using NAD’s exclusive “Holmgren” transformer to enhance efficiency, making the transformer less sensitive to DC offsets on the AC mains voltage. Each channel has individual over current, DC, infrasonic and ultrasonic overload sensing, and protection for complete reliability under severe conditions.
NAD’s discrete circuit topology offers very low distortion and an extremely high current capability. Active current sources and common base current followers in the power amp section combine to improve supply rejection to unprecedented levels, well beyond the audible frequency range. This reduces dynamic intermodulation (IM) distortion between music signal components at different frequency ranges. In audible terms, this improves definition, purity and resolution, resulting in extraordinary imaging.
Each amp’s rear panel includes individual gain adjustments for easy, accurate system configuration, and an integral 12V trigger turn-on response. A combination of fuse and non-intrusive electronic protection makes them dependable, fail-safe, and sonically transparent. Custom designed heat sinks keep things cool, and eliminate the need for potentially noisy forced air-cooling. They also protect all channels against excess temperatures, DC faults, and loudspeaker short-circuits. Each channel is supplied with custom 5-way speaker binding posts, and a gold-plated RCA jack for incoming audio signals.
The T 175 Preamp-Tuner-Processor will be available in November at a suggested price of $1,999 (U.S. MSRP). The Seven-Channel T 975 Power Amplifier and Five-Channel T 955 Power Amplifier are available now at suggested prices of $2,499 and $1,999 (U.S. MSRP), respectively. They can be seen with other outstanding NAD products at Booth 1050, Denver Convention Center, during CEDIA.
