NAD 3130 amp kaput.

[speedtwelve]

Good to hear you got the amp fixed. I retired my NAD 3020i a few months ago after 25 years use. It still works perfectly, but bought a Cambridge Audio Minx Xi media-streaming amp, 5-star review from What Hifi. I tried the NAD and Minx back-back at home and the old 3020 was every bit as dynamic as the 'new' amp (I was going to pair a media-streamer separate with the NAD but knew that sod's law would have the old amp pack-in a week later).

I'm still using my 25 year-old Mission 760 speakers as well. They're nicely broken-in now.

[S. Gonzales Esq.]

I bought a slightly scruffy 3020 from a second-hand shop in 1995 for £40 IIRC. It was playing Radio 4 and music at my work every working day for the next twenty years until it finally gave up the ghost. Sold it as spares or repairs on eBay for... £45.

Even dead ones can fetch reasonable money.

[crankedup]

Had a short chat with the engineer mentioning that I had thought about an amp upgrade a few years back. Decided not to bother understanding that I would need to spend serious money to better the NAD sound (I'm not an audiophile. He then went on to tell me about minor differences in the circuitry of various amps, by which time he had lost me even though I suspect he was trying to keep it simple. Not simple enough for me

Now I need to buy some bi-wire cable and plugs and then onto replacing my QUAD 21L floor standers, these somehow sound very 'thin' now the amp is back on it!

[crankedup]

woowahwoo said:

Oh, no. Cables... I don't biwire, having not been able to hear a difference when I tried it (also tried using second set of terminals on the AMP). I do use a short piece of cable instead of jumper plates, and I use basic 79-strand cable for the main run, previously QED but right now only a cheap roll from DIY warehouse. Even plugs seem like another interruption / waste of time. I would spend all of my money on the speakers.

Have flicked back to read some threads regarding cables and plugs, blimey! I only intend to pay a small amount for what I need, so having had a read of what posters in here say I think I will go for copper cables sheaved in plastic.
Can't believe the price of some cable!!

[legzr1]

CU, I posted in your other thread with eBay links but try here too:

http://markgrantcables.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_p...

Shop is down until midweek but he uses perfectly acceptable cables and offers a termination service to save you stripping and soldering/screwing on your own banana plugs.


Personally I can just about detect differences in cables but only when comparing stuff with wildly differing properties such as ribbon multi-strand silver -vs- solid core copper!

If your Quads now sound 'thin' after replacing the amp I'd try re-checking the cabling - easy when running bi-wire (I don't bother) to miss a bass connection on one speaker.

[crankedup]

Thanks Legzr, yup I did almost buy the ebay cables, almost! I will have a look at your link, thanks for advise.

One of the speaker cables is pooped completely, move the wire and it cuts out the sound. New cables please nurse

Edited by crankedup on Tuesday 25th August 20:27

[stiglet]

FWIW

I have 21Ls and a 3020 - I was lucky enough to get a couple of Cyrus smartpowers a few months ago for next to nothing and can say that using the pre-amp stage on the 3020 into the smartpowers and onto the Quads sounds quite nice. (I'm not an audiophile though)

I bought a Cyrus pre-amp and it didn't sound nearly as good ( v. thin ) so went back to the 3020.

Great amp and well worth fixing

[TonyRPH]

crankedup said:

Thanks Legzr, yup I did almost buy the ebay cables, almost! I will have a look at your link, thanks for advise.

One of the speaker cables is pooped completely, move the wire and it cuts out the sound. New cables please nurse

Edited by crankedup on Tuesday 25th August 20:27

Mark Grant Cables seems to sell some fairly exotic stuff at equally exotic prices.

For interconnects, I can recommend the NVA Sound Cord £14.00 for a 40cm long interconnect and they are decent cables for the money.

As for speaker cable, you can't really go wrong with the Maplin cable or the same cable from TLC Direct as recommended in this thread.

Don't waste your money on Chord etc. cable.

Finally - if your existing cable is intermittent, just be sure it's not *shorting* the amp out as that could be what blew it in the first place.

[crankedup]

I did wonder about the old speaker cable shorting the amp, as soon as I discovered the problem in the cable I binned the lot. Spent £30 on new cables and plugs and sounds about as good as I could have hoped for. The cable worked out at £6.70 l/m which was plenty enough.

[crankedup]

stiglet said:

FWIW

I have 21Ls and a 3020 - I was lucky enough to get a couple of Cyrus smartpowers a few months ago for next to nothing and can say that using the pre-amp stage on the 3020 into the smartpowers and onto the Quads sounds quite nice. (I'm not an audiophile though)

I bought a Cyrus pre-amp and it didn't sound nearly as good ( v. thin ) so went back to the 3020.

Great amp and well worth fixing

Interestingly the repair chap (ex BBC engineer) did mention how good the 3020 amp is, especially when the cost of the unit is taken into consideration. My amp, the 3130 is almost identical so far as internals go, just pushes out a tad more power with the internal layout slightly different. Guess it was hard to improve on the 3020 back then. Nothing seems to have changed much, lovely sound which hits my spot for the past nigh 30 years.