NAD 3130 amp kaput.

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Sad to say my old NAD 3130 has finally croaked. I am going to replace it with another used NAD WITH A LIKELY SPEND OF ONLY UP TO £100 Ebay likely source. Is there a better NAD from the 1980's that I should consider? It will only drive my Marantz 65DX CD player with Quad floor standers. I love the sound of NAD so will stick with them. Thanks for any comment/advise.

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Thanks criag1912, I will have a Google on that model.

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Thanks Ray, it did cross my mind regarding a repair but a replacement at £50 - £70 beckons I think. I will put the broken one in the loft for now.

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TheInternet said:

As mentioned the NAD 3020s are well regarded, but if you did want to consider other brands the Marantz PM-66SE is a good bet and in your price range.

Any ideas what's happened to your current amplifier? Symptoms?

Thanks for input, think I will stay with the NAD having enjoyed it since 1986 and sought advise in this forum last year about upgrading. The word about upgrade was that I would need to spend big money to improve on the NAD sound, which I really enjoy. Given that my C.D. player (Marantz) is of the same era they seem to work for me regard sound I like.

Switched on my amp and it played music for a few seconds as normal. Then noticed that one speaker was not working at all. Followed by 2nd speaker lost volume and what music could be heard was 90% overridden by horrible continuous rasping type noise. Checked leads and plugs but no change. Amp still lights up but then a slight whiff of acrid plastic burning so switched off quick before I burnt my house down.

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Zod said:

TheInternet said:

As mentioned the NAD 3020s are well regarded, but if you did want to consider other brands the Marantz PM-66SE is a good bet and in your price range.

Any ideas what's happened to your current amplifier? Symptoms?

Get the KI-Signature version if you can find one. I replaced my Rotel 820 with it when that finally died. I moved on a long tiem ago to Cyrus with monoblocs and gave my F-i-L the Marantz and it still sounds great.

Thanks for tip Zod, I will keep an eye for that. I suppose it may seem slightly odd looking to replace a nigh on 30 year old amp with another oldie, happy with the sound though and steering clear of Hi-Fi outlets for fear of a wallet busting exercise! Tempting though.

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woowahwoo said:

crankedup said:

Thanks Ray, it did cross my mind regarding a repair but a replacement at £50 - £70 beckons I think. I will put the broken one in the loft for now.

Last time I looked you wouldn't find a working NAD for that money. Serviced and repaired, yours should sound better than ever.

Looking to replace TBH but maybe whilst looking it would be an idea to have the old one looked at for repair. I suppose I could always re-sell a replacement if needs. Any idea where a good repair agent, I live in Suffolk.
Thanks.

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Thanks guys for replies. I have found a repair / service called ARS www.amprepairservices.co.uk

I have emailed him and await reply, but if you look at the web site I think the repair and a good overhaul is the way forward for me, having read the advise and thought about it! I would be risking spending around £100 on a used example so better to spend a bit extra on my existing and know its been overhauled properly. At what is likely £145 all up for the work and the amp likely to serve another 30 years it will see me out!
As you will see on his web site he is on holiday at the moment but I will post back in here and let you know how things work out.

Once again thanks to all for advise and hints.

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croyde said:

I thought my NAD had finally expired last week. Bought it back in 1985.

Opened it up as the left channel had stopped working, to be confronted with 30 years of dust. A gentle hoovering and a spray with electrical contact cleaner and all was fine.

Had the cover off a couple of years ago for a clean-up, but thanks anyway.

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I'm chuffed that I have been able to make a positive contribution, if only a useful link.

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Little update : amp all repaired now and sounds fantastic, beautiful and clean switching/controls. Punchy and like brand new. Repair cost £135 all in with three months warranty. To say I am chuffed would be an understatement, I'm also pleased that I took good advise from in here. If your interested in the work carried out I will post it up,

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Thanks for interest, I will try and keep it brief :

Two blown PA stage fuses.
Short circuit in PA stage traced to faulty output transistors. Both replaced.
All electrolytic capacitors replaced with higher quality audio grade components.
Volume/balance potentiometer removed/chemical cleaned and track lubed with Caig Deoxit D5.
All switches removed and treated as above.
Loudspeaker and input selector switches as above + gold electroplated and treated with Caig Deoxit.
Several dry solder joints remade when PCB inspected under magnification.
Full inspection ensuring original spec' is met or exceeded as in measurements with NAD spec'.
Full one day test.
Power tested into load.

The outcome from a practical user angle is :
No booomph when I switch amp on.
All switches select clean with zero audible noise.
The unit has of course been properly cleaned inside and outside. Looks almost box new.

For £135 I think it is a superb job completed and I would not hesitate to recommend this one man company.

www.amprepairservices.co.uk

No connection other than very happy customer.

Edited by crankedup on Monday 24th August 19:33

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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!

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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!!

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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

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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.

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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.