Beware of NAD M3 Fire Hazard

The previous versions of my NAD C272 also had exploding caps (currently not in use but has worked well).  Turned out to be cheaply sourced capacitors.  Possibly they did not learn from that mistake.  

Yeah, but that pic man, it shows sprayed cap juice everywhere.

Yeah, its a mess. I've cleaned that sort of nastiness up before. If this were my unit I would be fixing it; replacement is going to be a lot more and unrepaired its worthless. But I understand being gun-shy too.

Well I tried. Here’s nad’s response:

Unfortunately, as this amp appears to have been bought second hand through a non-authorised reseller, we cannot verify its past history or conclude what alterations or repairs may have been made to the amp before you received it -- all NAD product sold from authorized retailers are given a full Quality Check before resale which is necessary, whereas when bought elsewhere we cannot guarantee this. We have not heard any other reports of this sort of event happening with the M3.

I'm apologise that I am unable to help further, but please let me know if you have any further questions.

Kind regards,
Sam R.,
Support Crew Analyst

No manufacturer is going to warranty something that has been tampered with. But its also easy to ascertain that such a thing happened. If it were me, since the unit is worthless as it now sits, I would send it to them with a note explaining that perhaps they could examine it and make a determination (with documentation) as to why they think its been tampered with. At that point you would be rid of it unless they saw clear to sort it out; if not in warranty a repair estimate should precede that.


At least in the case of my car, dealer/manufacturer repairs to it are not more expensive than an independent shop. If that amp was doing the job for you the cheapest way though this might simply be to get it fixed correctly.