2. amps-preamps
  3. 1118142012

NAD 3140 - I know nothing

I have just bought this NAD 3140 integrated amp and know nothing about it at all. In fact, I know nothing about hi fi at all, but I love well-reproduced music (jazz, classical, really old blues and other American "roots" music, and lots more besides), so I want to start learning. Unfortunately, my budget is extremely meagre.

I've searched around on the 'net and found references to a legendary NAD 3020 and a few others. They all seem to be well thought of, but nothing about this one, even specifications - and I don't even know how many watts output it has!

What I'd be most gratful for would be recomendations for cheap old speakers to match it, and a tuner too. Because I've read that CD players are more likely to be faulty, I've been thinking of using a new DVD player with it to play CDs (and kill two birds with one stone - I'll be able to watch DVDs too) - is that a good idea?

Just can't seem to get this kind of advice down here in New Zealand!
wetagogo
bigtee
803 posts
 
This was a 40w / ch unit but it had about 3-5db of headroom making it sound more powerful than it really was. I also think it (if memory serves) was a dual mono with separate power transformers for the output stages and a preamp transformer. Well built little unit.
As for speakers, I was using it with the "Large Advent" speakers. It made nice sound. I used a Dual 1229 turntable with a Shure V15 Type III cartridge and a NAD 4020 Tuner.
I sold this unit a bunch of years back but still have my original 3020. This unit sounded like a more powerful 3020.
NAD is a good starting point. I don't know too many who have not owned a NAD or two! Find you a nice economical pair of speakers and a NAD tuner. Nice little system on the cheap.
veroman's avatar
veroman
298 posts
 
i have owned nad gear and still use it. great sound value for the buck. may i recommend a nad cd player , a good used set of $400-$500 speakers and some decent speaker cable. the nad cd player will offer much better sound than an off the shelf dvd player and be more reliable in long run. that stuff about faulty cd players is off the wall in this case. this set up will put you well ahead of many more expensive 'big name' systems on the shelves and will hold up well for years to come. audiogon is a great place to start your search for speakers btw. enjoy the music
bigtee
803 posts
 
I agree with Veroman, there's nothing wrong with NAD CD players and they will, IMO, deliver better CD sound than the DVD players everyone likes to tout(even the expensive ones sound poor to me.)
NAD had some problems with the 502 and 512 series. The display bulbs would burn out(actually an easy fix.)Other than that caveat, they were damn good sounding and dependable(especially the 512.) Cambrige Audio makes a couple of decent players. Marantz made several low cost players that were decent. Lot of choices in this.
As for speakers, NHT made some very good sounding ones like the 2.5 and 2.5i. There's tons of choices in the low budget area that give satisfactory performance.
gonglee3
304 posts
 
For speakers, try to hear these in hifi shops in your area, before buying. Are you near a goodguys or tweeter store? You can search for the location on the web.

If not, find hifi stores on your telephone book and try to hear these:

PSB
Paradigm studio 20
Monitor audio

Once you find one you like, you can buy them here on the audiogon used and save.

For a tuner, I would go with an old Marantz receiver like 2230 on ebay - less than $100. The marantz is an amp as well - you might like the sound of it better than NAD. Talk to the seller to make sure all is working, since they are old.

For a cd player, you can use Toshiba dvd 3960 - on ebay for $50.

Welcome to this exciting hobby...
Hope you find your listening pleasure...
wetagogo OP
6 posts
 
Thanks folks, it's great to meet a bunch of enthusiats like yourselves who are willing to take time out to give a beginner a few pointers - and I will go along to stores and listen to speakers.

However, I probably have to stick with old second-hand speakers, for lack of cash. Of course, it's probably going to be a lot more hassle to track second-hand gear down, go to it's locale, etc.

So, if anyone does have any specific (old) speaker recomendations to help me narrow down the search, I can live with the fact that I might miss out on some gems because I didn't go to hear them because nobody recomended them. Especially if there are any jazz, classical, acoustic fans out there who have some smallish, cheap. old bookshelf type speakers they have been very happy with....
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