How can a 30 watt, 28 year old amp sound more

Well this throws all my pre-concieved notions out the window. From now on it's listen and decide, forget the specs :-)

I would rather not mention the brands of the pre and amp the NAD replaced as both are very very highly regarded and do sound great otherwise (less the dynamic contrast and punch). We're talking same class as Bryston's, Classe's, Odyssey's, Electrocompaniet, etc...

I guess just like Bruce Lee, Mini Coopers and well sometimes integrated amps, "Big" performance can sometimes come from "smaller" packages :-)

Another thought I have is "sweet spot": if I am using 10 watts from a 30 watt amp it is probably operating in its sweet spot for optimal performance, where as 10 watts out of a 120 Watt amp may be well before its optimal sweet spot kick in. Kinda like driving a high performance high HP car but keeping to the speed limit, the engine never really opens up. In the end who knows.

Thanks for all the valuable input.
Cheers.

Bokfudo, since the NAD has pre out and main in, you could try pre out from the NAD to the other amp, and also, the other preamp to main in on the NAD. This would help determine if the difference is really the amp. It may be the preamp.

I have an NAD 7225PE that I will never sell in a millions years. It just sounds awesome, and the only word I can use to describe its sound is "alive." I think that its sense of pacing is the key. It just makes me tap my foot and smile when I hear it, and it has run nearly continuously (with an occasional vacation) since 1991. When they designed this amp, they did it RIGHT.

I have an amp that would eat that NAD for lunch, but I would rather not mention the brand. Hope that helps.

NAD integrateds most-likely have passive line stage preamps so impedance match could be a problem.