NAD 3130-what a mess

Reading through threads on this forum and others I'm amused at the love/ hate for brands.

I've only entered this "personal gig" of salvaging receivers and amps since I retired a couple years ago. Before this I only had my marantz 1060, Sherwood s5000ii and a Harman-Kardon D1100. But now have added others to my collection [2 Sherwoods, NAD 310, 314, 3155, 7125, C325BEE, several Luxmans, 2 Sansui, Rotel, MCS].🙄

Do I play them all? Sure. Of course I have a favored daily driver [NAD 310].

I'm not an audiophile, but I can recognize differences in how the amps sound. I do prefer these types of design (discrete class a,a/b, g) versus class-d but I understand why class-d is here to stay.

As for this thread's patient: a NAD product, once you understand the company's process (design-to-manufacturing-to-enduser) things kinda make sense.
These are consumer grade products.

IMHO, across all brands I'm surprised many amps over 10+ years old even work with the way people use and abuse them.

It's all good and I'll leave it at that.
 
I suppose you're not too elightened as to Technics specs and build quality.
They've produced some very nice equipment.
I could only agree regarding early Technics product quality and technical performance but to end users, what really matters is whether they get a thrill from using the gear but unfortunately, there's not much to say or gain from audio systems that by design, contribute nothing to sound quality.

That and an endless supply of old wrecks, is what drives the cult of preserving cheaply built products like NAD 3020 in its many guises whilst better NAD developments of the intervening years are largely ignored. All the same, take a look and listen to something quite unusual in NAD 310, as noted by jhjove. It's really surprising what was achieved in sound quality with its asymmetric output stage.
 
I could only agree regarding early Technics product quality and technical performance but to end users, what really matters is whether they get a thrill from using the gear but unfortunately, there's not much to say or gain from audio systems that by design, contribute nothing to sound quality.

That and an endless supply of old wrecks, is what drives the cult of preserving cheaply built products like NAD 3020 in its many guises whilst better NAD developments of the intervening years are largely ignored. All the same, take a look and listen to something quite unusual in NAD 310, as noted by jhjove. It's really surprising what was achieved in sound quality with its asymmetric output stage.
Not had a 310,im gonna get one and have a listen
 
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Just a suggestion - NAD310 is a 20W, single rail, capacitor output design for lowest cost reasons. You would best replace the cap with a similar (not significantly greater value) type before trying to squeeze out thunderous, deep bass that won't be there without overdriving the amp.
 
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so another sorted
all circled were faulty/replaced
just adjustments now
 

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its called disrespect sir!
anyway ive got some good chippies at work who will give me some guidance with the cover

its only chipboard so im going to make the new one out of ply and make sure all the edges are finished off

terrible that isnt it how it could have been sold like that.

ive also got my eye on a leak 30😉
 
Just a suggestion - NAD310 is a 20W, single rail, capacitor output design for lowest cost reasons. You would best replace the cap with a similar (not significantly greater value) type before trying to squeeze out thunderous, deep bass that won't be there without overdriving the amp.
I replaced the (4) - 4700/63 with 5600/80. The interesting power supply scheme: 1 toroidal transformer supplying 2 secondaries, resulting in a separate DC supply per channel. Very interesting + unique design. Performs much bigger than the 20W spec (typical NAD characteristic).
 
i have it right here
no power,(it says)

and im going to make a new cover for this one from scratchView attachment 1026862View attachment 1026863
I repaired one of these about 30 years ago. One channel had gone down and Creek had kits of bits and schematics to enable repairs. I went to collect the kit not far from me in Waterlooville, Hants from one of their techs who I assume was repairing stuff for them. I have some transistors that I took out of a NAD 3030 (the one with the VU Meters) can't remember if they are 2955/3055 but if they are of any use to anyone on here i'll have a look.
 
so ive just got to find the right colour match for a few marks on the front, thats the trouble with these early models ,they were very lightly sprayed onto black plastic so any chips realy show
top cover has been resprayed.

the rest has come up ok though and its had a realy good clean inside an out.

job done
 

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That's just what I was thinking, though I had a stack of 4700uF caps at the time and picked a couple that were close to the upper 20% tolerance limit. Still plenty of bass for the modest size speakers though :happy1:
I don't typically go with a different capacity (higher) when changing out e-caps. I think the 4700's were out of stock and the 5600's fit perfectly even with the increased working voltage. As you say it does have plenty of bass even for modest sized speakers. Just a wonderful little amp.
 
Reading through threads on this forum and others I'm amused at the love/ hate for brands.

I've only entered this "personal gig" of salvaging receivers and amps since I retired a couple years ago. Before this I only had my marantz 1060, Sherwood s5000ii and a Harman-Kardon D1100. But now have added others to my collection [2 Sherwoods, NAD 310, 314, 3155, 7125, C325BEE, several Luxmans, 2 Sansui, Rotel, MCS].🙄

Do I play them all? Sure. Of course I have a favored daily driver [NAD 310].

I'm not an audiophile, but I can recognize differences in how the amps sound. I do prefer these types of design (discrete class a,a/b, g) versus class-d but I understand why class-d is here to stay.

As for this thread's patient: a NAD product, once you understand the company's process (design-to-manufacturing-to-enduser) things kinda make sense.
These are consumer grade products.

IMHO, across all brands I'm surprised many amps over 10+ years old even work with the way people use and abuse them.

It's all good and I'll leave it at that.
isnt everything a consumer grade product? a £100 amp or a £1000 amp? same thing? just higher end,more expensive but not nessesarily better?.
 
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If you spend ENOUGH on a high end amplifier, you can get one that will put out a full power sine wave into a dummy load indefinitely. That’s not “consumer grade”, but these days costs way more than a thousand pounds. And weighs several hundred. Even “professional grade” stuff can’t do it these days either, because of weight and power consumption concerns. Still built to somewhat higher standards for ruggedness compared to most “consumer grade”.

There is no guarantee however that an amp built for military grade reliability is going to SOUND better than one that isn’t. But what is generally true is that the things you need to do to make one happen will improve the other.