NAD Electronics

NAD Electronics
Company typePrivate company
IndustryElectronics
Founded1972
FounderDr. Martin L. Borish
HeadquartersPickering, Ontario, Canada
ProductsHi-fi equipment
ParentLenbrook Group
Websitehttp://www.nadelectronics.com/
Integrated amplifier NAD 3060, 1978[1]
The NAD 3020 integrated amplifier
A/V-components, 2009 (at High End fair, Munich)

NAD Electronics is a brand name of an electronics firm whose products include home hi-fi amplifiers and related components. NAD is an abbreviation for New Acoustic Dimension.

The company was founded in London, England, in 1972 by Dr. Martin L. Borish, an electrical engineer with a PhD in physics.[2][3][4] Its most famous product is the late-1970s NAD 3020, an integrated amplifier designed by Bjørn Erik Edvardsen, which was highly regarded by various magazines in Britain.[5][6]

NAD was one of the first audio manufacturers to outsource the manufacturing of its products to electronics factories in east Asia.

NAD was acquired by the Danish firm AudioNord in 1991 and subsequently sold in 1999 to the Lenbrook Group of Pickering, Ontario, Canada.[3][7]

Power-supply design

NAD focuses on the concept of "effective power" and its amplifiers make claims to deliver generous headroom, meaning that they may be able to deliver dynamic power bursts far in excess of their rated RMS power.[8] The key to this feature requires use of a flexible power supply which stores significant reserve current for quick release at moments of high musical load. Originally developed at NAD by Phill Marshall, NAD's various incarnations of his design have been associated with different names over the years including Power Envelope and recently PowerDrive.

Additional benefits of this approach include the fact that amplifiers using this technology can handle complex, real-life, lower-impedance loudspeaker loads as compared with the simple 8-ohm resistor typically used to calculate advertised power ratings and the fact that the circuitry in this approach requires less cooling, while maintaining ability to handle complex impedance loads as low as 2 ohms.

NAD Technology in Bluesound

Two Bluesound products, Pulse and Powernode, feature NAD direct digital technology.[9] It's also integrated in their line of receivers, such as the NAD 758v3 and NAD 777v3.

See also

References

  1. ^ hifiengine.com 2020, NAD 3060, retrieved 2020-05-16.
  2. ^ Tellig, Sam, "Stereophile Reviews C375BEE C565BEE" Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Stereophile, 3 January 2010
  3. ^ a b Lyons, Daniel, "Digital Dislocation", Forbes, 10 May 2004
  4. ^ Cf. NAD company website
  5. ^ "Hi-Fi That Rocked: NAD 3020 Integrated Amplifier" Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Hi-Fi Choice, May 2006
  6. ^ Fremer, Michael, "Stereophile M3 Review" Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Stereophile, January 2007. "Like the 3020, the M3 is the product of NAD's director of advanced development, Bjørn Erik Edvardsen, and Asian manufacturing expertise, this time in the People's Republic of China."
  7. ^ "Lenbrook Group adds NAD to Roster", Stereophile, 25 April 1999
  8. ^ Ford, Jez "A history of NAD", Sound+Image magazine, Aug/Sep 2017
  9. ^ "Streaming With Bluesound, Via NAD And PSB". 28 February 2014.
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