Hi-Fi That Rocked
June 12, 2006
#2 in the history of Hi-Fi... Not bad.
There are things no budget amplifier is supposed to do. Like sounding better then products costing ten times as much, driving difficult high-end hi-fi speakers, or being so musical that people use extremely expensive turntables to show its potential. The original NAD 3020 did all this.... and more.
On the surface, it had little going for it. It was from a small, unknown manufacturer, it wasn't exactly pretty and it delivered an anemic 20 watts per channel, at a time when every big name brand was making sleek, skinny and large products that could deliver much more power—on paper at least. No one seemed to care that the pursuit of power was often at the expense of sound quality.
Then the 3020 hit the streets. The dark, warm sound was a paragon of natural-sounding musicality. So what if it was a bit blurry round the edges and didn't have pin-point imagery? It always sounded and performed bigger then it had any right to. Every other amplifier manufacturer had to rethink its plans after the NAD 3020 and we are still reaping the rewards today.
Check out NAD's current line-up of award winning Amplifiers