NAD Amplifiers

Founded in 1972, now Canadian-owned. Its 3020 integrated amplifier of 1978 is generally reckoned the best-selling audio amplifier ever made.

Founded: 1972 (New Acoustic Dimension)
Founder: Martin L. Borish
Headquarters: Pickering, Ontario, Canada
Founded in: United Kingdom
Manufacturing: Built in Asia
Parent company: Lenbrook Industries
How to buy: Sold through specialist hi-fi dealers and online retailers
Known for: The 3020 amplifier, grey boxes with no ornament, power ratings that understate what the amplifier actually does

Currently, we have 29 NAD amplifiers in our database. Below you can find the list with their main specs and links to their review pages.

NAD Integrated Amplifier (1)
NAD Integrated Amplifier with built-in DAC (11)
NAD Stereo Power Amplifier (3)
NAD Streaming Integrated Amplifier (14)

NAD Integrated Amplifier

	Model	Watts RMS (8Ω)	Amp Class	DAC	Phono
	NAD C316BEE V2	40 watts	Class A/B	No	Yes

NAD Integrated Amplifier with built-in DAC

Model	Watts RMS (8Ω)	Amp Class	DAC	Phono
NAD C 3050	100 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 328	40 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 368	80 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 379	80 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 388	150 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 389	130 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 399	180 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C3030	50 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD D 3020 V2	30 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD D 3045	60 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD M32	150 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes

NAD Stereo Power Amplifier

Model	Watts RMS (8Ω)	Amp Class	DAC	Phono
NAD C 268	80 watts	Class D	-	-
NAD C298	185 watts	Class D	-	-
NAD Masters Series M23 V2	200 watts	Class D	-	-

NAD Streaming Integrated Amplifier

Model	Watts RMS (8Ω)	Amp Class	DAC	Phono
NAD C 3050	100 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 338	50 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 368 BluOS-2i	80 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 379 BluOS-D	80 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 388 BluOS-2i	150 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 389 BluOS-D	130 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 399 BluOS-D	180 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C 700	80 watts	Class D	Yes	No
NAD C 700 V2	80 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD C3030S	50 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD Masters Series M10 V2	100 watts	Class D	Yes	No
NAD M10 V3	100 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD Masters Series M33	200 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes
NAD Masters Series M33 V2	200 watts	Class D	Yes	Yes

About NAD

NAD started in 1972 with a deliberately unfashionable proposition: spend the money on the parts that affect the sound and nothing on the parts that do not. The 3020 of 1978 was a plain grey box rated at a modest 20 watts per channel, but with a power supply that let it drive difficult speakers far beyond that figure, and it sold in the millions. It has a strong claim to being the single most influential budget component in hi-fi history, because it proved a cheap amplifier did not have to sound cheap.

NAD was set up as a design and marketing company that had products built by others, an unusual structure for its time.

The 3020 is the component most often named when people describe the moment they realised hi-fi was worth caring about, and the grey-box aesthetic became a statement in itself against the brushed-aluminium and blinking-lights fashion of late-1970s Japanese receivers.

Canadian-owned since 1999. Shares Lenbrook with PSB and Bluesound, which is why BluOS is built into NAD streaming amplifiers.

Notable models: 3020, 3020i, C 316BEE, M33, C 3050.

Official NAD website

ALL AMPLIFIER BRANDS

Links to all amplifier brands in Speaker Decision