The old king is dead (NAD 3020i) ….

….. long live the new king (NAD C356BEE)!

Our old NAD 3020i died. Or rather it could still amplify our music, but it started to smell when it was on and the smell of burnt electronics inside the house is neither normal, nor healthy. So we went looking for a replacement…. Rotel ra-11 looked nice. So did the pioneer A-70. And the NAD C326BEE … We also had a very very serious look at NAD D 3020. The latter was discared due to

  • us being in doubt about the D 3020’s ability to deliver the same power as the NAD 3020i, even though its specs was 50% better.
  • reviews stating that the sound was actually better when feeding it an analog source as opposed to a digital one. Then it did not make much sense to feed it with the output of the Bluesound N100 we own.

My wife, who brought the NAD 3020i into our relationship preferred NAD over the competition and in the end we had to choose between the C326BEE and the C356BEE. Being marginally more expensive, we went with the bigbrother and are happy about it.NAD_C356BEEI will have to play around with the serial port of the 356BEE and maybee put a usb2serial in the back of the Bluesound and do some magic there. But that will have to wait until later.

2 Responses to “The old king is dead (NAD 3020i) ….”

  1. regj says:

    Had my eyes on the C356BEE as well. Bought a used Lyngdorf SDAI 2175 (now discontinued), which has a serial port as well. Looking forward to having look at its OS and to update the firmware, although the firmware update seems to consist mostly of interface fixes.

    The SDAI 2175 sounds absolutely terrific with my custom Lenco L75, my Arch based rPI MPD server+Cambridge DacMagic Plus, driving a pair of QLN 313 Qubic, and was HUGE upgrade from the C326BEE I also own.

    Congrats on your new amp.

    Br,
    Rasmus

    • admin says:

      Hi Rasmus

      Thanks a lot! The C356BEE is a huge upgrade over the 3020i. It has plenty og power and tone control over the whole spectrum and is generally a fine piece of equipment.

      A bit too simple on the management side for a Nerd like me (only serial, no IP, no advanced stuff, no embedded os, only the basic stuff). But hey it is an AMP first and foremost, so who am I to complain 🙂

      I am looking into getting my Bluesound to control the C356BEE. Should be fairly simple now that I have root on the Bluesound

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