My review of 3050 LE
Review of NAD C 3050 LE
Background
I’m a long time mid range audiophile, which means I prefer gear that ranges between $500 and $5000 and I look for good overall esthetics, great sound, and a good value. I have an original NAD 3045 integrated amplifier that I bought in college. I also own a new M10V2 and a C700. I bought the 3050 for obvious reasons…nostalgia and replacement for a Yamaha digital receiver in my basement driving a set of Klipsch Forte IIs. I received unit #72 btw.
Impression
Visually and tactilely, I have to say unboxing the 3050 is underwhelming. It’s pretty light, thinner than it appears in print, and the wood grain enclosure is not very attractive, being too light and wide grained. The speaker selection knob was a bit loose (I’ve seen this comment in another review), and the balance knob was not centered(grrrrr). Furthermore, the buttons have no movement, and the LEDs are WAY too bright. Not a great start. Functionally I was disappointed they don’t have a ‘Line Out’ but I understand why.
Those aspects aside…it’s a better look than most of the starkly boring physical designs NAD uses. The new 398 and 399 being perfect examples. You might as well put those in a closet. The VU meters are nice of course, the volume knob an appropriate size, and the NAD/BluOS process worked fine. Setup was easy (I’m wireless and it pulled the info from my iPhone), and using the BluOS app as usual is something that is very beneficial. They DO have a ‘Pre- Out’ so you could replace the amplifier with another if you choose.
A review of the Blue OS app would take too long but suffice to say when it works it’s very good in my opinion. Occasionally it seems some users have bugs or network setup issues that are very difficult to get rid of, but I’ve been pretty lucky. Having said that, two thing I noted most in using the 3050 are: It did seem to import some of my signin information for certain services, but it cannot import any of the presets that I have on the other units. So if you like that feature you have to laboriously re-enter everything. It seems not being able to copy/sync presets across units is a really dumb feature miss. But you can easily log into one unit and select a present, then move the music to another unit, so an easy workaround exists.
All in all the look is good, but could have been executed better.
Listening
Listening tests are always vastly subjective so I’ll just say I liked it compared to the unit it was replacing and its equivalent to the other NAD gear I own.
While the prior Yamaha N803 sounded great, the NAD 3050 seemed to have a bit more warmth, depth, and bass. I liked the clean sound of the Yamaha but immediately felt I preferred the sound of the 3050. (Interestingly, I have previously tried the C700 in this setup and felt it was closer to the Yamaha but that was also a test only at LOUD listening levels where I matched DB.)
Bottom line, I deemed the sound the 3050 produced in my particular setup slightly but nicely improved over the prior (good sounding) Yamaha N803 and at least on par…if not slightly warmer then, the C700. I did not compare to the M10.
Other options
Besides the other NAD gear mentioned above, some streaming amplifier options you could get include the NAD C368-BluOS for $1749 with 80/ch, the NAD C399-BluOS for $2600 with 180/ch. Both are the boring front panel designs.
There are other streaming receivers and integrated amplifiers to consider, but I wanted to stay with the BluOS ecosystem and glad I did…its great to play with one system and move music to another room/NAD system when I want.
Summary
Pluses:
- A nice look that is much more interesting than the ‘black box’ format so many companies (including NAD) use...If you are a vintage fan, the look is very attractive.
- Very nice sound...About as expected from current NAD technology
- The BluOS is what it is...a big benefit for those invested
Cons
- Quality of some build points could be improved...Don’t lift it or touch it and expect to be impressed
- That wood veneer will need dark oil applied
- Put some fogged tape over the LEDs.