WHILE WAITING on the arrival of NAD's C 399 integrated amplifier for review, I checked it out on the company's website. What I saw there was a minimally adorned exemplar of the black-box design school, with steel chassis panels of ordinary fabrication and a small display showing mostly monochrome text. Yawn. Well, a funny thing happened when the C 399 finally arrived, and I unboxed it. I took a shine to its no-frills, understatedly handsome looks. Sure, there are more striking-looking components out there with more robust build quality, but they'll cost you.
The C 399 ($2,548 as tested, $1,999 in its base configuration) also surprised me with its plentiful features. It contains a phono stage, headphone output, HDMI eARC port, two-way aptX Bluetooth connectivity, and two sets each of speaker and subwoofer outputs. Adding NAD's optional MDC2 BluOS-D module ($549), which slides into one of two slots on the C 399's rear panel, brings, among other things, app-controlled internet and local network streaming and Dirac Live Limited Bandwidth room correction.
FEATURES
NAD's integrated amps are comprised of three series: the budget-friendly Classic, the diminutive Desktop (aka Digital), and the flagship Master. Infused with a generous heap of the Master series' DNA, the C 399 is top-dog of the Classic series.
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The Big Clean
Chances are you probably do not think about the state of your electronic devices too often. Oh, you might think about all the upgrades you would like to make; where you would put those new tower speakers, or how a second or third subwoofer would really tame those bass modes in your room, or how much more cinematic a larger screen would be. Sure, you think about that part of your system. But how often do you think about the well-being of your system?
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