Well, the Nad is packed away. Looks like it's going back. I spent the evening playing with the yammie and I am impressed. STill can't believe I'm buying a yammie, but here we are.
Hate the f$#$%#$ yamaha remote. Even hate the zone 2 remote. There, I said it. It's junk, not even remotely easy to setup, and just plain confusing. That's alright though, now I have an excuse to get the harmony 890 rf model
I was sad to pack the nad away in some ways. It's built like a tank, and I was reminded just that as I was lifting it back into the enormous box. It's too bad it's missing the sound I wanted from it. I always had a concern with the lack of optical connections on the back ,and very limited feature list and poor gui. But, I was willing to give all that up for a good powerful sounding amp. And, that is what it is, just not the sound that "I" am looking for. The Nad has a nice dynamic sound, great seperation effects, perhaps sometimes better then the yamaha. But, in the end, the EQ in the yamaha wins, and I can get the highs/bass out of my axioms much better then the Nad ever could. I really liked the NAD's remote, very easy to use/setup ( The entire receiver is easy actually....the yamaha is not) and the ability to trim channels on the fly alone is something I will miss.
I ran the yamaha all night with it blasting loud. Mostly playing pop, top 40, dance, and even some rap. Had the bass cranked on max, just trying to really push it. I had the fan set to always on. I thought this was only fair as the NAD's 5, yes 5, mini fans are on constantly as well. The Yamaha does get a bit warmer, but honestly....not enough to care. With the fan off it gets noticeably warmer. Since my stuff is in a equipment closet anyways, I don't need to care about noise, so I'll leave the fan on always....not like it's loud anyways. One thng the yamaha does not have, and that is no HISSSSSSS. The nad does have some hiss there, and a little tiny hum. Although I got rid of most of the hum when I switched to a dedicated 15amp circuit.
Bottom line is, the Yamaha is giving me all the volume I "need". Plus, every source can be eq'd to whatever degree I Want, and set to memory. With the Nad, I could have gotten eq's for each channel, but we are talking $$$$$. I'd rather just use the yammie as a pre and get a 3 channel amp down the road. I think in the end that'll give me a better overall system with more options, connectivity and so on. Although, I have to be honest, if I ever do get a power amp, its really only for piece of mind at this stage, as the yamaha is good enough for me and my basement. But, I would really like to open up the m80's and I had planned on getting an external amp even for the nad at some point. Right now I only have 5.1 fyi and can not test 7.1
Any questions ask away.
