Hi Don and JohnK,
We could get into a fierce discussion over the best interpretation of the Ravel/Debussy string quartets. I have several versions as well, but my loyalty is still with the one I heard as a teenager, which was on vinyl in my parents' collection--The Budapest String Quartet. I guess I "imprinted" on that version and when I hear others, those versions seem to be taking the wrong tempo at times.
Regarding NAD, some models had a very "loose" power supply, which let the amplifiers have as much as 6 dB of dynamic headroom, equivalent to three times as much output on momentary peaks. The late Peter Mitchell, the founder of the Boston Audio Society and a fine audio journalist, consulted on the design of the NAD amplifiers years ago.
Regards,
Alan
