I want my distortion and noise to be what the recording engineer intended and not what a vendor built because they don't even know what they don't know. This is actually the biggest problem in engineering. Anyone can design to a requirement. Knowing what requirement to design to - THAT is the biggest problem in any domain. That's the research part. The part where science is done.

I used to think 55W a channel was plenty. The old timers here know me as the guy who thought a half watt was enough. But then the v4 came and I started to see instruments on a stage behind the v4 with space between them. I could see the potential. So I turned it up. And it sounded good. It sounded live! Then I put the pioneer into my M5 2-channel set up. And it was a revelation. Then I played Hit the Road Jack by Renee Olstead. And I turned it up and up and up...then the drum...followed by silence... because my pioneer shut down. So I did it again and realized that must be a peak and it brought the pioneer to its knees. I ran downstairs and played it on the M100/Onk and no matter how far I tuned up the gain, it would not shut down but it got offensive. Then I paid attention. There was a definite difference in the sound between the pioneer and the Onk. The Onk was flat...no dynamics. So I wanted to do some science and pulled out the SPL meter. I was getting a 20dB peak on my pioneer setup but only 10dB on the Onk. I thought "It's those damned multi-driver M100s that can't keep up". So out comes the multi-meter and sure enough the pioneer is being driven to its rails (likely beyond but my meter isn't a lab instrument) during the peak but the Onk's voltage is well below its rails but not representative of the peak at all. So the Onk is too slow to follow the transient or it's being artificially limited. I paired up the pioneer with the M100 and bang - instant dynamics! BTW, the dynamics in that tune are better preserved on Tidal rather than Spotify.

So I don't know if your NAD will be good enough. But if you buy a v4, you might start a long journey that may take a long time to reach a final destination or worse because you may never get there.


House of the Rising Sone
Out in the mid or far field
Dedicated mid-woofers are over-rated