Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners can't make up my mind

Well, with every bit of good, also comes a bit of bad. So I decided to drag the old Nak out of it's storage place hiding in the unused front sitting room, and brought it upstairs to the office where the Mac and PC are. Moved the cheep sony speakers that were hooked up to a cheap 20w digital amp connected to the mac and ran the wires to the NAK. All sounded great.. for about 3 hours.

Then there was a distinct humm sound in the room. Then there was a funny smell. Needless to say the Nak doesn't produce sound out of the right speaker channel any more and if you touch the unit, all sound cuts out. Pretty sure it's dead!

So a wonderful set of speakers are getting shipped to me in 26 or so days that have no real means of getting powered. I could see if I could reserect an old Yamaha that it about 3 years newer than the Nakamichi that I think I might have thrown out to my parents house. Doubt they are using it.

But part of me says I should just look to get a new sort of amp. I need it for just two functions, or more to point, two inputs. Two sets of RCA in with a switch of some form to select each input. A balance control would be nice, and I'd prefer a treble/bass adustment. I was thinking of some form of warm sounding hybrid tube/digital amp at 60watts will be more than fine.

Anyone have any suggestions of what to look at? Links prefered. Availible for Canada is a must.

Sony STRDH190 2-ch Stereo Receiver with Phono Inputs and Bluetooth Audio Component, Black https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B078WFDR8D/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gqQcEbCXPHTZ0

Yamaha Natural Sound Stereo Receiver (R-S202BL) https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01ITB23YC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_YqQcEbG1PSFHD

What do you think of a NAD 316BEE or Cambridge Audio Azur 350A

It's really impossible to say how the NAD, Cambridge, Sony and Yammie compare to each other sound-wise with M3s until one has had a chance to audition them. I don't see much difference between these on paper but not much info is given to begin with. From an internal build perspective, I'd take the NAD or Cambridge with preference for the Cambridge, but that doesn't mean they sound better than the others. I can't see how spending more for the NAD or Cambridge would buy you better sound.

Check for a single-strand short between the speaker terminals on the back of the amp. I don't think it's likely given your description of events (3 hours) but worth checking anyways.

I picked up a Grant TubeDAC for a few reasons, one of which was getting a sense for how "tube sound" fitted into modern systems. My impression in a nutshell was "sounds nice, messes with imaging". Not sure how much of that would translate to a hybrid amp but figured I should mention it.

Fuses don't normally give off that special expensive smell but just in case is it worth looking up Nak model # and checking ?

@mojo - I took a look at the two options and picked the Sony just for the sake of it. Its $170+tax. Then I dove into what Sony had published.

- 100w / channel (love how the stores call it a 200w unit)
- The phono amplifier and transformer are positioned optimally to minimize interference from the magnetic field.

But you then look at the published graphics that Sony provides and you clearly see its a larger transformer with pure class-D amp. You know this is just a switching power supply with an pulse width modulation amp running at who knows what voltage to give you the 100w per channel. You can also speculate that is 100w fully driven to clip.

Pulling up the NAD 316bee.v2, at least they are a bit more honest about their product. It is a liner power supply inside with a pretty well sized terodal coil. I don't know if its an AB or D class amp. But more interesting they actually publish at 45w per channel @ 8ohms with IHF dynamic power of 90w @ 8ohms, giving you 3db of head room. I can get one of these off CanuckAudioMart for about $350

Then you have the Cambridge Audio Azur 350A ($175 used 4y/o). The manual specs it at 45w @ 8ohms. I have seen the unit on youtube taken apart and it has quite a well sized terodal coil power supply. There is no real spec pulling up on what or even if there is any dynamic headroom or if the 45w is to full power clip.


Now I remember that Ian had a really good posting that I read somewhere where Mojo was talking with someone else about the Axiom ADA amps and headroom, liner power supples vs switching and sound clipping. Ian had gone to say about how many amp companies.. ie Sony,Pioneer,Yamaha,Marantz.... report nice huge numbers for their amps but are giving you a number to fully driven clipping at a single 1khz tone, where music is dynamic and you bursts of power. It was something like how much dynamic head room you need and working backwords to show that a 100w amp might really be like a 12w amp with 9db of headroom. (wish I could re-find that posting)

This brings me back to the question at hand. I can get a 4 year old used Cambridge Audio unit for about the same price a new Sony. My gut tells me that the CA Azur350A will likely sound far better with the M3 as I get the feeling it likely is a better built unit with a far better amp guts inside of it. The NAD is likely the same build as the CA but will cost me double for a "NEW" open box unit that the seller says sat in its box and was intended for a man-cave garage that never happened.

What would you choose?


@Bridgman - I don't think it's a loose wire or something like that. I know there is a part of me that remembers the old NAK. I will pull it apart and see if I can see anything obvious, but I have done the logical diagnosis and think it's something bigger inside that is at fault.

The internal build quality of the NAD and Cambridge appears to be better. The Cambridge appears more well-thought out in that department. You are correct in that NAD is more transparent about their specs. In consideration of this last point, if someone held a gun to my head and I had to choose between all of these on potential sound quality alone, I would choose the NAD.

Along the lines of Ian's guidance, consider the following. In your 8x8 room, the M3s will give you an honest 97dBC of sound pressure level before you can perceive any distortion from the woofer. That's only 16 peak Watts. Perhaps, if you are not a discerning listener, you may not perceive any distortion until 103dBC. That's 64 peak Watts.

97dBC is nothing to be ashamed of. That is plenty. Given your posts on the M3 vs. the M5 and your concern to save some cash, I think either the Sony or Yammie will fill your needs while being easier on your wallet.

Matt, here is another one for your consideration. I have the Pioneer A9 which I am very impressed with. The A9 is essentially two mono amps with twin toroids and hefty capacitance in one chassis. It is conservatively rated and has no trouble with any of my Axioms including the active LFR woofers. It is dead quiet! I get a wide, deep soundstage with very well-defined images.

The one below may be similarly good to mine but with less power.

https://www.visions.ca/product-detail/45...141&sku=A20

You probably cannot go wrong either way, minus some power for the Japanese products. The newer may be better than the second hand for longevity unless it truly hasn't been used.

Still have never heard of any real problems anyone ever has with either of those English products all around, very well built.