Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo NAD C352 a decent amp for M22ti??

I'd just ordered the NAD C352 from an authorized dealer, it was a great deal...only $449 for a brand new unit, I'm wondering if this is a decent amp to run my M22ti? how do you guys like this amp? I'm still using the HK3840 at the moment and I really don't know if there is any SQ improvement, hopefully it's a worthwhile upgrade??? LOL

I think the C352's 80WPC would be plenty to drive a pair of M22ti's. Probably would sound great.

Ben, there's no reason to believe that the C352 wouldn't do fine with your M22s, although it's slightly less powerful than what you have now. However, there's also no factual basis for thinking that this would be an "upgrade" from your 3480, rather than simply a replacement.

I'm currently using the C352 to run my M60's and I've never had an issue driving them, even when playing vinyl. It's quite a nice amp for the price.

Agree, I have the 352 also. I run them with my 60's and never have had any type of power issue.

I just received the C352 today and this unit is smaller and lighter than the HK3480, it looks plain and not as fancy, though it sound much bigger than it looks!! It's plenty loud even when I had the volume up to 9 o'clock so around 8 is where I prefer, right out of the box it sounded kinda stiff and harsh, so I just left it running and went to dinner, 30min later I came back to the room and it's much better....looks like this thing need to warm up or something, I swapped both amps back and forth and it made the HK3480 sound kinda....weird, I don't know how to describe the difference but I guess now the HK3480 is kinda like throwing lasagna to the wall while the C352 is like a bowl of salads. The C352 also has much better image and very profound detail, instruments have better sense of distance so I guess this is what people refer to as airy? the high is very smooth and midbass is punchier, vocal is very solid, so far I'm pretty happy with it so I think it's a worthwhile 'upgrade'

Congrats on getting the C352! Glad you are enjoying the sound.

I have had the C320BEE for a few weeks now, and have really been impressed with it. Probably has a similar sound to the 352. I noticed that it made the music sounds much more livelier and enjoyable to listen to. My M3s are singing now!


By the way, I don't quite follow your visual of the lasagna on the wall vs. bowl of salad. LOL

thanks....hehe, as for the lasagna thing, the HK3480 now appear to sound kinda fat and muddy, some details are pretty much blended together like with bunch of beef and cheese...not as much 'definition'. Wherea the C352 is fresh, juicy, colorful, and 'crunchy' like salad.... I'm not a vegetarian by any mean but that's the first thing that came to mind after I had my dinner LOL. I won't say it's night and day improvement but the difference is there. For $200 more I'd almost get the C372 instead but the sales person told me the C352 should be more than enough to drive these M22ti, he is very helpful and right on the money, this amp pack with a big punch, though it looks pretty boring so I'll have to find a place to tuck it away

Congrats on the new integrated. It's not the prettiest thing in the world but it sure gets the job done. Enjoy the music!

I was in the all amps sound the same camp until I got this one.

It hisses. The first one I got was refurbished and broken, the second works but there is blatant hiss on the speakers(not that audible), and on the headphones.

I tried connecting the headphones directly to the soundcard with a Y adapter since the m-audios have RCA outs, and there was no hiss, even at top volume, and did the same for a portable source. I tried a few different things, but still got hiss out of it.

For $193, I got what I paid for, but if I could go back in time I would have gotten a higher quality amp. Now, everytime I want to use my headphones, since they're shure in ear ones they really amplify the hiss so I have to take the rca cable to the receiver out every time I want to use them and plug the y cable with the headphones plugged to them into the soundcard. It's a real pain in the ass, and in the end, would have been worth spending more on a used or refurbished NAD. My old laptop, which had horrible integrated sound hissed but it was much less obvious.

Don't expect any insane leaps in quality though. Bigger bass, crisper treble, etc - blind tests have proven that even stuff like these HKs are pretty transparent. The only difference I've ever noticed among quality modern audio amplification is the power behind it, and how much it hisses(if at all).