Description
NAD C316 V2 Integrated Amplifier
Exactly What Your System Needs
While the C 316BEE V2 has everything necessary for musical enjoyment, it is refreshingly limited to the essentials: six inputs, one set of speaker outputs, a headphone jack, and full function remote control. It has a compact size and a handsome yet understated exterior.
It is essential NAD. While its bells and whistles may not be as extensive as the brand’s more expensive offerings, the C 316BEE V2 is far from a “stripped down” product.
With five line-level inputs, an MM Phono Input, full IR remote control, bypassable tone controls and a front panel input for a phone or tablet, the C 316BEE V2 is fully equipped to be the control center for a high-performance music system. Continuous power is a conservative 40 watts, and dynamic power (more important for music listening) is impressively more than 100 watts! This is far more usable power on tap than other amplifiers at this price, and this power is available across the entire audible band with a THD level of 0.03%.
The sonic result of this high technology is a relaxed and inviting sound that digs out the subtle details in your favourite recordings and presents them across a panoramic stereo soundstage. The impressive dynamic power reserves make the C 316BEE V2 sound both articulate and alive. The silent background and low distortion gives a sense of solidity and presence to your music and brings out the best your loudspeakers have to offer.
Proven Technology Enhanced by Innovation
NAD’s PowerDrive Circuit has been proven to offer the high current, low-distortion drive needed for complex loudspeaker loads. By monitoring the precise operating condition of the power amplifier, PowerDrive uses this intelligence to automatically optimize the power supply settings for uniformly low distortion and maximum power in the real world of music listening.
As featured in NAD’s top Masters Series models, PowerDrive uses a complex ‘analogue computer’ to determine the optimal settings. For the C 316BEE V2, NAD’s Director of Advanced Development, Bjorn Erik Edvardsen, developed a clever new computation circuit requiring fewer parts at a much lower cost without any reduction in effectiveness.
All the hallmarks of NAD technology are present, from the generously sized toroidal power transformer and low ESR smoothing capacitors, to the multiple regulated secondary supplies, to the heavy duty discrete output transistors, the C 316BEE V2 is every bit as refined and sophisticated as other NAD amplifiers.
Dynamic Power Performance
For short peaks of 5 milliseconds, the C 316BEE V2’s undistorted peak power is > 110W into 8 Ohms, 190W into 4 Ohms and 270W into 2 Ohms. This is huge, coming from an amplifier rated for 40W Continuous Power into 8 Ohms! This gain in usable dynamic power on music is very nearly equivalent to a conventional amplifier rated at twice the power handling.
Noise Rejection
Typically, using such a “soft” supply in an amplifier is very demanding on its ability to reject interference and distortion by power supply modulation and back EMF from the loudspeaker. As was the case with the 3020 model, careful engineering results in a supply rejection ratio that is very high (>75dB) across the audible frequency range ensuring tight bass and no measurable distortion from supply modulation.
The idling current is extremely tightly stabilised so kept constant with temperature and supply voltage changes. This eliminates the major limiting factor for Class AB amplifiers which is transient crossover-over distortion.
