So, the 747 has landed in my humble abode. Not the literal Boeing 747. The NAD T747 receiver I mean. For the first time in this system, I’m getting an NAD. I’ve tried one before before I started this blog, when my dad also just started getting back into reviewing audio equipment again. I got the chance to try their Hybrid DAC Amplifier the C368. It was pretty impressive and could stream MQA format via Tidal. Overall what stood out to me about it was the sound. It sounded clear and transparent, but it kind of lacked in the looks department. This company is a rather typical example of function over form. On the outside, it wasn’t something that stood out in any way. It was a kind of look that you wouldn’t expect from something that sounds that good. But, in this case with the T747 that I’ve gotten my hands on, that may not exactly be true.
Seeing this with my own eyes I was rather impressed by the first impression. It was rather good looking. Not the best but it was rather pleasant to see. This one was also bought locally for a rather good price. The MSRP for this is actually about $1300 but was bought for less than $100 which is a steal in my opinion. Provided nothing is wrong with it, which I don’t think there is. It’s practically less than 1/10th of the price originally, which was since about 8 years ago, which, I’ll say again, is what I think is a steal. Not literally. But hooking it up was rather a pain I’ll say. You’ll actually need to hook this up to a TV to access the setting and get into the sources and speaker settings, etc. Naming the inputs was such a pain because it has in a system where you scroll through the Alphabet that has both upper and lower case, with some special letters at the end after the numbers. I took about 10 mins to rename and set about 2 inputs. The remote so far as well, is actually very similar to the C368 that I’ve had a chance to try. It was almost a universal remote but for NAD products mostly.
But after all that you can practically unhook it from the TV until you (more like I do) need to change the setting for whatever reason I need. But, moment of truth was still to come, as I turned it on afterwards. As expected, it was definitely a different experience to my (replaced and probably not going back to) Sony DH800. Right off the bat (which is like about an hour ago from writing this), I could hear that the NAD T747 provided a more transparent and clear with a more expressive sound compared to the Sony’s. For sure it was pretty good considering the MSRP for it was about $500 compared to this, but I’ll take this because as I said, it was more expressive. If I were to put it kind of bluntly, the Sony’s were a bit more flat. I’d take more expressive any day. That’s also because expressive means everything else is overall better as well, because as I’ve experienced, an amp can sound more expressive only after it gets the basics done. Meaning in terms of sound there is a certain level of clarity, transparency, imaging, realism, and maybe even power (not always).
Well, that is the situation so far for the new addition. After that blog post about my future ambitions, it’s quite the surprise that I’ve gotten my hands on a new, better receiver, like one of the ambitions that I’ve had for this system. Now, probably I’ll be sticking to these for awhile, and maybe even review these one day. For now, I’ll be reaping the benefits, kick back and enjoy the (better I guess) sound.
HIFI Sound Enthusiast 