I have had the NAD T778 at home now for over 5 months. I have always had a parade of AVR’s at home while working in the industry. Over the years I have found it really helps me get to grips with all the nuances of operation and most importantly the sound they reproduce. Just for a little perspective, In the last 12 months preceding the arrival of the NAD I have had a Denon AVR-X6500, Arcam AVR850, Arcam AVR390 and a Trinnov Altitude AL16 at home for extended periods. In that time, I also had access to an Anthem MRX720, Emotiva RMC-1 and a Denon AVC-X8500 at the office.

I wrote the first review of the NAD T788 around four weeks after having taken delivery from the initial batch to arrive in the country. My original review was based on a usual nuts and bolts run down of the first 30 days of ownership and usually well before now I’d be onto the next box for assessment, but it is still sitting in pride of place in the cinema. To explain why it is still in place, I thought it best to do a small follow up on a product something I have never really felt the need to do. Some of the knowledge is based on my ownership, other information is gleaned from customers and the conversations both I and Nick have had with them.

 

Video Performance

This is an area I will not dwell on too much as the NAD does not have any video processing internally. Personally, I have not had any video issues, everything has worked from day one. Through conversations with a couple of customers the NAD does seem to find fault with poorer quality HDMI cables. This is something I touched on in the blog post I wrote on HDMI implementation a couple of months ago and means that the NAD expects to see a good connection. The NAD sticks rigidly to the rules of HDMI so is not forgiving in this regard. The two issues we have had with poor quality HDMI cables were resolved by using good quality Audioquest HDMI for the shorter lengths and a Hybrid Optical Cable for runs longer than 5m.

Video overlay only works as an on-screen display for set-up and is fine and functional, the only main omission is the inability to see the volume as feedback overlay on the on-screen display. Something of an annoyance rather than a colossal failure by NAD’s part. There is a make-do solution for this which I will cover later. The menu structure can also get time to get used to, you instinctively want to press enter to gain access to a menu, when in fact you need to press the right arrow. I have seen this once before on an Anthem AVR menu so can only assume this is how they do it in Canada, where both units are conceptualised.

 

Audio Performance

This is probably the most important area for most customers considering a purchase of a product in this performance category. For a lot of our customers the NAD T778 is a large step up in terms of investment and we have seen many people make the move from units less half the price of the NAD. With this in mind sound quality really needs to improve, and the good news is that it does. The sound is fantastic, to the point that every time I sit down in front of it to watch either the football or a movie it really does impress me.

There are a lot of factors which come into play when you experience the NAD but the main one is that you can really hear the quality of the hybrid digital amplification. Digital amps have really developed in the past few years and much of the bad press they suffer from is unwarranted.  I’ve always been a fan of them and a bit like LCD TV’s they have matured over time with great product development, to the point where we are at now where you get bags of power, very little heat output, but also have an added character to the sound. I would describe it to essentially being given a massive hug from the speakers. This is more born out when you run the amplifier in Analogue Direct bypassing a lot of the processing. I use this mode to listen to vinyl on the Linn LP12/ Primare R15 phono stage and it is very impressive. One of the other wonderful things is that you can overlay DIRAC on the Analogue Direct mode giving the ability to correct the bass in my room for this direct stereo source. The DIRAC implementation is also rock solid in operation, I have not experienced any crashes or freezing which, I have experienced on other implementations. A lot of audiophile’s shudder at the thought of EQ on hi-fi, let alone on a decent turntable. But this gives you another tool to achieve even better performance, maximising every single part of the signal and speakers. The result is jaw dropping and is genuinely a fantastic stereo sound, far better than without the EQ. Just taking about vinyl as the source, the amplifier at home is expected to deal with a Linn LP12 with a Sumiko Blue Point Special plus the Primare R15 phono stage. So, some £3,000 worth of source which does not miss a beat through the NAD, in fact it excels. I can genuinely say for music, it is by far the best thing I have heard for an AVR short of a big processor or dedicated flagship Hi-Fi amplifier. The best AVR product under £4000 I have had at home by some distance. I have also not felt the need to run a power amplifier on the front stage for the Amphion 3LS speakers. On most other amplifiers I have felt the need to support the floor standers with more power, not with the NAD. So, what I have ended up with is a far simpler system, less boxes and better sound overall. The ideal scenario.

 

Network Performance, Oddities & Apps

So that was the good, now for the oddities and problems. At the outset I must stress that the NAD is far stabler at launch than most new products I have had over the years. The exception to this being the Denon and Marantz units which tend to just work functionally from the off. I still have a small pop from the speakers from the codec change but not too much for it to be invasive on my enjoyment of the content. Some customers hear no pop at all, which I can only put down to their choice of equipment. Anthem had a remarkably similar issue at the launch of the last MRX range and it was to do with the muting delay on the amplifier, something which was addressed by a firmware update. Something I expect NAD to do at some point in their update timeline.

Not really a problem as such but the amplifier only has two analogue inputs. Not a deal breaker, but I did find it a little restrictive and as I had 3 analogue sources, I had to get creative to find a way round it.

The way that the amplifier connects to the network wirelessly is a little like jumping through hoops and it does seem to require a strong connection for it to work. My amplifier is in an odd place tucked away in a corner and I have not managed to get it connected wirelessly. Luckily, I can use a wired connection in the same location which works flawlessly. If my connection had to be wireless, I would need to use ethernet over mains plus to maintain a good connection.

For a while I thought I was going mad with the preferred settings and listening modes. After much toiling it turns out you really need to use the AV Pre-sets to save and recall your settings on the amplifier and then save these to the associated input. If you do not you can find that if you turn off the amplifier and then go back to it the next day, things have changed. Not clearly explained enough in the manual for me but you do live and learn and only by having the amplifier for a period did I really figure this out.

There have been other isolated faults reported by customers but by and large these have been instances that I would consider within a normal % rate in electronics terms. Typically, once the unit has been swapped for a new unit the customer experience is a fully positive one. As with all issues if they are dealt with swiftly and without hassle, it tends not to reflect negatively on ownership.

Coming back to my earlier point of a lack or OSD overlay, you can use an unofficial Android app to get a level of control and feedback from the product. For me, this works flawlessly and is extremely useful. If I were to be uber critical, I would raise the point that if one lone developer can produce a working app, why can’t NAD? Also, why not an Apple app as well? Given the lack of OSD, for me it is a bit of an oversight that there are no “official” apps available but again not a deal breaker given the overall performance. Also, if you change a setting on the app and you want to keep it, do not forget to then save it on the pre-set!

 

Potential Future Upgrades

One of the major things which makes the NAD unique and a solid investment long term is its modular nature. At the time of writing there has been no official confirmation that the NAD will get a HDMI 2.1 upgrade, but logic dictates that something at some point will be offered.

I have also directly asked the question in relation to DIRAC Bass Control as we are achieving excellent results with this on the dedicated processors from Storm Audio and JBL. I have been told that the implementation of this is being worked on, but no decision has been made to its viability on the platform yet, so a wait and see for the moment.

 

Epilogue

In summation the NAD has stayed a lot longer than usual and that it because of its swiss army like nature and raw performance. However, testing must continue, and I will shortly welcome a JBL SDP-55 and SDA-7120 to the house for testing with its DANTE wiring, something I’m sure that will revolutionise multi-channel set-ups and make my life a lot easier. Let us also see how that measures up in practice with a similar write up to follow.