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NAD reciever and B&W speakers

J

johnp66

Member
I have an nad 7400 reciever 100 wpc
And a nad c725bee 50 wpc
The both sound horrible when hooked up to my b& w 684 or 685 speakers.
But when I hook up my buddies cambridge soundworks tower or m 80 speakers it sounds incredible!
Now I've herd that nad doesn't match up well with b& w is this the case or is b& w just over priced junk?
& what speakers would you recommend for an nad reciever.
As far as buying a pair of CSW speakers I'd rather buy speakers that are still made.
 
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Both B&W speakers have a fairly low sensitivity of 87dB SPL.

The other speakers you connected and like very well may be more sensitive, which can make a huge difference.
 
B&W are not junk. I shopped around for the last few months and bought a pair of 686. I love them. Matter of taste? or what they said above.
 
My experience with B&W speakers, (I have owned 3 different models), is that they are power hungry! My DM12's sounded blaa, running 55wpc. Upgraded to 80wpc and they came alive. See if you can borrow an amp with more wpc and see if it makes a difference. I will not part ways with my B&W's.
 
What's the impedance rating of the speakers, and what is your amp's output impedance? If the speakers are 4 ohms, but the amp is not rated for a 4 ohm load, you can have problems.

Otherwise, it may very well be synergy as suggested. All gear does not sound good together.
 
One receiver automatically senses what ohm the speaker is and will internally switch to 4,6 or 8 ohms
The other reciever has a switch in the back to do it manually.
The CSW speakers are 8 ohms and the other CSW speakers are 6 ohms
The b& w speakers are both 8 ohms.
 
johnp66 said:
Now I've herd that nad doesn't match up well with b& w is this the case or is b& w just over priced junk?
& what speakers would you recommend for an nad reciever.
As far as buying a pair of CSW speakers I'd rather buy speakers that are still made.
Click to expand...

Welll.. There are many that share your perception of B&W and those that love them. 'Nuff said

NAD 'usually works V well with most speakers.
You won't be having to look too far. PSB /paradigm are consistently decent units.. as small example. Vintage Dynaco A25's can be a good Budget choice if Healthy and pristine
As for; Out of manufacture? Why does it matter?
Speaker makers pop up and dissapear in the dozens, annually.
Often parts in continuing makers are all too often obsoleted / superceded within months of purchase
 
I have an NAD 7140 paired with Large Advents and Advent 1s...it sounds fantastic with that setup...maybe a little too fantastic if there is such a thing. And that is just a 40WPC reciever. If you listened to it you would think it was much much more.

Mike47
 
Reread the original post, sounds like you tried your speakers and his speakers on two different receiver/amps. How old are those B&W's? Ever listen to them on any gear where they DID sound good? Maybe there is something wrong with them. Blown drivers? Crossover components out of spec or fried?

Just thinkin' out loud.
 
I listened to them on a denon and a rotel and they sounded fine but I just love the nad sound
I know psb is to nad as b&w is to rotel so I may have to go the psb route . But I really don't want a subwoofer and I think a lower end psb would really need one.
 
Those B&W's are real good speakers. I used to have a NAD preamp in a system with B&W's and never cared for the results. Sounded lifeless. The speakers worked great with a B&K Pre/Power combo however.
 
B&Ws typically require lots of power to sound their best. They are also very revealing - sometimes to a fault. Good records sound really great, bad ones sound real bad. Same goes with associated components. Or synergy as someone posted.
 
B&W need high power amps. They also benefit from high damping level. I would use at least 150W amp with them. In my case I have 683 and 685 HT setup powered by top of the line Onkyo AVR. In stereo mode it delivers 300W per channel (and about 120W/ch. in 5.1). 683s are bi-amped using two spare channels (AVR has 7 amps). Sounds good enough in both stereo and surround mode.
 
toxcrusadr said:
Reread the original post, sounds like you tried your speakers and his speakers on two different receiver/amps. How old are those B&W's? Ever listen to them on any gear where they DID sound good? Maybe there is something wrong with them. Blown drivers? Crossover components out of spec or fried?

Just thinkin' out loud.
Click to expand...

They sound good with a rotel or a denon, but not with the nad .
 
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