Proton/NAD/Fullet. Same?

[Roy O]

Somebody’s selling a Proton integrated amp he claims is a British-badged NAD, assembled by “Fullet” (Fuller?) Co.
A hoax, or no? Not too familiar with these brands.
TIA

 

[audiomaniac2]

I have a NAD 7150 receiver that I was repairing/rebuilding. I bought a Proton 950 for parts. It was identical to the Nad. So yes some of Nad and Proton are the same.I can't tell you if the one your looking at is.Fullet did make some of the Nad amps and receivers.

 

[MadJap]

Fullet was the manufacturer that produced Proton. In the early days of NAD, they contracted out their manufacturing to Fullet.

I believe I read that there was an agreement to share technology and design in the early years, hence the similarity.

 

[E.Man]

Somebody’s selling a Proton integrated amp he claims is a British-badged NAD, assembled by “Fullet” (Fuller?) Co.
A hoax, or no? Not too familiar with these brands.
TIA

Have you got a model number?
As above. There was a connection between NAD and Proton many years ago.

 

[bryblob]

British-badged is wrong, but I do know that NAD and proton gear was made by the same manufacture in the 80's. Matsushita?

 

[bryblob]

https://therobbcollections.blogspot.com/2018/07/proton-audio-nad-and-dynaco-are-cousins.html

 

[Roy O]

It’s a Proton 550 i.e. NAD 3150. 50+ wpc.
Corrected model number. It’s a 550 Proton, not 560 as originally posted.

 

[NAD80]

Neat BlogSpot thanks.

 

[E.Man]

It’s a Proton 560, i.e. NAD 3150. 50+ wpc.

That's about the right period for the Proton /NAD connection so not a hoax.

No idea about Fullet anything.

 

[62vauxhall]

It may not be so now but "designed in England (or the UK?) was more prominently emblazoned on NAD components than was the country of origin/manufacture. At least that is what I remember from some of their amplifiers.

 

[Goldie99]

Fulet were certainly involved in NAD production - you can find their label on at least some 3020 pcb's, and presumably other models as well. This is from a UK NAD 3020A pcb.

 

[teal'c]

Proton is good stuff. Currently running two of their amplifiers.

 

[bimasta]

As I remember, when Proton first appeared NAD was already established, though not long. The similarities were immediately noted. It was said they were made at the same factory, Funai in Taiwan, with much interbreeding. Even that Proton was a "higher-end" subsidiary of NAD — "higher-end" basically meant better parts and much stricter QC, which NAD at the time was infamous for lacking. I never heard the name Fulet before.

This is just FYI what the UK magazines were saying at the time, I don't verify it.

 

[Hak Foo]

The one NAD piece I own, a 7100, is labelled Tatung on some of the circuit boards, which also seems plausible for the Taiwanese-contract-manuafacturer angle.

 

[SoCal Sam]

AMC looks a lot like vintage NAD. Not sure if they are related.

 

[MadJap]

https://therobbcollections.blogspot.com/2018/07/proton-audio-nad-and-dynaco-are-cousins.html

That's a pretty cool blog page.
Though I'm not sure if he is accurate in his description that DPD provides class A output to rated power and then uses the second transformer to provide DPD power beyond that.

My AA-1150 is Dual-mono configuration, and the channels do not share transformers. Also, I don't think Proton amps are class A.