[Test in progress. Full review coming up.]

Specifications:

• Type:  Stable Patter mechanism CD player
• Power requirements:  AC 220 - 240 V, 50/60 Hz
• Digital converter:  PD2029A
• CD Mechanism:  PEA1291
• Frequency response:  2 Hz - 20,000 Hz
• Signal to noise ratio:  > 110 dB
• Dynamic range:  > 96 dB
• Total harmonic distortion:  < 0.0026%
• Line output voltage (max.):  2 V
• Wow and flutter:  < 0.001% (below measurable)
• Number of channels:  2-channel (stereo)
• Variable line output (stereo):  not included
• Fixed line output (stereo):  1x cinch/RCA
• Digital output (stereo): 1x optical only
• Accessory jack: CD-Deck synchro to tape
• Headphone jack: not included
• Accessories: remote control unit
• Display options: on / off / time / program
• Remote batteries: 2x AAA
• Power consumption: 14 Watts
• Operating temperature:  +5 to + 35 C
• Dimensions: (W) 420mm, (D) 283mm, (H) 125mm
• Product weight:  4.2 kg
• Country of Manufacture: Japan
• Year(s): 1996 - 1998

In summer 2024, Michael and Iris contacted me to say they were contemplating spending their holidays at the German North Sea. I very much welcomed the idea of seeing them again and could not wait to give Micheal a tour of our new studio. As our two guest rooms were already occupied at the time, my wife, Sabina, offered to help them find suitable accommodation near us. Michael, a fellow audiophile, who had previously lent me his wonderful Teufel M200 loudspeakers for exploration, informed me that he would be bringing along a smallish NAD 310 amplifier for testing this time. And, although I had always felt a little put off by NAD’s over-marketed audiophile-on-a-budget claim, I was happy to hear that Michael was once again offering to show me something new.

The last time I had heard an NAD system play music was during a visit to my former English lecturer Martin von Schilling’s apartment in Bayreuth. And, although some 25 years had gone by since then, I still remembered the sonic signature of the system to be very true to music. Of course, the material we listened to in those days was quite different from the calm Jazz and classical performances I tend to play today. In fact, I have fond memories of Martin racing my Audi 80 up the A3 towards Frankfurt with G&R "Mr. Brownstone" blasting on my custom car stereo. Therefore, I could not be certain how much of my positive impression of Martin von Schilling’s home stereo system had been due to my lack of experience at the time.

When Michael and Iris arrived at the North Sea, Sabina, our kids, and I spent the first evening with them at the levee in Friedrichskoog listening to live Rock & Pop music performed by some local cover band. The musicians had to brave heavy gusts of wind, and their PA system seemed to be compensating for this circumstance with excessive volume. Having refreshed our impression of live music, we spent the rest of the evening at a local restaurant, talking about music, our recent move from Frankfurt to the North Sea, and other family affairs. The need for additional space for our family, for our language school, but also for Explorations in Audio had been among the important factors in our decision to seek our fortune away from the banking metropolis.

In our new studio in Marne, I could, for the first time, show Michael three permanent HiFi setups in a designated listening space that was outside the living quarters of our family. Within this, each loudspeaker had been set up to allow for near-linear sound reproduction in relation to the specific characteristics of the room and the listening position. There were few parallel walls, and the furnishings had been chosen to reduce reverberation times. The available space behind each system allowed for easy installation and faultless wiring. It was the kind of playing field that most audiophiles can only dream of for their hobby, and it provided the basis for my assessments of the sound quality of HiFi components.

At the time of Michael’s visit, my reference system consisted of a Thorens TD320 turntable (with AT VM95 ML cartridge and Audiophonics linear power supply), a Marantz CD-17 CD player (complete with Ken Ishiwata-styled output stage), a much heralded Symphonic Line RG9 MK3 integrated amplifier, and Martin Logan SL-3 electrostatic loudspeakers. The cables were Symphonic Line Harmonie HD interconnects (from CD) and Belden 9497 speaker cables set up in Y-bi-wiring from a single point of contact on the amp to the separate high and low terminals of the loudspeakers. A Symphonic Line power cord and a dedicated power installation—a straight line leading to the central fuse box of our house—assured the availability of clean electricity in abundance.

Although the NAD 310 could (at least in theory) have driven my Martin Logan speakers, given its extensive high feedback handling abilities, both the electrostatic panels and the dynamic woofers of the Logan’s hybrid design demanded for a higher wattage power amplifier and would have been an unfair match for the NAD’s modest 20 watts RMS per channel. My Tannoy XT8f loudspeakers, however, which were part of the adjacent system, were relatively easy to drive at 8 Ohms and a high sensitivity of 91 decibel. And it was this system that we connected the NAD 310 to.

The frontend consisted of a Pioneer PD-S705 CD player which once was famous for its platter drive mechanism and inverted disc placement. As the NAD 310 does not feature an integrated phono stage, we simply accepted the fact and did not make any attempts to connect a turntable via an external phono stage. The cables were Stager Silver Solid Core interconnects from CD and Symphonic Line Harmonie HD cables in single wiring to the speakers. We used 4mm-thick solid core copper wire jumpers to connect the Tannoy’s high and low frequency drivers. The speakers themselves were positioned on their bare spikes, which firmly held the Tannoys in place on top of immovable 38kg stone slabs. This infrastructure was surely not the typical environment for the affordable NAD 310 to perform in and therefore promised to be interesting.

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Michael and I began our listening session with a live performance of the German Tom Waits cover band “Bad As We” that was recorded straight onto an analogue reel-to-reel tape machine by the former Bavarian public radio sound engineer Andreas Sandreuther and the Nürnberg analog-treff founder, Heinz-Peter Völkel. Live||Tape is the name of their new (strictly analogue) label, and even when re-mastered for CD, the dynamic range and bare bones realism of the original recording are impressive. Michael and I had previously listened to the CD performed on large pre and amplifier combos and were surprised to find that, with the NAD 310, much of the original drive, tonality, and dimension remained the unchanged. This realization was especially perplexing considering the NAD’s modest size, weight, and tiny circuit boards.

There is something about hearing a performance first hand that is difficult to transport in a written report. And I confess that very little we could have read about the NAD would have prepared us for the event. With our eyes closed and at normal listening volumes, we would have easily mistaken the sound of the NAD 310 for that of a pre and amplifier combo, and a very good one at that. In direct comparison to my Restek V1 and Echle LF-3519 setup, the NAD was less forceful, occasionally lacking some of the bite of the piano notes. However, on many recordings this proved to be a good thing rather than a liability. Despite losing some of the discerning edges of a music event, the NAD 310 managed to maintain excellent tonality and homogeneity and propagated a decidedly non-fatiguing and highly musical sound.

Vocals were rendered with natural detail and recognisable timbre, and the sound stage showed similar width and depths as I was used to from my separate components. In direct comparison to the Restek V1 and Echle LF-3519 setup, however, the NAD 310 provided less space around each instrument, making each sonic event seem closer to the next in terms of time and space. This became especially clear when we listened to Helge Lien’s album “No. 10”, which superbly plays with the listener’s sense of space. Having listened to Singer-Songwriter and Jazz music with me for a while, Michael asked me, if I also had some electronic music at hand.

I first thought of some iteration of a Boris Blank album, but then I remembered that I had just stumbled upon a 1993 Culture Beat album sitting on one of the free take-away shelves along the streets in Husum. For both of us, it had been years since we last listened to a Torsten Fenslau production, and we had to smile at the improbability of this idea. Michael remembered that, on the album “serenity”, track number three “got to get it” with vocals by Tania Evans used to be quite popular. We cranked up the volume and were transported back to the dry German Disco beats of the 90s. The NAD 310 managed to handle the increase in volume very well and, to our surprise, did not seem at all strained or compressed. The Tannoy’s high sensitivity and 6dB bass accentuation probably played a part in this solid performance.

Being greatly pleased with our listening test of the NAD 310, Michael and I decided to end our session by taking the Culture Beat CD over to my Martin Logan reference system (with RG9 MK3 amplifier), thinking that we would pretty much hear more of the same music. To my relief, however, this was not the case. The Martin Logans made each sample come alive with such width, depth and sparkle that the previous performance seemed somewhat pale and lifeless in comparison. There was so much detail and dimension that even the crude Culture Beat disco album started to make sense to me now. I think Michael and I were both a little surprised by this transformation, because there really had been nothing “wrong” with the system we had listened to before. On the contrary, it had delivered an excellent performance that left very little to want for at the time.

The NAD 310 is a budget amplifier that punches well above its weight and employs some clever design choices to perform this trick. Rachel Cramond wrote an extensive review about this phenomenon for Gramophone magazine in 2012. (They let you read it a few times before erecting a pay wall). Next to the cost saving reduction of electronic parts by approximately 50%, the NAD 310 features a pure class A driver stage and a carefully matched combination of MosFET and bipolar transistors. One difference to conventional A/B amplifiers can be seen in the two large capacitors found to the right of the heat sink (see photo) on the amplifier board in addition to the power supply caps that are located next to the toroidal transformer.

The secondary capacitors assure that there is always plenty of dynamic headroom, even when the amplifier is driven near maximum volume. There are limitations in terms of slew rate and signal damping that cannot be denied on a 20 watts amplifier. It is therefore best matched with responsive electronics at the front and sensitive speakers at the back. My choice of unshielded silver cables and the Tannoy speakers worked very well in this respect.

Although the NAD 310 had been in Michael’s possession for some years already, he had never heard it perform in such a dedicated listening environment and meticulous setup and therefore was quite surprised by how much of the performance depended on the periphery. And I had never heard a piece of equipment in this affordable price bracket that could so well hold its own in such an environment. I am certainly going to look at NAD’s rather flimsy looking amplifier designs with more respect now. I can promise you this: under normal household conditions, any restrictions in musical fidelity heard in conjunction with the NAD 310 are most likely caused by how it is matched with the periphery and not by the amplifier itself.

Specifications

Power Amplifier

• Type:  Integrated solid state stereo amplifier
• Transformer:  100 VA, toroidal
• Power consumption (max.): 92 Watts
• Output power (RMS, 8 Ohms):  2x 20 Watts
• Output power (RMS, 4 Ohms):  2x 30 Watts
• Output power (RMS, 2 Ohms):  2x 40 Watts
• High current stability:  < 2 Ohms
• Frequency response (+0.3dB): 20 - 20,000 Hz
• Frequency response (+/-3dB): 10 - 70,000 Hz
• Harmonic distortion (@25 Watts, 8 Ohms): <0.05%
• Signal-to-noise ratio: 100 dB
• Input sensitivity (rated power @ 8 Ohms): 1V
• Signal damping (50 Hz): >100
• Slew rate: >20 V/usec

Preamplifier

• Phono section: not available
• Line inputs: CD, Video, Tuner, Tape, Auxiliary
• Input impedance: 80 kOhms + 220 pF
• Input sensitivity: 210 mV
• Input signal (max.): >10 V
• Signal to noise ratio (1 Watt): 93 dB
• Signal to noise ratio (power max.): 106 dB
• Infrasonic filter: -3 dB at 10 Hz (12 dB per octave)
• Treble attenuation: +/- 7 dB at 10 kHz
• Bass attenuation: +/-6 dB at 50 Hz
• Tone attenuation defeat: yes

General

• Country of Manufacture:  Taiwan R.O.C.
• Dimensions:  (W) 435mm x (H) 65mm x (D) 250mm
• Weight:  5 kg
• Year(s):  1995

“Don’t know how you’d find me, I don’t look much like the photos. Whatever man you’d come to look for, I’m not him.” sings Sean Keel, smack centre and wonderfully surrounded by the sound of acoustic and slide guitar lingering miraculously suspended in our studio. I can tell that my old Denon DCD-1420 is at times having difficulty keeping its worn-out laser optics focused on the track, thus giving Sean’s already cracking voice an even more endangered and fading impression. The amplifier of the evening is my thirty-year-old Uher UMA-1000, which—in combination with Luigi’s Mark Levinson HF-10c speaker cables—lends sonority and substance to Gabriel Rhodes’ sparse piano notes.

Keel's voice sounds musty with age and wisdom: “You sang blessed assurance. And then it was my favourite song.” The firmness and tonal richness with which our Tannoy XT8f speakers present each key stroke confirms the reality of assurance, despite the risk of losing it all right in the next second. It is a good evening for listening to slow music, with each note as distinct as it can be. Perhaps it is the start of the holiday season that supports this vast amount of clean energy from the grid, perhaps it is my cheerful mood, following the return of summer after a seemingly endless winter season that dragged on well into July this year.

Having been out of service for a long time, the large and heavy Mark Levinson copper cables proved difficult to resuscitate. Luigi had handed them to me without proper terminations and, in passing, told me to get some plugs that would fit the 6mm cable diameter. It was typical of Luigi’s suggestions to require at least some form of effort from my side. And I was usually only too eager to simply tag along. I liked the lockable gun-shaped WBT-0610 CU banana plugs that I had first seen on the HMS Gran Finale cables, but I was reluctant to spend that much money on a pair of cables that weren’t my own. I therefore ended up with an affordable replica of the WBTs, hoping that I would (from an audiophile’s perspective) get away with it.

It was obvious that the cable ends had seen some oxidation in their time, despite the fact that their bundle of individual strands—each no thicker than a human hair—was soldered to a single chunk at the point where the original terminations had been. I firmly sunk the hexagon screws in the solder, fully aware that these cables would take still considerable time to break in. On a side note, I have sometimes found that break-in times do not require the equipment to be running all the time, for as long as the components remain connected. The very fact that copper, led, brass, and gold are brought in direct contact with each other already leads to a slow homogenisation of electrical properties at the transition points, minimising the resistance between them. This is not a scientific statement, just something I have acoustically observed when confectioning and listening to new cables over the first couple of weeks.

I call the Tannoy XT8f setup my “new” system, not so much because of the age of its components, but because of the Tannoy’s relatively “modern” sound. Loudspeakers of our time tend to be tuned to measure well in the labs, whereas the engineers of the past did not have lots of fancy measuring equipment at their disposal. They almost exclusively had their ears to rely on. And—believe it or not—human ears are not a bad yardstick when it comes to making decisions on the merits of sound. This also explains why some classical instruments still sound superior to modern gear, despite the fact that technology has involved. The Mark Levinson HF-10c in combination with my old Uher amp make my Tannoys sound “musical” above all else, and this despite their tendency to sound modernly analytical.

Music becomes impressive with dynamics, but it only comes alive with tonality. The HF-10c support darker and more full-bodied tones. Pair them with a weak amplifier, and you will witness the life being sucked from the amp. The 150 watts per channel Uher, however, has no difficulties driving them. I can hear the amp, too, slowly coming out of its many years of hibernation. “World’s got a brand new baby, I lie awake listen to her bawl. Must feel a lot like flying.” Tonight, I understand what Sean means by it. I enjoy evenings like this, when the air smells clean after the rain, and the setting sun forms square orange patches on the otherwise anthracite carpet and the wooden beams in our studio.

I am reminded of the Madrigal Flat Copper cables that Luigi handed me for audition back in January 2022. Mark Levinson related products always seem to have an interesting twist to them. Something that makes them a keeper, even if the times have moved on. The musicality of the HF-10c is quite striking, even though speed, detail, and bass control are perhaps not their greatest forte. After all, these are not exactly shortcomings, when it comes to mitigating the deafening effects of high-power amplifiers. And Mark Levinson certainly has some of those in the house. High damping factors, lots of clean burst power right up into the treble, beryllium or titanium dome tweeters on loudspeakers, all these lab approved technical overkills will find a soothing counterbalance with these cables. 

Going through my usual repertoire of Folk, Jazz and Vocal Jazz, and Rock, the HF-10c maintain a soft and silky treble that is assuringly non-aggressive even when listening at higher volumes, a charming midrange that I can quickly warm up to, voluptuous true to life vocals that are displayed on a wide centre image, warm tonality and (especially in Jazz performances) a realistic amount musical detail. The sound is tube-like, rich and wholesome with stern piano notes. The cables offer a medium length of sonic decay, not as shortly cut as MIT’s Terminator 5 cables and not as long-lasting as Symphonic Line’s Harmonie HD.

In terms of potency, the Mark Levinson remind me of the Symphonic Line cables, although they are quite different: The Symphonic Line play louder and are more agile. When piano notes become piercing, this is apparent on the Symphonic Line cables first, because the HF-10c are far more forgiving. Bass control is firm and punchy on the Harmonie HD and perhaps overly punchy in some frequencies on the MIT cables. To achieve the same result of bass contour and punch with the HF-10c, one would need an amplifier with massive power and a high damping factor. And I do believe it was this powerhouse of an amplifier that the Mark Levinson engineers had in mind when they commissioned the HF-10c with a cable specialist in Switzerland following their legendary “never-mind-the-cost” approach.

Specifications 

• Type: ultra-fine multistrand speaker cable
• Diameter: 10 AWG (5,26mm) copper strands
• Gap between strands: 5mm
• Conductor material: ultra-pure copper 
• Length tested: 2x 2.24m (stereo)
• Terminations: adjustable bananas, 24K gold-plated
• Country of manufacture: Switzerland 
• Year: approx. 1992

In spring 2024, I invited my friend and fellow audiophile, Arndt Scheuren, over to our studio to audition a new HiFi setup. For his own orientation, Arndt brought along a CD from a little-known artist and asked me to play it on the Marantz CD17. What happened next was truly amazing: Arndt, who knew the CD recording, was perplexed by the extent of musical detail revealed by the Martin Logan electrostatic speakers, and I, who was familiar with the usual sound of my system, was flummoxed by the haunting proximity of singer-songwriter Sean Keel’s broken voice. This did address my nervous system in a most stirring fashion: Never before had vocals sounded so wise and plaintive, so intimate and breath-taking, so powerful and frail to me—all at the same time.

Taken aback by this unfamiliar transformation and looking for confirmation that what we were experiencing was real, Arndt and I took turns, directing each other to sit in the sweet spot of the stereo triangle where the perfectly aligned running times of the dipole speakers beamed the singer and instruments into the room in lifelike fashion. Considering that Arndt and I were by no means new to this field, had listened to a wide range of HiFi setups and bought audiophile albums from various artists, our sudden exhilaration came as a surprise to us. What was it that made this album stand out from all the others we had heard, especially when presented on such a revealing HiFi setup? I just had to find out firsthand and decided to contact Sean Keel directly.

The eiaudio blog has a section called “Music & Talk”, which is to bridge the existing gap between the artist and the audiophile community by creating awareness for each other. This gap is real, because most musicians derive their joy from performing their songs and playing their instruments well. In their performances, they worry about singing in tune, knowing their instruments, and controlling their voices. Hence, this is also where their focus lies when they listen to a recording of their music. This, however, is quite different from the criteria audiophiles listen for when they evaluate the merits of a recording. I was quite sure that this would be no different in Sean Keel’s case, and that my contacting him would come as a surprise to him.

In preparation for our interview, I conducted some research online and found that Sean Keel was based in Austin, where he worked as Maths professor at Texas university, conducting research and teaching classes. Although “A Dry Scary Blue” was not Keel’s first album, it was the first he produced in collaboration with Gabriel Rhodes, the son of Kimmie Rhodes and the DJ Joe Gracey. Having worked with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and others, Gabriel recognised Sean Keel’s special gift as singer-songwriter and added piano, keyboard, acoustic and electric guitar, and bass to the lyrics to help create an album that sounds truly unique and should not be missing in an audiophile CD collection.

The album’s melodies are soothing, whispering, and, ever so often, slightly disconcerting. What surprised me most was Sean Keel’s ability to sketch stories in the tradition of the great American poets that made me want to google places and meanings straight away. This was also something that I had not done for a while. “A Dry Scary Blue” had me interested from the very first minute, and I am happy to be sharing the opportunity of having this experience with you. Look for the album on the common streaming channels, or, better yet, support the artist and the record company by purchasing the album on CD.

< Sean Keel on BandCamp | My Interview with Sean >

Song Titles

1. corn palace — 4:07 min
2. near that far — 4:29 min
3. the flower — 3:34 min
4. hill of three oaks — 04:04 min
5. backwards — 3:17 min
6. blessed assurance — 2:53 min
7. cool old men — 6:42 min
8. his mouth so red — 4:50 min
9. two coins — 3:12 min
10. i hate the west — 4:29 min

Album Details

• Sean Keel: vocals
• Gabriel Rhodes: piano, keyboard, guitar, bass 
• Ben Montano: acoustic guitar, keyboard
• Nora Predey: vocals, bass, drums
• Lyrics: Sean Keel
• Music: Sean Keel, Ben Montano (song no. 8)
• Produced by: Gabriel Rhodes
• Total playing time:  41:39
• Record label: Icons Creating Evil Art (ICEA)
• Album release date: 2022

In spring 2024, my friend and fellow audiophile, Arndt Scheuren, came by our house to audition some new loudspeakers and systems. For his own orientation, he brought along an audio CD by a relatively unknown artist. The album did not run for more than a minute, when we all (Arndt, myself, and our female companions) fell awkwardly silent, unable to comprehend the transformation that was taking place on our Martin Logan system. I had heard many excellent recordings on our electrostatic speakers, but this album was making all other vocal recordings seem pale in comparison.

I was immediately captivated by the high recording standard but also by the music itself. The lyrics, especially, were indeed very clever. I was so taken in that I just had to find out more about the artist Sean Keel and about the story behind his album "A Dry Scary Blue". When I saw that Sean had no more than 25 "followers" on Facebook (not that this ever meant anything), I mustered the courage to ask him for an interview. A few days later, Sean wrote back to me that he had been on the eiaudio website and was very much interested in talking to me.

At the time of the interview, Sean (who actually lives in Texas) was travelling in Colorado. He set up his MacBook in a log cabin at the bank of the Conejos river. I set up my MacBook with Open Broadcasting Studio (OBS) for the background frame and used Cisco WebEx to set up our meeting. In preparation of the interview, I tested all settings with a friend, and we ran into repeated issues with sound and video quality. It was not until the very last minute that we were able to solve most of the issues.

Here is the interview that we came up with on that day. Both of us definitely not professionals in this field, but eager to get Sean's story told and to present the album: "A Dry Scary Blue". Thank you to Arndt Scheuren of "Salon Voss — Audiophile Hair Studio, Marne" for bringing the CD. — Here goes nothing:

Interview Details:

• Recording: 2021, MacBook Air (M1)
• A/V Streaming: Cisco WebEx
• Composition: Open Broadcasting Studio (OBS)
• A/V Editing: CapCut