Review NAD C298 Eigentakt power amplifier

The Sound

Not everyone is willing to cross that hefty 10,000 Euro threshold when putting together a nice system. And with a device like the NAD M33, that’s done very quickly. Just think: 5500 euros for the M33, speaker cables, speakers and a few small accessories … boom: 10,000 euros. It’s done very easily when you operate in that section of the hifi-market. Partly due to the fact that the other components should be at the level of the M33. A pair of speakers that fits an M33 will easily cost about 3000 euros for example.

Who wants to keep it within some reasonable boundaries, can take a step down and still enjoy a very nice reproduction of the source. Namely with a C658 and C298. 3700 euros for the combo. That’s already almost 2000 euros saved. And then the rest can be sought in that same class.

An example: NAD C658, NAD C298, pair of bookshelves of 2500 euros, speaker cables of about 500 euros and two decent power cables and interlinks: 300 euros. Total: 7000 euros. Yes, a lot of money. But then you really have something beautiful in your home. And the bonus: the C658 has a streamer and dac already built in!

Another advantage: the C298 is an amplifier that grows with your system with ease. Let’s explain that. First of all we coupled the power amplifier to both the Pass Labs and the NAD. We hear immediately that the NAD C298 grows along with the Pass. With the Pass we hear more space, more bass kick and a little more detail. Logical given the price differences. In addition, the C298 can be put in bridge mode, so you can also play in dual mono. In short: you want more power: bridge the amp and off you go!

The Sound of …

How does such a NAD C298 sound? Well …. …very… not present. It’s odd, but this amplifier technology is soundless. So have we finally arrived at the ultra-transparent amplifier? Well, it looks that way, yes. With predecessors, think UcD and nCore we always heard something. With the M33, we felt for the first time that there is just no amplifier anymore. We hear the Focals or the Bowers, or the DALIs playing…. that’s it. A bizarre experience, because if we changed something in the system we would hear it really immediately… That is also the case with the Bryston (otherwise we couldn’t use it for reviewing), but it really just colors more: there we hear a Bryston playing on the speaker: a combination. With the Purifi Eigentakt that is gone.

So this C298 is in fact system- and speaker-agnostic. It doesn’t matter what you put in front of it or behind it. The reason we dare to say this is that we really hear a significant difference between the Pass XP-12 and the C658. Both in timbre – Pass is a bit richer – and in imaging – bigger and a bit more stable. However, this happens without us feeling that the NAD C298 is in between. It’s almost as if the pre-amp is driving the Focals. Weird… And hard to put into words.

So what can we say about the sound of the NAD C298? Well: it lets you hear what your system is doing. Your source, pre-amp and speakers. Is that in order, then you have a fine marriage. If there is something wrong that you were compensating for with the power amplifier… you’re going to hear it right away. It’s that simple.

M33 on a budget?

Is the NAD C298 an M33? Honestly? No… the combination with the C658 is not an M33 on a budget. The M33 simply goes a step further when it comes to – in particular – refinement and stereo image. This Classic Combi however is very beautiful. And extremely revealing. We hear for example more detail and especially more space in the reproduction than we are used to from NAD. The effects come nicely into the room. Think of the song Sapien by Gazpacho. The ‘radio effects’ are right next to us and behind us. As it should be.

What also stands out is the extreme control of the Focals. We are not short of anything, so the gap with the Bryston 4B SST3 is really very small. You can also hear that in the samples. Remember that the NAD C298 costs 2000 euros. More than 5000 euros less than the Bryston! The samples don’t lie: the difference is really small.

The biggest difference for us is the pre-amp. The M33 will have a nicer input-stage and dac than the C658. We can hear that when we go to the Pass Labs. Or via the Ambre and Mutec to the C658: then it all plays just a bit better. But that is completely understandable when we look at the price. There must be a difference, because there is a serious price difference. The nice thing about the C298 is that it can grow with your set!

So… this NAD C298 is definately Alpha Approved!