(originally posted to audioreview.com on 2002.02.07)
Overall Rating
5 of 5
Value Rating
4 of 5
Price Paid: $600 at Happy Medium
Product Model Year:
2000
Summary:
I’ve been a big fan of Proton/NAD for some time, and so naturally I listened to the 751 when it was time to go to home theater. Good call. Very good DACs with the expected NAD clean amplification. As others have mentioned, NAD concentrated their efforts on getting it to be clean, not on lots of idiotic DSP modes. This is one of the only HT receivers in this price range that also features solid music-only two-channel performance (I thought this was a particularly weak point for the Denon models). Very clean NAD sound in all modes, not just HT.
Other people have complained about the remote, but I have a universal remote for my whole system anyway and I rarely have to use the NAD remote. When I do end up using it, it doesn’t seem all _that_ bad.
The one thing I don’t like about it is the delay when you switch inputs while the unit searches for a digital signal. Kind of annoying.
Composite to S-video conversion seems pretty OK to me–this only comes up with the VCR for me, since all my other sources are S-video anyway, and we don’t watch much on VHS anymore.
I have this set up with PSB speakers all around: the Image 4Ts up front, the 8C center, and 1B surrounds. I highly recommend the NAD/PSB combo. NAD and PSB are owned by the same parent company and share the same “performance first” design philosophy, and work together very well.
Strengths:
Sound quality, including 2-channel mode
Weaknesses:
Lag on input switching
Similar Products Used:
I auditioned Onkyo, Denon, Yamaha as well.