advertisement


Nad 3020a

GruntPuppy

pfm Member
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Part of my first system in the early 80’s
Rega planar 3 with original R200 tonearm and ortofon VMS20 something cart. NAD 3030a and AR18s. Bought from Studio 99 in Swiss Cottage.
Lovely.
 
the "audiophile" edition with a separate pre/power, so can be used as an integrated, a pre or a power amp. I always thought this version sounded better than the i, which is the other "nice" 3020 to have (although the e is rather nice as well) - either way, it's not all nostalgia that hyped the prices on these -

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40313166...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1
Didn’t they all have separate pre and power with a link wire?
 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
The 3020B does/did have pre/power links.

649290276_thumb_5ac0d123481f292f93d5e8cfe0c8df67.jpg


As did the 3140, 3150, 3130, 3155, 3240, and yes, the 3020i also had them along with all variants of the time.
https://a1.amlimg.com/MDAxNDJiNTFmN...0cy5pZS9zdGF0aWMvaS93YXRlcm1hcmsucG5nfHx8.jpg
I think it was the 3020e that was the first to omit the feature.
Of the run the 3150 was the one have, a very good amp.
 
I'd have to say the 3150 is not the one to have unless you can tolerate a constant low but whiney hum. If you can get past that it's very good indeed, but I never could. 3140 is pretty good.
 
3150 and 3140 are almost identical internally.
I've had 3x 3150s through my hands, 2 were silent of hum at the speakers and the other was not. Reflowing earthing points, especially the main chassis point, silenced it also.
3140 power meters fail.
 
Well I tried all of that and got no improvement, and on the forums quite a few people reported similar problems which they had also failed to cure so I assumed it was some sort of design issue. I wish I had been able to cure it since apart from that it was a really good sounding amp. Mine had quite a few ceramic caps between various points on the PCB and the chassis which I'm sure were original and I assumed they were the manufacturer's best attempt to cure the problem.

The internal layout of the 3140 and 3150 isn't actually very similar.
 
I may have to bow to your better electronic knowledge, from memory it looked like a bit of a reshuffle, meters out, phono section changed, tone controls arrangement changed and the odd tweak...
 


advertisement


Back
Top