NAD C 538
CD Player

For over 45 years, NAD Electronics has earned a renowned reputation for creating great sounding products at amazingly affordable prices, and nowhere is this more evident than in NAD’s CD players. When it comes to CD players, NAD’s veteran engineers know exactly where to spend just a little extra money for a better-quality part, in order to extract the absolute best sound from compact discs. CD players use mechanical, digital, and analogue technology to produce sound, and all three forms of engineering greatly affect the end result and require careful design and engineering.

A solid mechanical foundation is paramount in reducing external vibration and providing precise location of the CD drive mechanism. This allows smooth operation and a minimum of tracking errors. Heavy gauge steel and non-resonant plastic moldings are carefully engineered to provide optimum results. The transport is mounted on reinforced steel rails and over 30 fasteners are used to lock the assembly together and maintain precise dimensional integrity.

Precise clocking of the digital data stream allows the Wolfson 24-bit DAC to provide accurate linearity for the PCM data conversion to analogue waveform. Audio OPAmps buffer the output without adding noise or distortion to the music. Multi-layer PCBs using surface mount components allow for an enhanced circuit layout with very short signal paths. Powering these elements is a custom designed active power supply that provides multiple regulated voltages to the transport, digital circuits, analogue circuits, and the control and display circuits. The result of this careful engineering is a sound that is at once both detailed and natural, with dramatic dynamic contrasts.

The NAD C 538 includes many desirable features that enhance listening experiences. Front panel controls are duplicated on the hand held remote allowing Play, Pause, Skip, and Scan functions. In addition, many more features are available from the remote handset, such as Random: Tracks/files are played at random mode, Program: Enter or exit program mode, Repeat: Track, file or whole disc is repeated, and RPT A-B: Playback sequence is repeated. The dimmable dot matrix display shows tracks, total playing time. Track time, disc time, and remaining time are all available. The C 538 can also play CD-R discs, allowing you to play customised CD’s burned from your computer. Because these songs are encoded in MP3 or WMA, you can fit up to 10 hours of music on a single disc which is perfect for party mixes or ambient listening. There are also both optical and coaxial digital outputs that allow connection to an external DAC or digital component (like an AVR) to provide the most efficient and best sounding system setups.

Although music downloads and streaming continue to grow in popularity, CDs are still the primary listening source for millions of people around the world. NAD continues to innovate and improve its CD players to get improved performance while keeping prices low. Whether you are creating your first home system, or upgrading your current CD Player, you should consider NAD’s 45-year record of excellence, and its commitment to music lovers everywhere, when selecting a new player.