whalen@erlang.DEC (An Italian at heart) (09/22/84)
I have the following NAD equipment: 4020A tuner and 3140 integrated amp.
I've had it for about 4 years with no big problem. The little problems
were with the amp. Shortly after I got it, while still deciding upon the
arangement that looked best, I placed the tuner on top of it. Well after
a little while a quite hum started. This hum was independent of volume
control setting. I took it back and they couldn't get it to hum, the
solution was not to place the tuner on top of it. About 1 1/2 years ago
it blew a (internal) fuse. These are not at all convenient to replace.
Also the symptoms were strange, some of the front panel LEDs wouldn't
light and it sounded like it was breathing, since the warrenty was over I
opened it myself to see what I could see first. In the past year I have
made a few modifications (supplied by Phil Rastocny) to the amp.
Basically the changes I've made are re-wiring for simplicity or heavier
gauge. When doing some of this I believe I found the real source of the
hum. One of the wires from a power transformer had been routed such that
the insulation had been cut by the heat sink.
When shopping for a new tape deck last spring I asked one of the dealers
that used to have NAD equipment why they no longer had it and he gave me
an answer that I think will put this issue to rest.
POOR QUALITY CONTROL!
The general feeling was that the equipment was well designed and
reasonably priced, but too many units were coming back for repairs.
A good explaination why one person has had real back luck with his
receiver and another has had no problems. BTW I found the wire after
hearing about the quality control problems.
Richard Whalen
Eastern Research Lab
Digital Equipment Corporation
HLO2-3/N03
77 Reed Rd
Hudson, MA 01749
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MCI Mail: Richard V. Whalen
Disclaimer: The above opinions are not those of my employer, nor
necessarily even mine.