December 18, 2011

  • NAD 5000, Part 2

    20 years ago, we really hated grunge.  So what were we listening to, back then?  Well, in winter break 1991, we had Prong's Prove You Wrong.  My brother and I would see them at San Francisco's The Stone some time in early 1992.  Prong were just a trio, playing stripped-down, industrial rock. 

    I remember leaving Prove You Wrong on infinite repeat, in order to break-in the NAD 5000 CD player.  Yep, the CD pictured above is the one my brother bought at the Stonestown Tower Records 20 years ago.

    Speaking of prongs, the NAD 5000 had a skinny fixed powercord, with a 2-prong plug.  Today, that'll make an audiophile gasp.  No doubt, the NAD 5000 would have sounded better, had they used an IEC jack instead of the lame fixed powercord.      But in those days, that was par for the course.  Manufacturers didn't know any better.

    The NAD 5000 had both fixed and variable RCA analog outputs.  However, Stereophile said that the variable outputs measured and sounded worse.  Consequently, users ignored the variable outputs.  The NAD 5000 also sported a coaxial S/PDF digital output on RCA jack.  Supposedly, the NAD 5000 was decent as a CD transport.  However, I only used it with the Theta Cobalt 307, and quickly abandoned it for the much superior-sounding California Audio Labs Delta.  However, the NAD 5000 (used as a transport) was sufficiently detailed, to allow me to hear that the AudioQuest Digital Pro was a superior coax to the Video Z.