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Editors’ Choice Award 2024 - The Absolute Sound
Stereophile Recommended Component
"Five Stars" - What Hi-Fi? Magazine
Brand New Rebirth of a Classic with 21st Century Features Now Includes a Built-in Phono Stage
The original NAD 3020 introduced a generation of music lovers to true high fidelity sound. The term 'high fidelity' literally means 'true to the original.' In the 1970s, over a million people rediscovered their music when they placed a NAD 3020 between their turntable and loudspeakers. This little gem embarrassed amplifiers costing 10 times more with its big, warm, detailed sound. Once people realized what they had been missing, it led them to a lifetime of enhanced musical enjoyment.
Today, the music source is more likely to be a computer or smartphone than a turntable, but the ability to choose speakers that perfectly suit one's taste is still a compelling argument for upgrading to a NAD amplifier. The D 3020 starts with the original NAD 3020 concept and takes it straight to the 21st century using the latest high-speed digital technology.
By adapting to today's media sources and using state-of-the-art digital technology for the new world of digital music, the D 3020 puts a completely modern spin on an old icon. The original designer of the 3020, NAD's Director of Advanced Technology, Bjorn Erik Edvardsen, has been pivotal in developing the D 3020 for the new digital generation. Offering an excellent quality 24/192 DAC with eight channels mixed to two for improved resolution, the D 3020 represents the same kind of value-bending innovation that gave the original 3020 its legendary overachieving phono stage.
Award-Winning Performance
The NAD D 3020 v2 won an Editors’ Choice Award 2024 from The Absolute Sound magazine.
"Truly a design for our times, the D 3020 is improbably small and portable and loaded. This 30Wpc integrated offers a 96kHz/24-bit USB input and aptX Bluetooth music-streaming. With a smooth top end, its speed and openness can be enthralling. Although there’s a little bit of a veil over the sound, the D 3020 need make no apologies. At $499 it is a small miracle of packaging and portability, and a delight to listen to."
Top Rating of "Five Stars"
"It's difficult not to like this NAD," observes a March 25, 2020 What Hi-Fi? review, which awarded the D 3020 v2 its top rating of Five Stars.
"If you can find another digital amplifier with this many features, which is this easily accommodated, and sounds better for the money, then we’d love to know about it. For that, though, it seems likely we’ll have to wait for a D 3020 V3."
New V2 Version
And here's great news! NAD continues pushing forward with the D 3020 and has just come out with a new V2 version of this favorite. The D 3020 V2 includes a built-in MM phono stage, which means that you can directly connect your turntable to the V2 without the need for a standalone phono preamp. That's a fabulous feature considering the steadily increasing popularity of vinyl (all over again!) as an audiophile source of choice. So plug in your turntable and get right down to listening to your favorite albums.
Stereophile Recommended Component 2018
The NAD D 3020 V2 was honored by being listed as a Recommended Component in the October 2018 issue of Stereophile. "Right now, NAD's D 3020 is the best bargain in all of hi-fi," notes the magazine. "The sound from every input was warm, present, and naturally detailed; even low-quality MP3s streamed wirelessly via Bluetooth were engaging."
"My Reference Integrated Amp"
The original D 3020 graces the cover of the December 2013 issue of Stereophile with a fantastic review by Sam Tellig, who awards the amp his highest rating in his "Sam's Space" column. "
"I'm buying the D 3020 to make it my reference integrated amp," says Sam. "I can't bear to part with it. My son bought one, too."
Real World Performance
NAD rewrote the rules for amplifiers when designing the original 3020. Instead of letting laboratory test equipment have the last word, NAD made sure that it could properly drive real loudspeakers with real music for the real world. The D 3020 V2 lives up to this promise through a unique implementation of NAD PowerDrive developed by Bjorn Erik Edvardsen that allows low impedance drive (current) and high dynamic power (voltage) at vanishingly low distortion levels. This refinement of PowerDrive, combined with a precision soft clipping circuit, lets the D 3020 V2 sound even more powerful than it already is. An innovative Bass EQ circuit helps small speakers sound big without overdriving or damaging ported woofers.
Lots of Connectivity, Including a Phono Input
The D 3020 V2 offers inputs for your digital and analog sources. Coaxial and optical inputs allow many different digital sources to be connected, from CD and DVD players, to set top boxes, media streamers like AppleTV, or satellite and cable receivers. There are also analog inputs including a sophisticated MM Phono input. Far from just another set of input jacks, this Phono stage includes highly accurate RIAA equalization, an Infrasonic Warp Filter, and features both high overload margins and extremely low noise.
"The MM Phono Input Rocks Hard"
"Do you listen to records? Vinyl? LPs? If you’re thinking yes, yes, and yes, then I have good news—the NAD D 3020s MM phono input rocks hard," notes Michael Lavorgna, twitteringmachines.com, December 13, 2018.
Do you listen to records? Vinyl? LPs? If With my vinyl rig, it kinda crushed the digital input because it adds more color and more life to recordings. Whether that be the reissue of The Birthday Party’s Hee-Haw (on red vinyl no less), Kalela’s Take Me Apart (yum), Grouper’s Grid of Points, Schammasch’s The Maldoror Chants: Hermaphrodite, Ciccolini playing Satie, and on and on. Rockin’.
Stream with Bluetooth
The D 3020 V2 delivers the convenience of wireless streaming with its Bluetooth capability. Stream all your music from a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. The D 3020 V2 even supports the highest audio quality Bluetooth aptX that is becoming ever more popular for its excellent sound quality and low power consumption compared to Wi-Fi.
Power that Really Delivers
Power output may sound small at 30 watts per channel, but like all NAD amplifiers this is very misleading, as a properly designed 30-watt amplifier can sound superior to a 100-watt amplifier from a lesser brand. With its very small form factor, the D 3020 V2 will astound you with its ability to drive difficult loudspeakers to satisfying levels without adding noise or distortion.
"Delivers Serious Musical Satisfaction"
"The generally similar appearance of the D3020v2 to its predecessor should be a clue that NAD isn’t looking to drastically reinvent their little amplifier for its second generation. This is no bad thing, though," remarks Ed Selly, avsforums.com, March 2, 2018.
"The D3020 V2 modifies the feature set to give the amp a greater spread of abilities and then proceeds to tweak the sound in a generally positive way. If you are using the digital inputs especially, this is an outstanding amplifier, supplied at a very keen price that should be able to deliver serious musical satisfaction with a wide selection of partnering equipment."
Mean and Green
The D 3020 V2's highly efficient design wastes less energy, requiring only 20% of the power needed by traditional hi-fi amplifiers. It's like trading in a gas guzzling car for a hybrid vehicle. Standby power consumption is a miniscule <0.5W. NAD has taken amplification to new lows, with lower distortion, lower noise, and lower power consumption. NAD's major focus is to find new technology that improves musical performance while consuming less power and using fewer non-renewable resources in manufacturing.
"Something for Everyone"
"With its wide variety of feature sets and prices, NAD offers something for everyone.," notes Sathyan Sundaram, asoundstagesimplifi.com, August 1, 2018. "I was especially impressed with the built-in phono stage and DAC of this $399 product – to do dramatically better, an outboard device would likely cost more than the D 3020 V2 itself. With the inclusion of an auxiliary input, either can be upgraded, but most customers won’t find it necessary."
"As was its ancestor the 3020, the D 3020 V2 is an affordable entry to the audio hobby, and is well suited to powering a small system for very little outlay "
