{"id":114593,"date":"2020-11-04T14:00:18","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T19:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techweekmag.com\/?p=114593"},"modified":"2025-05-07T08:02:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T08:02:52","slug":"nad-c-298-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/hi-fi\/nad-c-298-review\/","title":{"rendered":"NAD C 298 Review \u2022 Absolute control!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s zoom right in on what anyone who sees the NAD C 298 will think: this device doesn’t look exciting. It is a sober, black box with an on \/ off button and an LED that is hardly noticeable even in a darkened room. But come on, suppress that yawn just a little longer. This black box of NAD is simply not meant to arouse desire. Not with its looks, but what is under the hood is very stimulating. We have it then – what do you think? – about Purifi’s class D amplification, which is praised in so many quarters and makes just as many hi-fi connoisseurs mouth-watering.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0This all has to do with the names of Lars Risbo and Bruno Putzeys who dangle from EigenTakt as inventors.\u00a0These two gentlemen are somewhat of a hi-fi superstars, thanks to the various innovative audio products that have appeared in recent years.\u00a0Think, for example, of the many high-flyers from Mola-Mola and the mighty active speakers from Kii Audio.<\/p>\n

The C 298 is therefore, after\u00a0the M33\u00a0, the second Purifi first for NAD.\u00a0A third will be added soon, the M28, a seven-channel output stage based on EigenTakt modules.\u00a0The amplification modules may be freely available on the market, so that other companies and hobbyists can get started, but it is the Canadians who clearly got a head start to be the first mainstream brand to use Purifi.<\/p>\n

In the coming months you will probably see other brands coming out with Purifi amplification.\u00a0What we do not expect is that you will suddenly see amplifiers from smaller DIY brands that are a lot cheaper than EigenTakt products of larger hi-fi names.\u00a0That was the case with nCore.\u00a0But as we understand it, the EigenTakt modules will always bear a higher license cost to ensure that the designers at Purifi are remunerated more fairly.\u00a0That is allowed – and immediately gives some context to the 1,999 euro price tag of the C 298. Given the technology it uses, the price can be called stiff.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Classic, but not<\/h2>\n

The concept of the NAD C 298 is a classic power or power amplifier without its own controls, good for a power of 2 x 185 Watt (2 channels fully loaded and at 8 Ohm).\u00a0On the outside, it looks almost identical to previous NAD Classic series power amplifiers, a series of devices that show off an uninviting design language.\u00a0Love at first sight, we don’t think so.<\/p>\n

You have to combine the C 298 with a separate pre-stage or amplifier.\u00a0In addition, you may still need to provide one or more sources, depending on whether that preamplifier has built-in streaming or not.\u00a0We will go into that in a moment, but you already know that it is a device that fits in an old-school hi-fi system with multiple components.<\/p>\n

For those who do not feel like having such a ‘tower of power’ in the living room and are already giving up: there is another way.\u00a0The C 298 has the trigger connections and an adjustable auto-sense function so that you can also tuck the thing away somewhere in a cupboard if you wish.\u00a0If you want to tackle it very subtly, you can even ban the device to the technical room – although you will of course have to do the necessary in terms of cabling.\u00a0Thanks to that trigger and auto sense, the NAD amplifier switches on automatically when you start playing music.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The obvious candidate to take on the role of preamplifier in this story is the C 658. It is a device that NAD introduced last year and is much more than a simple preamplifier.\u00a0On the contrary, we even called it a Swiss army knife of the hi-fi in our review.\u00a0Okay, okay, in hi-fi journalism that’s one of the Big Clich\u00e9s, along with “I got goosebumps,” but in this case it was completely appropriate.\u00a0In fact, thanks to the built-in DAC, the BluOS module and Dirac software, the C 658 is one of the most versatile hi-fi devices you can find on the market today.<\/p>\n

You can connect all kinds of physical sources to it (including a turntable), stream via a number of streaming platforms and optimize your acoustics via the Dirac function.\u00a0Slide the appropriate MDC expansion card into the C 658 and you even have HDMI inputs and an HDMI-ARC connection to connect to your television.\u00a0There is actually little it cannot and what it does it does at a higher level.<\/p>\n

Although there is always room for improvement.\u00a0For those who are in doubt between the combination C 658 and C 298 versus the equally versatile M33: in addition to the obvious difference in industrial design, the double DAC hatch in the Master device is nevertheless higher specified.\u00a0We were also told that the gain stage in the M33 is a bit better.<\/p>\n

One or two pieces?<\/h2>\n

You won’t find many inputs on a device like the C 298.\u00a0Logical.\u00a0Connecting sources?\u00a0You do that on the preamplifier.\u00a0From this pre-stage you leave with a few cinch cables or (better, if possible) with two balanced XLR cables to the NAD power amplifier.\u00a0You may take longer unpacking the box than connecting cables to this device.\u00a0Oh yeah, you don’t have to lift your fracture when you lift the NAD out of the box.\u00a0An advantage of class D is that it is light and compact.\u00a0Well, it is not a featherweight, because the nutrition is still quite strong to easily take any dynamic peaks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can safely call the C 298 a hefty output stage in terms of power.\u00a0NAD specifies a 185 Watt power when you connect 8 Ohm speakers, with a peak power up to 570 Watt.\u00a0That is quite a lot, even if it is slightly less than the M33.\u00a0But of course it costs a lot more, even if you include the cost of a C 658: 5,499 euros.\u00a0You can also trump that topper by connecting two C 298s in bridge mode.\u00a0Not a cheap option, but you do end up with 620 Watts of Purifi power (with a peak power of 1,000 Watts).<\/p>\n

[thescore]<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

A must-have upgrade for your hi-fi set or a pretty perfect addition to a good DAC \/ preamplifier, and that for a reasonable price.\u00a0That’s in a nutshell what the NAD C 298 has to offer.\u00a0Thanks to the groundbreaking EigenTakt amplification, you can count on a spectacular reproduction, with excellent control and purity that reveals exactly what a connected DAC \/ preamplifier got out of a recording.\u00a0Your speakers are also optimally controlled, however demanding and fickle they behave.\u00a0Step into bridge mode and you’ll have more power than you’ll ever need.<\/p>\n

The C 298 seems to us suitable as a companion for all preamps, although the marriage with the NAD C 658 is completely successful in terms of features.\u00a0You can aim even higher in terms of DA conversion, but you may notice that by the price tag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s zoom right in on what anyone who sees the NAD C 298 will think: this device doesn’t look exciting. It is a sober, black box with an on \/ off button and an LED that is hardly noticeable even in a darkened room. But come on, suppress that yawn just a little longer. This […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10404,"featured_media":114596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[642],"tags":[778],"class_list":{"0":"post-114593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hi-fi","8":"tag-reviews"},"acf":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465705,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114593\/revisions\/465705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}