I’ve had people write me and ask why I’m always going on about size and scale in my unboxing blog posts and reviews. After all, the argument goes, people generally understand how big a disc player is, or a two-way bookshelf speaker, or an integrated amplifier.
But do they? The newer audience I’m so desperate to reach might not be familiar with such components in meatspace. And if they have ever actually interacted with an integrated amp, it might have only been one—something like a WiiM Amp, perhaps. Or some of the new Fosi Audio offerings. So I like to give those newbies a sense of how this box I’m trying to help them decide whether or not they need actually fits into their lives.
But it’s not just that. We olds have a habit of getting stuck in one mode of thinking. We know how big an integrated amp is, right? Of course we do. Until we don’t.
NAD’s new C 3030 integrated amplifier (US$1199, CA$1299, £899, €999) is a good example of that. Look at the pictures online, and it sort of looks like a squatter iteration of my beloved C 3050, just without the faux wood sides. It only takes a quick look at the boxes stacked together, though, to understand that the C 3030 isn’t squatter; it’s narrower. NAD has broken the mold on the traditional 17″-ish component width with this one and its more connected companion, the C 3030S (US$1499, CA$1699, £1149, €1299), delivering products that measure in at just 13″ wide. Because why not?
Pop the carton, and you’ll find that, even though the proportions are different, the C 3030 is packaged remarkably similarly to its bigger brother, with similar slabs of white expanded polyethylene providing the padding and the same arrangement of literature and accessories and such.
The accessories are a little different, though. The C 3030’s BC1 remote is much smaller and more streamlined than that of the C 3050. Few buttons, fewer functions—just the basics, really, which is more in keeping with the old-school, non-streaming vibe of the C 3030 (as opposed to the more connected C 3030S). If I recall correctly, though, it’s actually a newer remote, being the same as the one that NAD ships with its C 700 V2 streaming integrated amp.
You’ll see that there’s also a Bluetooth antenna, which is the C 3030’s only wireless connection. This one has no networking capabilities at all.
Dig a little deeper, and the trend continues. This just looks like a less-wide C 3050, and is presented very much in that mode.
NAD kindly provides power cords of both Type B (US and Canada) and Type F (lots of other places) varieties.
With the C 3030 out of the box, it looks remarkably like the C 3050—again, except for the faux wood paneling, which, to be honest, I can’t even see with the unit installed in my gear rack. (Incidentally, said C 3050 being installed in my gear rack is why I’m not plopping the amp itself under the C 3030 for scale. You’ll just have to use your imagination on that one.)
Perspective is an interesting thing, though. The narrower façade of the C 3030 makes the VU meters look larger, which I dig.
Flip the amp around, and you can start to see significant differences from the C 3050, though, in terms of connectivity. You don’t get A and B speaker outputs, for example. There’s no preamp output. No IR input. No 12V trigger. And no MDC2 bay for expansion, which means there’s no way to add BluOS streaming capabilities to the C 3030 without adding something like the Bluesound Node Nano (US$379, CA$399, £299, €349), which, to be frank, costs less than the MDC2 BluOS‑D module (US$499, CA$549, £499, €499).
A closer look at the back panel shows more clearly some of the C 3030’s distinctive features that arise from its simpler approach to modern hi‑fi, most notably the 80Hz high-pass-filter switch, which serves as the amp’s only bass-management control. And honestly, that’s fine for most people. You’ll also need to engage the low-pass filter on your sub, should you add one, and 80Hz is almost certainly the right crossover for most speakers you’ll be connecting to the amp.
To be honest, I’m finding myself drawn more and more to such simplicity in these complicated times. Now, whether the amp holds up in other respects is a different question altogether, and you’ll have to wait for my full review to find out. Look for that in the coming weeks.
. . . Dennis Burger
dennisb@soundstagenetwork.com
