High-end sound C315BEE C515BEE

High-end sound under £200

The Sub-£200 CD player arena has been mighty quiet of late – in fact, only Cambridge Audio has hit that particular five-star bull’s-eye in the last 12 months. Until now, that is. The C515BEE’s strong showing is all the more welcome in light of the comprehensive air-kick that is the C525BEE, its £200 bigger brother (which was awarded three stars last July).

It’s no radical departure, but the look of the BEE subtly updates NAD’s traditional battleship aesthetic to good effect.

"...the C515BEE is one of the very best budget players around: no other CD spinner in this price range offers the detail, focus or soundstage of this NAD."

The dimmable display is clear, the remote control is tactile and thorough, and there are digital optical and coaxial outputs alongside the stereo RCAs. Build quality is good, too – so far, the NAD appears to be everything an entry-level CD player should be.

Well-focused soundstage

Load a copy of The Cure’s A Forest into the smooth-sliding disc tray, and the BEE impresses from the off. It creates a wide, well-focused soundstage and generates an extremely vivid and all-encompassing stereo image.

There’s a veritable torrent of detail available, a solid and substantial low-end presence and a fine level of integration throughout the frequency range. Where emotional communication is concerned, this is the only sub-£200 player we’ve seen that’s capable of wringing the very last drops of expression from a moving Nina Simone vocal.

It’s not perfect, mind you. We think rhythms and tempos could be handled with a little more confidence, and the NAD could certainly benefit from more dynamic potency when push really comes to shove.

The best you’ll find for the price

Minor gripes aside, the C515BEE is one of the very best budget players around: no other CD spinner in this price range offers the detail, focus or soundstage of this NAD.

New NAD casts midrange magic

NAD’s reputation was built on greatsounding budget kit, particularly its amplifiers. However, in recent years, rivals from the likes of Cambridge Audio and Rotel have dominated this arena. The C315BEE integrated is the company’s new entry-level model and its job is to take back the budget amplifier crown. It almost succeeds, too.

Let’s go over the basics first. This is a slim amplifier that’s neatly turned-out in the usual NAD style. There’s no undue fuss or frills here: just six line-level inputs, defeatable tone adjustments and a remote control. Finish is an almost black version of the traditional NAD grey, though you can have a titanium (ie, silver) chassis, if this one doesn’t appeal.

A power output of 40watts per channel doesn’t sound much, but use a sensitive pair of speakers – say, Mordaunt Short’s excellent 90dB MS902is (£150), and you won’t go wrong in small-to-medium-sized rooms. However, try to push the NAD amplifier into pumping out high volumes in a larger room, or use it with more demanding speakers, and the sound does get confused rather quickly.

Magical from midrange up

Carefully partnered, the NAD isn’t short of magic from the midrange upwards. Here it manages to sound informative and articulate without ever sounding mechanical, harsh or edgy. Instead, you get a wonderfully refined presentation.

Listen to Kate Bush’s Aerial and the performance is as sweet and listenable as you could ever reasonably expect from a sub-£200 amp.

However, there is a problem – and as you may well have guessed, it’s at low frequencies. These lack grip, so bass lines fall short in terms of definition and punch. Thankfully, this doesn’t affect timing, so the results remain enjoyable.

The C315BEE is tantalizingly close to worrying the class leaders, and is the most impressive NAD amplifier we’ve heard in ages. After a budget amp? Give it a go.