TAS Product Of The Year Award VISO TWO

February 19, 2009

No disrespect intended but all-in-one-components can be self-serving bummers. The NAD VISO TWO integrated DVD-receiver is the rare exception. To begin with, it's drop dead gorgeous. And ergonomically everything seems to fall to hand, including a good remote control. Its features set doesn't miss a trick from the discrete amplifier output stages, the progressive-scan DVD player (with upsampling 1080i via HDMI output) to provisions for an XM module or iPod docking station or headphones. It even offers the hi resolution DVD-Audio format. The two-channel version (there's a five channel one as well) sports 50Wpc of NAD's conservatively rated power. Sonically the VISO TWO hews to the NAD philosophy of maintaining tonal accuracy tempered with a mellow character near the frequency extremes. Dynamics and transient speed are top-notch. And it's never less then excellent at capturing the life and energy of music in all its many formats. Suddenly saving space doesn't seem lake a sacrifice."