First impressions: NAD T778

[naks]

PSB Imagine T2 specs:

FREQUENCY RANGE
On Axis @ 0? ? 3dB  34-23,000Hz
On Axis @ 0? ? 1 1/2dB  36-20,000Hz
Off Axis @ 30? ? 1 1/2dB  36-10,000Hz
LF Cutoff -10dB  29Hz

SENSITIVITY
Anechoic Chamber  88dB
Typical Listening Room  90dB

IMPEDANCE
Nominal  6 Ohms
Minimum  4 Ohms

INPUT POWER
Recommended 20-300 Watts
Program  300 Watts

I have the volume at around -50dB for DSTV, -40 for Oppo playback, and -40 for pure stereo playback. Unfortunately I didn't have the T777v3 long enough to remember the levels, and I also did not have time to run Dirac on it.

 

[Larry]

Hi Guys, I would be very interested to know (can be subjective or objective) the differences between the T777v3 (which I currently own) to the T778 (which I may consider owning). I have lived with the T777 for a long time now and while it is a fair piece of kit, it certainly has its own set of issues:
1. The ethernet connectivity is appalling. No way to upgrade firmware and no real connection that I could figure out.
2. The volume buttons on the remote stopped working after a few months
3. There is no android remote so I had to settle for some terrible emulation software on android (because I no longer have working volume buttons)
4. The way in which speaker levels are set is counter-intuitive in the extreme.
5. In conjunction with the above I found that I have to set the front speakers to +12dB and the rears to +6dB for it to sound reasonable (maybe I'm old enough to be going deaf but my kids have the same comment)
6. None of the DSP programs are good with music at all. In my opinion, both EARS and Dolby are terrible and the only tolerable one is "Enhanced Stereo"
7. The CEC is patchy at best (well maybe, it was fine with my Sony but the lightning gods decided I needed to replace the Sony with an LG)
8. In my opinion (again) it lacks power and a certain amount of finesse. Currently, I use it as a surround processor and run everything into an Emotiva (go ahead, flame me if you want).

Opinions and judgments aside: does the T778 have the same amount of connectivity as the T777, from the picture it appears as though it has less. Also, how does the T778 build quality seem out of the box?

I do apologise for all the questions and I hope that [member=13626]Morne[/member] and friends don't mind responding. Frankly, for a long moment I considered that McIntosh that [member=13626]Morne[/member] had up for a while (and might still consider it).

Honestly, not to beat down on the brand.  However if I had your experience, I would never buy that brand of AVR again......

 

[BobTheBuilder]

Honestly, not to beat down on the brand.  However if I had your experience, I would never buy that brand of AVR again......

That is a fair comment and most certainly the kind of comment I can use. To be fair to this thread though, I would prefer not to get into NAD bashing (I've done a fair bit of that myself after an ordeal with a 7Ch power amp that nearly drove me nuts).
However, that being said, and if [member=15674]naks[/member] and co don't mind, what would you suggest as alternatives? Maybe a new thread...

 

[naks]

It's been almost two months now, and still amazes me how good the sound is on this NAD.

The BluOS integration is also seamless, and so is the Tidal Connect: I can queue up stuff on my phone, laptop, chromebook, etc.

I've also stopped using the physical remote in favour of the unofficial NAD remote app (Android), although the only nag about this app is that you can't switch the unit off.

Other than the niggle of the HDMI Arc, it's all going swimmingly well.

oh no, I've gone and jinxed it now  :BWAHAHAH:

again, I must thank Morne for his patience and advice when I was in the market, top man!  :thumbs:

 

[BiZKiT]

It's been almost two months now, and still amazes me how good the sound is on this NAD.

The BluOS integration is also seamless, and so is the Tidal Connect: I can queue up stuff on my phone, laptop, chromebook, etc.

I've also stopped using the physical remote in favour of the unofficial NAD remote app (Android), although the only nag about this app is that you can't switch the unit off.

Other than the niggle of the HDMI Arc, it's all going swimmingly well.

oh no, I've gone and jinxed it now  :BWAHAHAH:

again, I must thank Morne for his patience and advice when I was in the market, top man!  :thumbs:

Anytime bud its just what i love doing :dop: i have another one of these up for grabs in the for sale section.

 

[Lawaai Fi]

Hi Naks

I think I mentioned it before, I have the smaller T758 as a processor/streamer connected to a power amp and it works like a charm. Very happy with the sound too! Glad you are sorted :dop:

Regards
Francois

 

[naks]

Well, finally another 'bug' to report: just got back home from a 14-day trip (powered all my AV stuff down before I left), and now my T778 only shows 2 of the 4 Dirac presets I had.  :walled:

 

[BiZKiT]

Well, finally another 'bug' to report: just got back home from a 14-day trip (powered all my AV stuff down before I left), and now my T778 only shows 2 of the 4 Dirac presets I had.  :walled:

Yip i know. mine sometimes just loses all Dirac files and i need to redo it....pain in the...

 

[Lawaai Fi]

Hi Naks
If you change any of your settings such as speaker level, cross over freq, speaker size etc the Dirac preset is not valid anymore and it will not show in your presets. It is also a good idea to have a backup on your pc.

Regards

 

[Drifter]

NAD knows about the issue with the disappearing DIRAC filters. They have been working on a solution since 2020.

 

[Larry]

NAD knows about the issue with the disappearing DIRAC filters. They have not been working on a solution since 2020.

Fixed that for you [member=13448]Drifter[/member]

 

[naks]

Ok, I have to apologise: I was reminded by another owner that there are only 3 Dirac filter slots, so I couldn't possibly have had 4.

I confused my presets with my filters, so I always had 2 - amazing what 2 weeks of holidays can do to one's brain  :facepalm:

 

[Drifter]

Ok, I have to apologise: I was reminded by another owner that there are only 3 Dirac filter slots, so I couldn't possibly have had 4.

I confused my presets with my filters, so I always had 2 - amazing what 2 weeks of holidays can do to one's brain  :facepalm:

photos upload website

It is a known issue that has been widely discussed so do keep that in mind.

 

[BiZKiT]

Hi Naks
If you change any of your settings such as speaker level, cross over freq, speaker size etc the Dirac preset is not valid anymore and it will not show in your presets. It is also a good idea to have a backup on your pc.

Regards

You actually cant change anything once Dirac is loaded. Its on or off.

 

[naks]

I think I've found the issue here: yesterday I powered down my AV stuff as we were having a solar system installed (10am - 3pm).

When I switched on the T778 in the evening, it looked like the Dirac filters were gone again.

Except they weren't - it was just the names that had been removed somehow. The actual filters are still there, and I could still select them via the Android app.

Irritating that one can't rename them in the AVR, you have to re-load them from the Dirac software.

 

[naks]

You actually cant change anything once Dirac is loaded. Its on or off.

Yep, but this is how I've setup mine:

I have 3 Dirac filters which are the same, except for the sub crossover. F1 @ 120Hz, F2 @ 100Hz, and F3 @ 80Hz.

I then created presets with the same sub crossover frequency: P1 @ 120Hz, P2 @100Hz, and P3 @ 80Hz.

Then I assigned each Dirac filter to the corresponding Preset, so F1 with P1, etc.

That seems to work well (I think), but please let me know if I'm doing something wrong here.

 

[BiZKiT]

Yep, but this is how I've setup mine:

I have 3 Dirac filters which are the same, except for the sub crossover. F1 @ 120Hz, F2 @ 100Hz, and F3 @ 80Hz.

I then created presets with the same sub crossover frequency: P1 @ 120Hz, P2 @100Hz, and P3 @ 80Hz.

Then I assigned each Dirac filter to the corresponding Preset, so F1 with P1, etc.

That seems to work well (I think), but please let me know if I'm doing something wrong here.

Ah ok i see.

 

[naks]

Ok, this is a weird one:

Earlier I received the Brothers in Arms SACD I ordered (https://www.takealot.com/dire-straits-brothers-in-arms-20th-anniversary-edition-sacd/PLID903751), so I started playing it on my Oppo 203, which is set to output DSD as PCM Multichannel.

Something about the sound didn't seem right, so I moved to the back of the room and realised that there's no sound out of the surround speakers. A bit odd, so I check the speaker setup, settings, presets, etc., and everything looks 100%.

I then switch to a multitrack album from my PC, and yep, no surround sound. I queue up a movie, and again, no surround sound.

So I switch off the T778, wait a couple of minutes, and switch it back on. Nope, same thing.

Then I switch off the T778 at the back (hard switch), test the surround speakers with a battery on the terminals, and they're fine.

Switch everything back on, and boom, surround sound is back.

A bit weird, but whatever.

Queue up the SACD again, and this time I'm on the stepladder with my ear by the surround L speaker. The track starts, and there is surround sound, and then about 2-3s later, there is a faint click, and no more surround sound.

No problem, I know how to get this sorted, so off I go re-doing the previous steps: hard off, test speakers, switch on.

Except this time, there's still no surround sound. Uh oh, what now?  :thinking:

Try the same steps once more, this time also resetting the HDMI connections. Still nothing.

I then also reset the HDMI input in the T778 menu, no effect.

So then I decide to test the speakers themselves, so I swap the centre for surround L, and boom, the latter has sound, but the centre is dead.

Unplug the speaker terminals again, give it some time, plug everything back in, and success, surround sound is back!

Now at this point I'm done trying the SACD if I have to go through this process again.

So my conclusion is that there's something in that SACD PCM stream that causes the surround amp/circuit to freeze - am I incorrect in this?

Has anyone else ever experienced something like this from an SACD?

Thanks

 

[Drifter]

Are you decoding the incoming multi channel signal via Dolby Surround?

It will be interesting to know what happens if you change to SACD player's output to stereo only. Technically Dolby Surround can upmix any track to multi-channel.

My T778, just gave a click sound and all the channels went dead. Amp/touchcreen still worked and it still output images from all sources but the channels were completely dead. Sounds like the same click that you hear. I did a full reset, power on and off, firmware re-flash and a lot of swearing but I simply could not get it going again. Sent it the NAD service agents as arranged by the importer and they said they simply left it on over night and when they returned to the office in the morning it started playing. Got it back and I tested it with a stereo signal from the phono input (listened to a vinyl record) and all was fine. First multi channel blu ray I put on resulted in the click and all channels went dead again.

I then tossed my salad ........

 

[naks]

Are you decoding the incoming multi channel signal via Dolby Surround?

It will be interesting to know what happens if you change to SACD player's output to stereo only. Technically Dolby Surround can upmix any track to multi-channel.

My T778, just gave a click sound and all the channels went dead. Amp/touchcreen still worked and it still output images from all sources but the channels were completely dead. Sounds like the same click that you hear. I did a full reset, power on and off, firmware re-flash and a lot of swearing but I simply could not get it going again. Sent it the NAD service agents as arranged by the importer and they said they simply left it on over night and when they returned to the office in the morning it started playing. Got it back and I tested it with a stereo signal from the phono input (listened to a vinyl record) and all was fine. First multi channel blu ray I put on resulted in the click and all channels went dead again.

I then tossed my salad ........

No, the multichannel playback is set to Direct mode.

Switching the playback to Stereo (whether DSD or CD) works fine, and the upmixing works fine as well.

What I'm seeing is that something in that specific SACD is causing the surround amp to freeze, and unplugging/replugging the speaker terminals seems to reset them.

I don't have this issue when playing multichannel DSD files from my PC