in15
New member
A couple of weeks ago, on the recommendation of a good friend of mine (Stephan on the forum) I took my NAD 3020i (bought on the forum from Stephen ? a different one ? a year or two back) to Rick in Somerset West for a recap and general service. I was so pleased with the result and the service from Rick that I thought I should do a little write-up.
Less than the agreed two weeks (bearing in mind he does this in his spare time!) after dropping my amp and unintentionally drooling on Rick's workshop floor I got an email saying the amp was ready and were there any particular songs I?d like audition when I went collect it (now that?s attention to detail!). After a quick audition and some more gawking I grabbed my amp along with an itemised invoice detailing exactly what work was done and the list of new caps that were fitted during the full recap. Rick also documented the service from start to finish and compiled a photo gallery of every single step onto a CD. I found pictures of my amp various states of disassembly that show it being thoroughly washed, its feet replaced and detailed before and after photos of each component replacement. He also includes the original spec sheet for the amp and photos showing the calibration to be within spec. Initially I thought this above and beyond, but as Rick pointed out, it is very nice to have some documented service history for future reference. Once again fantastic service!
When I got home I immediately put the amp back in its happy place and connected my Wharefdale 9.5s. The little NAD has always had to labour a lot harder to drive the 9.5s than the previous generation Diamond bookshelves (8.1s) with which it is also fairly well acquainted. My immediate impression after the service was that my now non-scratchy knob/itchy-free pot (or is it the other way round?) no longer needed to be pointing quite as close to the vertical as it used to.
With the tone controls set to neutral, the highs are noticeably brighter and crisper than before, but without any extra sibilance. The lows were a little boomy immediately after the service, but have since tightened up a bit. The counterpoint to that is that the bass seems now to be absolutely effortlessly available at low volumes in recordings that are not inherently overly bassy. That said, the lows are a still a little looser at higher volumes (room acoustics are a problem here too, but my system is identical to how it was before the service) particularly when the amp is subjected to the unnecessary bass-heavy torture of modern pop music. This is however only slightly more noticeable than previously and I don?t listen to much modern pop anyway.
The amp has always been better suited to the melodic bass lines of the late Jack Bruce and the sharp snare and characteristically snappy bass drum kicks of his archenemy/bandmate Ginger Baker. Their music and the generally more conservatively recorded music of their contemporaries sounds just as great now as before and the low-end of the recapped NAD suits my tastes perfectly. The smooth warm NAD mid-tones are crucially unchanged insofar as I can tell and, in combination with the slightly brighter highs and effortless low level bass, combine to produce luxuriant and silky smooth vocals in vocal-dominated recordings. Acoustic recordings (indeed any not overly bassy recording) also see benefits of the crisper highs in combination with the retained and sublime NAD mids. If I feel like annoying the neighbours, I need only a little judicious application of the tone controls.
Overall, although I am of a similar vintage to my NAD, I reckon that the recapping has probably restored my amp to what it should?ve sounded like when new, if not better. Rick has retained the essential character of the amp and highlighted its strengths superbly. The phonostage was also recapped, but not having owned a TT until last week I cannot comment on that other than to say that the vinyls sound a lot clearer than I had expected.
Sorry for the long post, but if you?ve skipped to here, thumbs up to Rick. His standard of work and personal service are outstanding in a country that has gotten used to the HiFi Corps of the world and I would highly recommend that anyone in the beautiful Cape with (in particular) a little baby NAD that needs some TLC make Rick their first port of call. His passion is self-evident on meeting him and might be borderline obsessive; this though is no bad thing when it comes to servicing an amp and it is clear that he puts in the same effort/attention to detail with other peoples amps as he would his own.
If you have a NAD 3020 that needs a service, don't hesitate to give him a shout.
Less than the agreed two weeks (bearing in mind he does this in his spare time!) after dropping my amp and unintentionally drooling on Rick's workshop floor I got an email saying the amp was ready and were there any particular songs I?d like audition when I went collect it (now that?s attention to detail!). After a quick audition and some more gawking I grabbed my amp along with an itemised invoice detailing exactly what work was done and the list of new caps that were fitted during the full recap. Rick also documented the service from start to finish and compiled a photo gallery of every single step onto a CD. I found pictures of my amp various states of disassembly that show it being thoroughly washed, its feet replaced and detailed before and after photos of each component replacement. He also includes the original spec sheet for the amp and photos showing the calibration to be within spec. Initially I thought this above and beyond, but as Rick pointed out, it is very nice to have some documented service history for future reference. Once again fantastic service!
When I got home I immediately put the amp back in its happy place and connected my Wharefdale 9.5s. The little NAD has always had to labour a lot harder to drive the 9.5s than the previous generation Diamond bookshelves (8.1s) with which it is also fairly well acquainted. My immediate impression after the service was that my now non-scratchy knob/itchy-free pot (or is it the other way round?) no longer needed to be pointing quite as close to the vertical as it used to.
With the tone controls set to neutral, the highs are noticeably brighter and crisper than before, but without any extra sibilance. The lows were a little boomy immediately after the service, but have since tightened up a bit. The counterpoint to that is that the bass seems now to be absolutely effortlessly available at low volumes in recordings that are not inherently overly bassy. That said, the lows are a still a little looser at higher volumes (room acoustics are a problem here too, but my system is identical to how it was before the service) particularly when the amp is subjected to the unnecessary bass-heavy torture of modern pop music. This is however only slightly more noticeable than previously and I don?t listen to much modern pop anyway.
The amp has always been better suited to the melodic bass lines of the late Jack Bruce and the sharp snare and characteristically snappy bass drum kicks of his archenemy/bandmate Ginger Baker. Their music and the generally more conservatively recorded music of their contemporaries sounds just as great now as before and the low-end of the recapped NAD suits my tastes perfectly. The smooth warm NAD mid-tones are crucially unchanged insofar as I can tell and, in combination with the slightly brighter highs and effortless low level bass, combine to produce luxuriant and silky smooth vocals in vocal-dominated recordings. Acoustic recordings (indeed any not overly bassy recording) also see benefits of the crisper highs in combination with the retained and sublime NAD mids. If I feel like annoying the neighbours, I need only a little judicious application of the tone controls.
Overall, although I am of a similar vintage to my NAD, I reckon that the recapping has probably restored my amp to what it should?ve sounded like when new, if not better. Rick has retained the essential character of the amp and highlighted its strengths superbly. The phonostage was also recapped, but not having owned a TT until last week I cannot comment on that other than to say that the vinyls sound a lot clearer than I had expected.
Sorry for the long post, but if you?ve skipped to here, thumbs up to Rick. His standard of work and personal service are outstanding in a country that has gotten used to the HiFi Corps of the world and I would highly recommend that anyone in the beautiful Cape with (in particular) a little baby NAD that needs some TLC make Rick their first port of call. His passion is self-evident on meeting him and might be borderline obsessive; this though is no bad thing when it comes to servicing an amp and it is clear that he puts in the same effort/attention to detail with other peoples amps as he would his own.
If you have a NAD 3020 that needs a service, don't hesitate to give him a shout.
