NAD C389 Hybrid Digital Amplifier With BluOS

Key Features

• 2 x 150W continuous power
• BluOS 2 Module delivers best in Class Streaming
• Bluetooth ADP4 with aptX supported
• Hybrid Digital efficient amplification process
• Class D PowerDrive amplifier design
• MM Phono input
• Analogue, digital, and wireless connections
• Speaker A/Speaker B
• Preamp/Subwoofer Out
• MDC slots for optional future upgrades
• Smartphone control app
• RS-232 Serial port for control
• USB port for service purposes
• IR Remote & 12V trigger in/out
• Very low conducted and radiated EMI
• Sophisticated protection with hiccup mode

Expansive Power with Unprecedented Flexibility

The C 388 Hybrid Digital DAC Amplifier is at the top of its class in the world of affordable amplification. An incredibly powerful amp, the C 388 employs NAD technologies like Asymmetrical PowerDrive to ensure that even the most demanding speakers can be driven to life-like listening levels without dynamic compression. Thanks to its advanced preamplifier circuit, the C 388 gives low noise at all volume settings, ensuring that you’ll be able to listen to your music without any distractions.

Another technology that’s available to the C 388 is the BluOS module, a music management system that can stream your music library wirelessly across your home Wi-Fi network. Connect to the C 388 instantly with Bluetooth to give you access to various streaming services. With the ability to accommodate a variety of sources both past and present, the C 388 is a remarkably flexible product that will become a core addition to your home audio system.

Getting the Basics Right

It is surprising how many seemingly advanced products in the market today often miss many of the most basic requirements for satisfying performance. Low noise circuits, precise volume control action, accurate channel balance, proper input and output impedance characteristics, high overload margins and stability with difficult speaker loads. NAD starts by getting these things exactly right, and advances from there.

Included is an MM Phono stage with accurate RIAA equalization, high overload margins, extremely low noise, and an innovative circuit to suppress infrasonic noise that is present on all LPs, all without affecting bass response. The unit’s line inputs can accommodate all kinds of analogue source components by offering ideal input impedance characteristics with linear ultra-low-noise buffer amplifiers to prevent any sonic degradation caused by inappropriate loading of the source device.

Like the other amps in the range, the C 388 features a dedicated headphone amplifier with low output impedance and very high output voltage capability, enough to drive even high impedance studio monitor headphones. Low impedance line outputs that can connect to other amplifiers or subwoofers extend the versatility of this well thought out amplifier. These are all details you can hear.

HybridDigital Amp Technology

The search for a high-performance Class D solution led NAD to HybridDigital. This is an innovative amplifier technology that uses a variable modulation frequency to bring out the life-like qualities of music while reducing distortion under every operating condition. This highly optimized design gives a phenomenal performance to the C 388 amplifier, both measurable and subjective.

Read more about NAD’s HybridDigital technology here

Sophisticated Power

NAD has moved away from the old-fashioned power-hungry linear power supplies and Class AB output stages that waste nearly half of the energy consumed and produce heat rather than sound. Instead, they have developed even better-performing circuits based on switch mode power supplies and Class D output stages. Once thought to be inferior to traditional topologies, NAD’s advanced work in this area has created some of the best performing amplifiers regardless of basic design principle. These new designs are very linear over a wide bandwidth and provide consistent performance into all speaker loads, providing a dramatic advance over previous models.

The power supply is capable of 150 watts continuously and over 250 watts instantaneously to allow for short-term musical transients. It can operate with any AC mains voltage from 100 to 240 volts and provides pure DC power to all the various stages of the C 388. This highly efficient supply also provides near perfect regulation of voltage across a wide range of conditions and provides a solid noise-free foundation for the amplifying stages.

The C 388 uses a customized version of the proven Hypex UcD output stage operating in a fully balanced bridge configuration. This allows for massive power with nearly unmeasurable distortion and noise in the audible range. Every detail of this design has been carefully planned and perfectly executed to wring out every last drop of performance.

Future-Proof Modular Design

This NAD exclusive feature allows you to customize your amplifier with additional capabilities and features, now or in the future. The two available MDC slots can accommodate a variety of upgrade modules including 4K video capable HDMI switching, additional digital inputs, additional analogue and phono inputs, and one of the most advanced Hi-Res Audio multi-room wireless systems available, the BluOS music management system developed by Bluesound.

BluOS 2

An undeniably integral component of some of NAD’s most innovative products, the updated MDC BluOS module unleashes all the music you could ever imagine. Whether you wish to explore various streaming services or reconnect with old favourites from your personal collection, NAD’s BluOS technology lets you get closer to the tracks you love. Using a new generation ARM Processor, and controlled by a user-friendly app, the MDC BluOS 2 module adds one of the most advanced music management systems on the planet to your NAD system. Through the power of BluOS, you can easily connect to other BluOS Enabled devices throughout the home, resulting in an incredible music listening experience. Highly advanced and wondrously fluid, this BluOS technology turns listening to music into an experience unlike any other.

As an internal module, there are no external wires or power supplies required and integration with the C 388 operating firmware is seamless. Both Ethernet and Wi-Fi operate in asynchronous mode for lowest jitter performance and allow connection to music stored anywhere on the local network or streamed directly from the Internet using popular music services like Spotify Connect, Tidal, Qobuz, and Slacker. You can also play music from a USB drive or hard drive via the USB A port.

In addition to a standard Local Area Network, BluOS requires an iOS or Android mobile device (NAD offers free iOS and Android Apps) to control and manage your music. While the expected functions of Play/Pause/Skip are present, BluOS also brings all of your music together integrating locally stored music (like iTunes) and music streaming services. BluOS creates direct shares with music in all formats including FLAC, ALAC, and WAV with data rates up to 24/192. Playlists can be created and managed right inside the BluOS App. Gapless playback is supported and the MDC BluOS 2 module is fully compatible with Bluesound High-Res Wireless Multi-room Players to form integrated whole-house systems. Includes an external USB WiFi module to optimize signal strength.

Master Quality Audio

Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) is a revolutionary end-to-end technology built into every BluOS device that captures and delivers master quality audio to any room in your home. The MQA logo shown in the BluOS app indicates that the unit is decoding and playing an MQA stream or file, and lets you know that you are hearing exactly what the artist recorded and approved in the studio.

Bluetooth Like You Haven’t Heard it Before

You can connect instantly to the C 388 with Bluetooth allowing you to stream music wirelessly from any Bluetooth-enabled device. The high-performance aptX codec is fully supported for true CD-quality sound. Bluetooth can also be used to listen to other sources connected to the C 388 via wireless headphones such as NAD’s own HP70. There is also a control app that allows your smartphone or tablet to control all functions of your C 388.

About NAD

In 1972, a new kind of audio company was born. NAD took form when a large group of audio-industry importers in Europe, all music lovers, set out to develop products that cut through the industry hype. The goal of NAD was to prove that excellent sound quality and excellent value could exist together. It was a formidable goal – some of the most reputable electronics brands of the time were unaffordable to most, while the affordable spectrum of the market was dominated by poor quality imports from global electronics giants. NAD’s founders remained undeterred and their original vision led to an inspiring story of how a group of specialty audio mavericks took on the Goliaths of the audio industry to carve out a unique place of their own.

NAD are dedicated to innovation, performance, value, and simplicity in all their products.