NAD 3020

The NAD 3020 is an iconic stereo integrated amplifier by NAD Electronics, considered to be one of the most important components in the history of high fidelity audio. Launched circa 1978, this highly affordable product delivered a good quality sound, which acquired a reputation as an audiophile amplifier of exceptional value. By 1998, the NAD 3020 had become the most well known and best-selling audio amplifier in history.

Launched circa 1978–79 in an era where the principal preoccupation of hi-fi manufacturers was power output, the sub-£80 (US$135) low-powered solid state amplifier, created and marketed by a then little-known manufacturer, very rapidly acquired a reputation for excellent sound quality and exceptional value.Stereophile magazine called the NAD 3020 "ridiculously inexpensive". It was the first integrated amplifier built with convincing ability to drive difficult loudspeaker loads, and a sound quality that far exceeded other integrated amplifiers at its price point for the time.

In an era when the NAD's rated power output of 20 watts per channel continuous into 8 ohms was considered anaemic, the manufacturer claimed it could deliver much stronger power output into lower impedances under dynamic conditions (music or peak power output). Indeed, it is capable of delivering 40 watts into 8 ohm, 58 watts into 4 ohm, and 72 watts into 2 ohm loads for a limited time if pushed. The amplifier's main appeal was its inherent musicality, its ability to drive difficult speaker loads, and to allow audiophile grade source components to excel. Launching the product in the US at the Consumer Electronics Show, the company wired up a battery of loudspeakers in a way which presented an impedance of 1.1 ohm, and the amplifier experienced no problems. Similarly, at its London launch, NAD successfully demonstrated it driving the Linn Isobarik, whose impedance characteristics are known to be very challenging for amplifiers. It was the best-known and best-selling amplifier in the annals of hi-fi. The NAD 3020 revolutionised the amplifier segment of the hi-fi industry.

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