NAD C 700 V2

Introduction

In 2025, the way products are classified has an awful lot to do with how the manufacturer sees their place in the market rather than any hard and fast rules over what feature means what in terms of what category they sit in.

For example, NAD calls the C 700 V2 a ‘streaming amplifier’ but it would be just as easy to call it an all-in-one system or even wheel out the word ‘lifestyle’ if you fancied.

The reality is that the boundary where an ‘amplifier’ ends and a ‘system’ begins is largely down to how a company sees those boundaries in the context of their range. From the point where CD stopped being the dominant format and was usurped by streaming, the compact nature of streaming modules means that it easier than ever before to create an amplifier that doesn’t need any source equipment of its own to work.

NAD is extremely good at this and the original C 700 was seriously good bit of kit in its own right so the omens are pretty solid that the C 700 V2 will be decent as well.

The catch is that other companies have been getting in on the act and also building some excellent self-contained amplifiers while others are building rivals that cost a little less but that have the inputs to add the functionality you need. How does the NAD stack up?

Price

In the UK, the NAD is yours for £1,499. NAD equipment is distributed by Sevenoaks HiFi; a nationwide chain of stores who will also allow you to buy the C 700 V2 online.

In the USA it is going to be subject to the… variable… approach to placing tariffs on goods from China as it is built there but it seems to be available at the time of writing for $1,999. In Australia, it can be had for $2,999 AUD.

At points in the review, reference will be made to Dirac Room optimisation. This is something that the C700 V2 can do out of the box but that requires an additional license to be purchased for it to be used. NAD has decided that, as not everyone will make use of this, it is not included in the purchase price.

Design

• Still a grey box…
• … but a well-proportioned and elegant one
• Excellent display and interface
• Handsome but slightly ineffectual remote.

NAD has a long and distinguished history of making grey boxes. For many years, their products were instantly recognisable as they came exclusively in a colour that was largely in keeping with a multi storey car park.

They doubled down on this rather route one colour scheme with weirdly undersized knobs and a smattering of little black buttons. It was functional but about as stylish as a backless medical gown. On the face of it, the C 700 V2 doesn’t sound like it’s off to a great start because it’s still, when all is said and done, a grey box.

The thing is though… NAD has managed to start making grey products that look rather more stylish than their older efforts. The grey is a little bit darker and the finish is of a higher quality.

It doesn’t look jarringly at odds with other devices it shares space with (and, as I shall cover) doesn’t need to share space with them at all) and the controls that are fitted are larger and more tactile. This combines with the neat proportions to create a product that turns up as a point where grey is seemingly very fashionable to look very smart indeed.

This is helped by the display. It’s a colour screen with excellent brightness and contrast and it allows both playback information and the various menus to be accessed in a logical and well thought out way. Interestingly, it’s not a touch screen; it uses the physical controls for access, and this actually helps the C700 V2 to feel slick and intuitive. It’s a genuine pleasure to use.

You also get a remote control that looks no less smart. It’s not as useful as you might think though. The actual controls it offers are slightly irrelevant in the day to day use of the amp.

Ultimately, the thing that would be most useful to do is switch the input to the phono stage or something else that wasn’t a natural thing to want to fire the control app up for… and the remote can’t do this. It’s a bit of a disappointment.

Specification

• 80w Class D Amp
• Blu OS module supported by digital inputs…
• … with some new analogue ones too
• Dirac Room optimisation

NAD is one of the biggest advocates of Class D amps going and it isn’t much of a surprise to find that the C 700 V2 is so equipped.

It uses an example of NAD’s UcD system that delivers an 80 watt output into both four and eight ohms with 120 watts available for peak delivery; again into both impedances. It is largely unchanged from the original C 700 for the very good reason that it worked well there and works well here too.

The streaming part of ‘Streaming Amplifier’ is an on board BluOS module that offers the standard suite of functionality that the platform delivers… which means it largely foes everything. In recent years, the competition has got their act together in a way that minimises some of the advantages of the platform as a whole but it still a class act.

At a basic level you get support for PCM up to 24/192kHz (with DSD something you can convert to PCM in the library itself). This is backed up by pretty much every streaming service going bar Apple Music and a genuinely good internet radio implementation.

Something else to remember is that BluOS is a truly great bit of multiroom software that supports (and every bit as importantly, is stable with) over forty zones.

Thanks to being used by NAD, Bluesound, Roksan and Cyrus, you have a choice of compatible hardware to fill your house that is incredibly comprehensive as well. The C 700 V2 will slot into a wider system of devices than pretty much anything else.

The big changes for the V2 model concern the additional connectivity. Where the original C 700 had a pair of RCA line inputs, the new one drops to one and turns the other into an MM phono stage.

While I still find it slightly crazy that it’s 2025 and products are having their support for a 78 year-old format improved, my enthusiasm for the fitment is helped by the standard NAD MM phono stage being a good one.

At the other end of the technical scale, The HDMI ARC connection of the original is upgraded to eARC and this comes with support for Dolby Digital. Connected via the eARC connection it is possible to send material in Dolby Digital to the C 700 V2 which is rather unusual.

The NAD isn’t done there either; that signal can be sent wirelessly to rear speakers and a sub for a 4.1 setup which is again made possible by the supporting family of components made by NAD and Bluesound.

The last addition is – as noted in the price section – a cost option. The C 700 V2 can use Dirac room optimisation software to help with set-up and configuration. The license is $99 (and you’ll need a microphone too) but it gives the NAD scope to work in spaces that many rivals will struggle with.

As I have tested NAD devices with Dirac before, I can safely assume that it’ll be utterly painless to use and, if you’re room is less than perfect, it gives scope to get the NAD performing radically better than most rivals.

Performance

• Clean, effortless and lively sound
• A superb partner for TV viewing…
• … and vinyl listening too

Right at the start of this section, it is important to stress that there really wasn’t anything wrong with the original C 700 right up to the day it was replaced. One of the reasons why NAD has left the core of the device alone is that it wasn’t broken so didn’t need fixing.

Partnered with a pair of Mission’s hefty 700 standmount, the NAD delivers a performance that is potent and engaging. Give it Never Never Land by UNKLE and the way It tears into Eye for an Eye is really beautifully balanced. There is no shortage of energy and drive but this slightly rough and ready recording is given just enough warmth the civility to ensure you keep the volume pegged as high as you want.

What the NAD does with an effortless that makes you think it is easy (when it really isn’t), is that you never hear any of the engineering cleverness in the performance itself. The low distortion amp and ESS DAC don’t leap out in what you hear but if you put on something you love – in my case, To Lose My Life by the White Lies and it will find the absolute essence of what the artist was trying to convey.

This is a dark and messy album, full of odd lyrics and bleak riffs and the C 700 V2 is able to take you to the core of what the band is getting across. The fact this is being delivered with great tonality, deep and controlled bass and a more than reasonable stereo image is secondary to all of that.

This is something that holds up every bit as well when you move from the streaming module and use the HDMI ARC connection. The connection has been absolutely stable under test and it proceeds to deliver the same unfussy yet engaging realism with TV material instead.

The C 700 V2 being on test coincided with my binge watching The Expanse and the NAD was as happy with vast space battles as it is with claustrophobic snatched conversations. The space and three dimensionality on offer had me wondering more than once quite how good adding rear channels might be. What had felt like a gimmick when I unboxed the NAD feels like rather less of a gimmick now.

And then, because NAD doesn’t do things by halves, the phono stage is more than decent as well. The way that the C 700 V2 works means that any analogue signal it receives is converted to digital as a function of how the NAD works but, listening to Morcheeba’s Big Calm sees the NAD pull the same trick as it does with digital signals; you stop thinking about the signal path and think about the music instead.

It’s not perfect, compared to some of the simpler integrated amps tested here at lower prices, the NAD feels slightly lacking in gain and warmth but, it’s good enough that you’d need a respectable external phono stage to beat it. It’s another ribbon to an already full and tempting bow.

Should you buy it?

FAQs