The NAD 3020, introduced in the late 1970s, was surely a reaction to the receiver power wars that began in the same decade. The big Japanese manufacturers were trying to outdo one another with monster receivers sporting power outputs of 250, or more, watts per channel. The NAD 3020’s 20 watts per channel into 8 ohms (but capable of more power into lower impedances) was the anthesis of the behemoth receivers.

NAD took a different tack, touting quality watts over quantity watts.

The 3020A seen here, the first revision of the 3020, corrected a few circuit anomalies of the original.

A peek inside the enclosure reveals an all-discreet component design, no IC’s. The power supply was a step ahead of the 3020’s contemporaries, in that there are two separate power transformer secondary windings. The preamp section and power amp section are fed from totally separate DC supplies. The reasoning was that a preamp section needs a stable voltage for best performance. The current drawn by the power amp section varies considerably while following the music signal. This in turn would cause DC voltages to vary, inducing distortion in the preamp section. Employing discreet supplies eliminates this source of non-linearity.

My personal machine that's just not getting the use it should. It's had the attention, servicing and a recap so sounds wonderful.

This is one of those iconic machines everyone needs to have and enjoy.

The 3020A is the updated version of the venerable 3020, sounding better than ever with the same charm the original has.

Power output: 20 watts per channel into 8ohms (stereo)

Frequency response: 10Hz to 70kHz

Total harmonic distortion: 0.02%

Damping factor: 55

Input sensitivity: 2.5mV (MM), 150mV (line)

Signal to noise ratio: 75dB (MM), 110dB (line)

Dimensions: 420 x 96 x 240mm

Weight: 5.26kg