NAD C 420 stereo AM/FM tuner.
NAD Electronics International, 633
Granite Court, Pickering, Ontario,
Canada L1W 3K1, (800) 263-4641,
www.NADelectronics.com. $249
U.S. Dimensions: 435mm W
×
70mm H
×
285mm D. Net weight:
8.8 lbs (4kg). Warranty: two years
parts and labor.
Parasound TDQ-150 stereo tuner.
Parasound Products, Inc., 950
Battery St., San Francisco,
CA 94111, (415) 397-7100,
www.parasound.com. $269 U.S.
Dimensions: 9.5” W
×
1.75” H
×
7” D. Net weight: 4 lbs. Ten-year
limited warranty.
The NAD C 420 and Parasound TDQ-
150 AM/FM stereo tuners repre-
sent the budget end for high-end
tuners. These two manufacturers’
higher-priced tuners (NAD C 440,
$349; and the full-size Parasound
TDQ-1600, $400) offer better FM
sensitivity and lower audio distor-
tion specifications. However, if
you don’t require fringe area re-
ception, these two tuners repre-
sent excellent values.
NAD C 420
Photo 1
shows the C 420 front
panel. Just above the power switch
on the left is a small green LED in-
dicator, which turns amber in
Standby mode. A row of six push
buttons selects Blend, Memory, FM
Mute/Mono, AM/FM, Display
modes, and Preset/Tune functions.
The white fluorescent display
screen shows the band and fre-
quency of the station being tuned,
FM stereo, whether the station is a
memory preset, and whether Blend
and FM Mute are engaged. It also
has a vertical seven-bar-graph sig-
nal strength indicator.
Pressing the display button cy-
cles the display to RDS program
service. Another push cycles it to
RDS text. The display then returns
to the default mode after a few
seconds. The infrared sensor is lo-
cated on the left side of the dis-
play window. A rocker switch on
the right side of the unit is for the
Preset/Tune functions.
The tuner chassis is black paint-
ed steel, and the cover is held on
with five screws. The front bezel is
plastic and the unit sits on four
plastic feet with elastomer
rings on the bottom. There is
adequate finger space under
the unit to easily lift it.
The rear panel (not shown)
has the attached two-prong
polarized AC line cord, a +12V
trigger jack, the “NAD-Link”
input and output jacks,
stereo audio jacks with gold-
plated shells and tin center
contacts, a two-conductor AM
antenna connector, and a threaded
75Ω F-type FM antenna jack.
The C 420 provides up to 30 sta-
tion presets, which you can use in
any combination of AM and FM
stations. FM Mute and FM Blend
status information is stored with
each FM preset. Empty presets are
skipped over during tuning to pro-
vide quicker access to the stored
stations.
The preset information is stored
in non-volatile EEPROM memory,
which provides permanent power-
off storage. Many tuners use
“super capacitors” to hold the pre-
set memory in CMOS chips for a
limited time—maybe a month or
so. My own NAD 4155 uses a now-
tired super cap, and it must be
powered up at least once a week to
maintain all the presets.
FM Mute/Mode switches the C
420 to mono and disengages the
muting circuitry so you can manu-
ally tune weak stations. FM Blend
provides a means to automatically
reduce noise and hiss on weak sta-
tions while still retaining some
stereo separation. Once the signal
level drops below a certain thresh-
old, it will revert to mono. The
tuning increments for FM are in
FM Tuners:
NAD and Parasound
Reviewed by Charles Hansen and Nancy and Duncan MacArthur
PHOTO 2: Front view of Parasound TDQ-150.
PHOTO 1:
The NAD C 420
stereo tuner.
60 audioXpress 6/02 www.audioXpress.com
