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Sound and vision NAD
NAD continue their AV success
By Michael Jones
April 2002
NAD are so well known as a hi-fi manufacturer that it still seems strange to me that they produce home theatre equipment. Yet produce it they do, and very well too as seen in our previous reviews of the T550 DVD player and T761 AV receiver.
But unlike a lot of home theatre equipment, NAD approach the home theatre from a hi-fi perspective. An example is this unit, the T531 DVD player, which NAD bill - with some seriousness - as a combination DVD and CD player.
You immediately know that this is a NAD component when laying eyes upon it. It's finished in NAD's traditional gun-metal grey and has only a handful of controls on the front panel.
But that doesn't mean it comes without all the necessary features. The T531 will play DVD, CD, CDR and CD-RW. It will also play VCD (Video CDs) and S-VCDs.
The back of the review sample has the normal composite and s-video outputs. Earlier T531s in New Zealand came with a rgb scart output, but supply logistics now mean that New Zealand get the version with component video outputs instead. Both optical and coaxial digital outputs are catered for and Audio left and right complete the picture.
The 531, like just about any DVD player these days, will output a Dolby Digital or DTS bitstream, and supports such features as multi-angle and multiple subtitles. The zoom functions are a near-useless 4x and 16x. So far the only DVD player with a useful zoom function that I've come across is the Toshiba SD1300.
With the explosive growth in mp3 tracks in recent years, NAD fans will be pleased to find that the T531 has a built-in mp3 decoder. I did not test the NAD's ability with mp3 encoded discs..
Music first?
Throughout NAD's promotional material you'll
see references to what they call their "Music First philosophy".
With DVD players this means that the T531 should also be an excellent
CD player.
Like many others, I've found that most DVD players struggle to rise above mediocrity when playing CDs. Generally the music from DVD players sounds flat, lifeless and kinda boring.
The T531 in contrast performs very well as a CD player. Several of us compared the T531 and other DVD players for CD use, using NAD's $749 C521 CD player as a reference. The T531 was the best of the DVD players - and performed way above the normal DVD standard. Music had some body and dynamics to it. The T531 couldn't quite match NAD's standalone CD player, but still performed very well.
Blue train
Picture quality was also excellent. The NAD 531 offered an obvious picture
quality improvement over the Toshiba 1300, my budget reference model -
and a very competent DVD player the Toshiba is too.
It was easier to see picture details with the NAD, particularly in shadow areas, where many DVD players fall down. An example of this was the forest scenes in Gladiator just before the battle.
On many DVD player this scene, with its dark blue colour overtones, presents a problem, with the darker areas turning black. (Photoshop users may recognise a similar problem when using cheaper desktop scanners).
The NAD allowed the viewer to peer into the shadow areas for a wealth of visual detail.
Colours were not as vibrant as with some other DVD players that I've seen recently, but were by no means washed out. Into my calibrated Loewe Acarda television, I judged the NAD's colour rendition to be the more accurate.
Conclusion
The
NAD T531 is a remarkable DVD player. If you're looking for a DVD player
that performs above both the picture and sound quality of the entry level
DVD players, then this NAD is one to get.
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