NAD 5330 CD player

The NAD 5330 CD player is a very basic unit.   Rugged looking finish and appearance.   Looks like it was designed for use by the military.  Features are very limited, remote control capability is absent, and digital output is absent.

NAD 5330 on my most stable platform.

Line level out is the only option for unmodified NAD 5330 units.

Including the power button there are a total of 8 front panel buttons.  Notably absent is the "stop" button.  The "pause" button can be used like a "stop" button and is quite large, as is the "play" button but once used you need to hit the "play/scan" button instead of the "pause" to resume playback.   The > < "skip/scan" buttons allow for jumping forward or back to other tracks or can be used in conjunction with the "play/scan" button being pressed at the same time to go forward or backward in quick time.  Kind of awkward to use.   The display allows for options of showing track/index number or track time or the remaining time on the whole disc.  The numbers are larger than average and being LED are brighter than the average LCD or average LED display as well.  I can see them pretty well from across the room in daylight to dim light.  The remaining button allows for a repeat function.

The output is line level only and there is no option for use of external digital audio to analog conversion.  This unit is basic but despite a dearth of fluff, it has a competent sounding on-board DAC. 

How does it track and sound?   The tracking is good, but a small bump is likely to alter the tracking.  Needs a fairly stable platform to reduce risk of tracking error.  There are nearly 30 years on my unit and lack of maintenance is likely to have contributed to one tracking error I noticed out of the blue, just a few seconds of poor tracking but so far there weren't any other tracking errors over quite a few hours of use unless the unit was bumped a little.  It recovered quickly from the one brief episode of mis-tracking, and recovered quickly after a pretty good thumping too!

The sound quality is really quite remarkable!   Staging is as it should be, wide, deep.   Music is full bodied and nuanced better than expected for a fairly low cost CD player.  Not sure which digital processing chip is inside since I have not opened it up but the proof is in the pudding, this unit is not fatiguing or disappointing.  Sometimes less is more and this very basic unit is a good example of that dictum.  Studio ambiance is fairly reproduced.  I enjoyed classical and rock from this unit.

Overall I can comfortably recommend its use.    Keeping the unit next to me is an option to compensate for lack of remote control capability.  It does not make much mechanical sound so should not be a distraction.  If you are like me you will not like the thought of using long interconnect cables or speaker cables.  So keeping the unit close to the main system is preferable even if it means I have to get up every now and then to change discs or whatever.

 NAD 5330 data sheet