NAD D 3020 V2

In 1978 the NAD 3020 did the impossible: it made high fidelity affordable, sold over a million units and became the best-selling amplifier in history. That is the analogue classic you find in our Audiophile Corner, to hunt for used. The D 3020 V2 is something else: the modern reinvention of that icon, with the "D" for digital, HybridDigital amplification and today's sources. Same DNA, different century.

In our ranking of entry integrated amps it takes fifth place, with the must-have badge. Last, but not for want of merit: it is the most feature-rich of the group. It is the sound, as we will see, that keeps it at the bottom — not the specification.

This is where the D 3020 V2 stands apart from all the others. It is a compact design object in a graphite finish, which can be set vertically or horizontally, made to be on show. But it is inside that it is richest: it uses HybridDigital (Class D) amplification with NAD's PowerDrive technology, 90% efficient — it draws a fifth of a traditional amp — and stable into difficult loads despite its rated 30 watts.

Connectivity is its strength, and the most complete of the five: Bluetooth aptX for streaming from a phone or laptop; a 24-bit/192kHz DAC with optical and coaxial inputs for a TV, CD player or streamer; a line input; a subwoofer output and a pre-out to expand the system; and a front headphone output. There is also Bass EQ to compensate for small speakers. It does, in a single machine, what the others need extra boxes for.

Here honesty is needed, because the character of the D 3020 V2 is different from the other four. It is a Class D amp, and Class D divides: at its best it is clean, dynamic and controlled, with an ability to drive difficult speakers that its 30 watts on paper would not suggest — NAD's "giant-killer" tradition is alive. On many genres it sounds confident and effortless.

But it does not have the warmth and natural flow of traditional Class A/B amplifiers like the Rega or the Marantz. The vinyl purist, the one who wants analogue musicality above all, will find it a touch more "digital" in character. It is not an objective fault — many prefer exactly its cleanliness and control — but it is a real difference, and it is why, in a ranking that puts analogue sound first, the D 3020 V2 sits fifth.

On vinyl the D 3020 V2 does more than you would expect from an amp this "digital". Its MM phono stage was added "by popular request" with the V2, and it is no afterthought: it has accurate RIAA, an infrasonic filter (useful with warped records) and very low noise — some compare it to a three-hundred-euro separate. You connect the turntable directly, without adding anything.

The limit is the one common to the others: it is MM only, so with a moving coil you need an external MC preamp. But for those who listen to vinyl with an MM and also want wireless streaming in the same machine, the D 3020 V2 is the only one of the five that covers both worlds with no compromise on connectivity.

The D 3020 V2 is the feature champion of the ranking, and the only one with wireless streaming. This is where an apparent oddity in the scores is explained: on the mean of the four criteria it reaches 7.4, level with the Cambridge AXA35 (third) — yet it stays fifth. It is not a contradiction. The very high specification lifts its mean, while the Class D character lowers it exactly where our ranking looks first: the sound on vinyl. The Cambridge reaches the same 7.4 by the opposite route — clean analogue sound and value, with few functions.

Against the others: the Rega io and the Cambridge are more musical in analogue but have no digital or Bluetooth; the Marantz PM6007 has the DAC and digital inputs, but wired, not wireless. The NAD is the only contemporary one of the group: vinyl, a DAC and aptX streaming in one design object. It is the choice for those who live by mixed sources and do not want a tower of boxes.

The D 3020 V2 is the centre of a modern, compact system: a turntable with an MM cartridge in the phono input, a phone or laptop via Bluetooth, a TV or streamer in the digital inputs, all in a machine that stands vertically in little space. With the subwoofer output you easily build a 2.1, and the pre-out lets you expand in future.

With 30 HybridDigital watts it drives the efficient bookshelf speakers of our ranking well, even in rooms that are not tiny, thanks to PowerDrive. It is the right amp for the contemporary living room or the quality desktop, where vinyl lives alongside streaming — less so for the purist chain in the style of the £800 system, where analogue character comes first.