NAD Model 302

The NAD Model 302 is an integrated amplifier from the early NAD catalog. It's a compact, budget-oriented design that shares the thinking behind the more famous 3020: modest rated power, sensible engineering, and real-world musical performance over spec-sheet bragging. The record on this model is thin and muddled. At least three different production windows appear across sources (1978-1980, 1980-1981, and a suspicious 1998-2001 that almost certainly refers to a different, later NAD product). The late-1970s/early-1980s dating fits the Model 302's lineage. It was preceded by the NAD 3030 and belongs to the same era as the original 3020.

Here is what is reasonably well documented. The Model 302 is a Class A/B design rated at 25 watts per channel into 8 ohms, with a frequency response of 20Hz - 20kHz. It has phono (MM) and line inputs, plus tape. Outputs cover speakers and headphones. The front panel carries the usual tone controls, and the phono stage applies RIAA equalization. Signal-to-noise is quoted at 80dB, and damping factor at 50.

Past that, the archive's sources disagree. Total harmonic distortion appears as both 0.05% and 0.5% at rated output in different references. One is likely a typo, but it's unresolved. Dimensions are given as 430 × 81 × 295 mm in one source and 17.5 × 4.5 × 13.5 inches in another. Weight conflicts too, between 14.3 lbs (6.5 kg) and 18.5 lbs. No original retail price, no period review from a named publication, and no documented common-failure notes have surfaced. The tonepedia record does offer, in paraphrase, that the NAD 302 was regarded as a budget integrated amplifier, which seems fair given its feature set and power rating. Collector-market asking prices on auction sites have generally landed around $100 - $150, though that figure is anecdotal rather than sourced.

Known specs at a glance: