NADPP4 Digital Phono USB Preamplifier

I bought the NAD PP4 primarily to transfer my vinyl to digital and some taped content in the future. This is a first rate piece of equipment and the software is nearly perfect to accomplish all that is needed. I use an old Ortofon moving coil cartridge for my recording with mostly very clean vinyl recordings and the results rival the very best high quality purely digital recordings. NAD is a well known known for the high quality of its products and this preamp is no exception.I have seen the negative reviews. I can only surmise that there was a lack of understanding between a moving coil and a moving magnet cartridge. If you don't know the difference you are 99% likely to be using a moving magnet (mm) cartridge. If you misuse this product I suspect it is possible to fry it. There is a youtube video on the NAD pp3 which operates in virtually the same way as the pp4, but I would suggest NAD provide instructions for this product. Still, it is a phono preamp stage that you would find in any older receiver.The VinylStudio Lite software that comes with the preamp is excellent but I upgraded to the full version at $29.95 for the simple reason of seamlessly putting my music on iTunes. It's worth it to me, but you can save the money if you want and still do the conversions manually. It is very good software. I had an album that had a lot of crackle in some of the tracks and the software cleaned it up almost magically. I've also had a couple of skips that had to be repaired and while it's not exactly simple, I had never used the software and was still able to figure it all out in a short amount of time to produce a final result that is completely clean.I couldn't be happier with the hardware and the software and highly recommend the NAD PP4

I'm not sure if the unit was defective or it is just a poorly designed piece of equipment. My disappointment with this item come from after I hooked it to my phonograph and receiver, I had to turn the volume up at least twice as loud on the phonograph to reach a reasonable listening level as I did for the same sound level from the tuner or CD player. Then after about 15 minutes at this level I started to hear a lot of distortion and very quickly the sound would fade to nothing. If I unplugged the preamp for a few minutes the sound would come back on but would not stay, would just distort and fade out again.I am highly disappointed because I looked forward to transferring my record collection to my compute,r and in the NAD brand that I always thought provided a good quality product.

Great sound. Notable improvement over my mid level receiver's phono preamp. USB AD converter works great for recording vinyl. Unlike many phono preamps with USB, this unit allows adjustment of output level to prevent clipping.Not sure about the other low ratings, and reports of malfunction. I have not experienced any of these. I'm quite pleased with this device.

The initial device shipped was not factory new and had a bad power adapter. Amazon made a timely replacement with a new, working unit.Setup took only minutes and 45 minutes later I had an LP converted to FLAC files. My initial listen is that there is a minor sacrifice made in the analog-to-digital conversion. But, (a) this is NAD quality circuits and (b) the opinion is subjective as I do not have test equipment to do a real comparison. For the quality/value, the prices is very reasonable compared to McIntosh or Music Hall.

Absolutely perfect

I had mine for several years until sound started becoming distorted and muffled. Nothing could be done to return the unit back into normal working condition, so I had to throw it out.I can't say I know where the failure occurred, but I have noticed that phono amps with volume controls tend to be more expensive.After owning this unit, I have owned three other phono amps with USB out.Pro-Ject USB - this was an earlier version of their entry-level amp. I have a Denon 103R cart, and this unit has only two settings- MM and MC. The MC setting had too much gain, and audio sent via USB to the computer was sometimes clipped. MM was better, but really quiet. Overall sound was good, though there was audible noise when you cranked the volume.Parasound ZPhono USB - this good-looking, feature-rich amp produced interference hums so bad it reminded me of AM radio reception. These hums seemed to have some connection to how the power and audio cables overlapped, where the unit was positioned in relation to the receiver below it, etc. I never could figure it out, and don't have the space to get it away from everythign else. Sound-wise, it was very close to the Pro-Ject above, with less hiss and perhaps a bit more treble. If the unit hadn't had the hum problems, I would have been happy with it.Pro-Ject Phono Box DS2 USB - A total pleasure. I hope it lasts. It's like the above except that it is astoundingly quiet and works perfectly. Great sound. You get what you pay for- save your money and buy quality!

Better off getting an NAD true Pre-Amp for about the same money off of EBay.

None of the settings works. No guide is provided for setting up the pre-amp. The free software that one is asked to download for it gives contradictory information that never produces a functional response. This is one of the worst purchase erros I have made in a long time. If I could give a "-5 stars" rating, I would. An utter waste of time and money.

I have always loved and trusted NAD. Didn’t know much about their phono preamps but went with NAD over Cambridge or Project, and am very satisfied. Retailer listed as used but product was well packaged and looks new, plus shipped quicker than expected.

Item was delivered as promised. Works great; no problems. Would recommend.

Great preamp for the money. Great option if you want to convert your vinyl to digital. Sounds great as well.

Easy to set up on iMac: simply plug into USB and go. Very pleased with results.