another NAD 304 whit the red light on... (2024)

Hi,

I inherited a NAD 304 with the same problem mentioned above, except mine would power up for a second or so (green light on) and play music, but then you'd hear a click and the red light would come on (the yellow light being on or not, just depends on the position of the "soft clipping" switch on the rear of the amplifier, so ignore it for this fault). Powering off then on repeats the same scenario.

I've read through a number of posts on here about this issue, and thought I'd try replacing R333, and R334 with a pair of 47K, 1 Watt, metal film resistors, as suggested in posts. You can easily get to these by unscrewing the panel on the bottom to get to the solder joints - no need to take it all apart. I'm happy to say this has cured my issue, and I haven't had to do anything else. I've had it on for several hours, so am happy that it's going to be a good repair. The original resistors looked fine, but when I measured them after removal they both seem to be open circuit.
Now when you turn it on you get the red light for a couple of seconds, then a click and the green light comes on and it all works fine. When you switch off the red light comes on for a few seconds (as the power supply capacitors drain I'd imagine), this seems correct to me.
I've attached a few pictures so anyone else attempting this repair can find R333, and R334 easily. They're the large (1 Watt) pink resistors.
Hope this helps others, and thanks to all for the great resource this site is.

Rob