CD/SACD-проигрыватели и транспорты — NAD C 589

The C 589 is a single-disc CD player in the Classic series of NAD Electronics, the Canadian company founded in 1972 whose products are now sold in more than 80 countries. It was announced on 22 April 2026 at a suggested price of USD 1,399 and CAD 1,999, while the current US price is USD 1,699. The player is built only for compact disc and adds MQA CD decoding, a balanced converter stage and a full set of digital outputs so that it can also act as a transport. It sits above the C 538, which appeared in early 2018, and is finished in black only.

Key specs that matter

Frequency response is 20 Hz to 20 kHz within 0.3 dB. Total harmonic distortion is no more than 0.005% at 1 kHz, noise sits at least 115 dB below signal with A-weighting and channel separation reaches at least 110 dB. Output level is 2.2 V from the RCA sockets and 4.4 V from the XLR sockets. The chassis measures 435 x 83 x 294 mm and weighs 5.1 kg, or 6.6 kg boxed. Idle consumption is up to 20 W and standby under 0.5 W.

Engineering and use context

The digital-to-analogue stage is built around an ESS ES9039PRO chip in a fully balanced configuration. NAD pairs it with QRONO d2a, a processing method from MQA Labs meant to improve timing and reconstruction accuracy when the digital signal is turned back into analogue. The Dynamic Digital Headroom circuit, known as DDH, is there to remove the distortion that appears when reconstructed waveforms between samples exceed full scale. The transport uses a precision disc loader and a laser pick-up chosen for accurate tracking, and the mechanism is engineered for quiet running. A large display on the front panel reads CD Text, showing artist and track names where the disc carries them, and a remote handset is supplied. On the digital side the player offers AES/EBU, coaxial and optical outputs.

Pairing

The balanced XLR outputs connect directly to integrated amplifiers and preamplifiers with balanced inputs, which suits NAD models such as the C 399 or C 389, while RCA covers any line input. Owners who already use a separate DAC can bypass the internal converter and feed it from the AES/EBU, coaxial or optical socket, using the C 589 purely as a disc transport, and simple press-and-play operation means the player needs no setup beyond cabling.

Alternatives

The NAD C 538 is a simpler CD player from the brand, launched at USD 399 with a Wolfson 24-bit DAC and playback of MP3 and WMA discs in a 3 kg chassis.