NAD – C 588 Turntable

High-Precision Playback, Vibration-Dampening Build, and a 9-Inch Carbon-Fiber Tonearm in an Audiophile Turntable, at a Modest Price: NAD C 588 Includes Pre-Mounted Ortofon 2M Red Cartridge

NAD’s elegant C 588 turntable may look conventional but its extraordinary value is anything but normal. Focusing on sound first, last, and always, the belt-driven design gives users the smoothness of electronic speed control, the aural superiority of an AC motor with isolated power supply, the accuracy of a 9-inch carbon-fiber tonearm, and proven performance of a factory-installed Ortofon 2M Red cartridge. A supplied alignment-calibration gauge and dust cover reaffirm NAD’s class-leading goals. With C 588, you’ll experience genuine high-end playback of vinyl LPs for a modest cost most other manufacturers cannot dare approach. 100% Music Direct Guaranteed.

“[There] is obvious design talent in the company and it has been utilized to some success to properly voice this deck. And good on the team, I say. They’ve done a grand job.”
—Paul Rigby, The Audiophile Man

High-Precision Synchronous Motor for Smoothness and Accuracy
C 558’s specialized, high-precision, synchronous clock motor is both very smooth and accurate, especially when driven from a stable AC voltage. To ensure a clean and stable AC voltage, NAD isolates the AC mains by first converting it to a clean DC voltage, and then electronically generating the precise AC frequency to regulate the synchronous motor. Using a specially formulated belt to drive the platter further filters and isolates remaining vibration. All rotating parts are made from aluminum alloy machined to very tight tolerances to defeat eccentricity or vibration in the drive system.

Ortofon 2M Red Cartridge and Nine-Inch Carbon-Fiber Tonearm
For extra value, C 588 comes pre-fitted with a high-quality Ortofon 2M Red moving-magnet phono cartridge in a nine-inch carbon-fiber tonearm that offers vertical tracking angle and azimuth adjustment. The tonearm length is chosen to optimize overhang and reduce tracking angle error. To perfectly align the stylus, NAD provides adjustments for azimuth and vertical tracking angle and even includes a gauge to calibrate the alignment.

Parts and Materials Selected to Reduce Vibrations
Reducing spurious vibrations to a minimum is critical to getting the best results when playing vinyl. To isolate external vibrations from the loudspeakers or footfalls bouncing the floor, NAD uses a massive MDF base with specially tuned vibration damping feet, along with a thick, non-resonant dust cover. The glass platter, felt pad, MDF base, and carbon-fiber tonearm work together to eliminate spurious vibration.

C 588 Is Built to Deliver Precise Speed
Having exact pitch (speed) is important but human hearing is much more sensitive to momentary changes in speed, expressed with the terms wow and flutter. As its name sounds, wow is a slow cyclical speed variation. The most severe example is the sound of a severely warped record, where the stylus travels faster on the rising side of the warp and slower on the descending side, causing abrupt changes in musical pitch. Flutter used to describe very fast and small variations usually generated by the motor. Engineers addressed both of these problems with proven and effective solutions.