5080 Turntable
Date of manufacture : ? - Jan 81
Please note that this document contains the text from the original product brochure, and some technical statements may now be out of date
The NAD 5020A and 5080A turntables are precisely engineered products employing the best in modern
materials technology. They combine first-class record playing performance, long-term reliability,
convenient operation, and an economical purchase price.
THE TONE ARM
In principle the job of a turntable is simple: to suspend the pickup cartridge in mid-air while spinning the
record under it. But since the record may contain groove modulations as small as a wavelength of light,
this job must be executed with extreme accuracy. The tone arm must be stable, rigid, vibration-free,
friction-free, and very low in inertia so as not to alter or impede the tracking of the groove by the stylus.
Both NAD turntables employ the same high-quality tone arm. It is a straight tube, made of black-
anodised low-resonance aluminum alloy, selected for an optimum combination of low mass and high
rigidity. The open-frame plug-in headshell is molded from light-weight resonance-absorbing carbon
fibre. The total effective mass of the tone arm, referred to the stylus tip, is a mere 10 grams-half that of
some well known tone arms. The arm pivots on jewelled bearings whose friction is only a few
thousandths of a gram! These features ensure agile tracking of even the most warped records-and they
guarantee that, regardless of what phono cartridge you choose to use, from a budget model to the
most refined moving-coil pickup, its full performance will be realised in this arm. When a pickup
cartridge is installed in any pivoted tone arm the adjustment of stylus “overhang” is critical to ensure
that the stylus will be tangent to the groove at all points on the record. In the new NAD tone arm this
adjustment has been made easy: the cartridge carrier rides in parallel grooves in the headshell, allowing
the cartridge to be moved back-and-forth with no fear of twisting; and cartridge alignment guidelines
are conveniently molded into the underside of the platter mat.
AUTOMATIC OPERATION, FRONT-MOUNTED CONTROLS
While you may operate the tone arm by hand if you wish, a simple shift of the control lever provides
fully automatic operation: the platter starts rotating, the arm moves to the lead-in groove and lowers
the stylus, then at the end of the record the arm lifts and returns to its rest while the motor shuts off.
The cycling mechanism is made of low-friction Delrin for extremely quiet, smooth operation, and it is
completely disengaged from the arm except during cycling operations. Since there are no linkages
attached to the arm, the convenience of automatic operation is obtained with absolutely no compromise
in the arm’s excellent record-playing performance.
For still greater operating convenience the turntable controls (including the cueing lever for raising and
lowering the arm) are located along the front edge of the base (plinth), making it easy for you to play
records with the dust cover closed.
TURNTABLE
Drive system
Direct drive
Speeds
33.3 and 45.1 rpm
3%
0.10% DIN peak
-68dB (DIN B weighted)
Speed adjustment
Wow and flutter
Signal/Noise ratio
TONEARM
Operation
Fully automatic (Cue & start, lift & stop at end of record)
Length
Effective mass
Overhang
208mm pivot to stylus
10grams
17mm
Lateral tracking error
Cable capacitance
0.38º
170pF
Remote
NAD Link
No
No
PHYSICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions (W x H x D)
Net weight
450 x 156 x 365mm
5.5kg
7.7kg
Shipping weight
Dimensions are of unit’s cabinet without attached feet; add up to 18mm for total height.
Dimension depth excludes terminals, sockets, controls and buttons.
© NAD Electronics. All rights reserved. E & OE
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