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| dmitchell |
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Gonna have the new NAD M51 DAC soon on loan from my dealer.
Will post a review!
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| N1ck |
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Wholly Sh!T man!!! That is awesome. Will you have it long enough to break it in? I hope you try it as a pre amp as well as people are raving about the volume control. Although the 840's VC is stellar.
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| dmitchell |
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Not sure about it yet Nick. It may be a pass-around from NAD, so in that case it'll be fully broken in. I'd really like to hear it as a pre, for sure. It does come with a remote!
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| dmitchell |
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The DAC is here.... looks brand new in the box. The manager wasn't in today, so I couldn't find out if it is a broken in unit that's been passed around or not.
The protective tape is still on the display window, though.
Have it hooked up, but haven't had a chance to try it out yet.
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| N1ck |
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I am giddy. Dont let me down M51 you sexy Masters Series DAC you.
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| dmitchell |
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It. Is.
Awesome.
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| Dan |
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Supposed to be one heck of a DAC. I guess it's likely the new king at the $2K price point.
Looks great too. One of the best looking NAD items I've ever seen. I like the look of their new receivers too.
Enjoy it while you've got it Dave!
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| dmitchell |
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Thanks Dan.
From a first impression (I listened to about 5 songs on quickly tonight, different genres), I'm actually thinking of keeping it.
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| N1ck |
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Once it settles in and you get more time in with it I would be interested in seeing how it does as a pre amp as well. Apparently its volume control is top notch. Like 840 territory top notch without the clicking.lol. Pre Amp/DAC with HDMI 2.0 passthrough = Shwing!! How does it feel Dave? Solid?
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| dmitchell |
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Yeah Nick, it's very solid. It's a little lighter than the Audiolab, but then again, the Audiolab has all the CDP player internals too. I guess that adds a bit of weight. I think it weighs in at about 9 kg. The front faceplate is thick, solid silver metal (aluminum?) and the body is black.
That's the plan - to try it as a pre-amp. I haven't even taken the remote control out of the packaging yet.... I think a digital front end paired with a tube power amp would be awesome.
Hmmmmmm.......
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| dmitchell |
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Found a major issue with the NAD DAC last night.
I hooked up my computer via USB, installed the NAD driver direct from their website, and the music was full of distortion and static - like to the point where I was afraid it was going to shred my speakers.
Tried using a generic USB driver, as well as changing the bit depth and sample rate on the source - same issue.
I'm wondering if the unit is actually defective.
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| N1ck |
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I wonder if NAD knows about this issue already Dave. Like a firmware upgrade or something. I would call them in Pickering and see what they say. It would appear on the forum everyone is having USB issues. A lot of blaming it on the driver but I wonder if it has something to do with a handshake issue with the new USB they are trying to use. Who knows. I sure don't. lol. Hopefully an updated driver or firmware will get it resolved.
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| dmitchell |
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Heard back from NAD already via my dealer. To me, it smells of a "known issue".
Their response was "It’s possible that the USB is defective, and if the case we would certainly address it.".
You have any links handy to forums where people are finding the same issue?
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| dmitchell |
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BTW, the reason I even tried USB is that I wanted to get away from relying on sound cards. My thinking is that by using USB instead of a PCI device, I would negate or bypass a lot of the noise inherent in a computer environment.
There's theoretically no reason why USB, if implemented properly, cannot sound as good as SPDIF. What do you think Nick?
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| N1ck |
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http://www.head-fi.org/t/602771/nad-m51-direct-digital-dac-impressions/195
Some peeps speaking of USB issues. You think its actually hardware related or simple a first gen firmware glitch with specific type of USB ports. Have you tried you laptop straight to it instead of the HP?
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| dmitchell |
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Thanks Nick.
Trying with the laptop is a good idea.
Thing is, the same cable and same USB port worked perfectly with the Audiolab DAC, so I'm sure it's the NAD.
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| N1ck |
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Your probably right Dave. The only reason why I would try that still is because the USB technology is claimed to be different then what we have seen so far in DAC's. So maybe its a sync issue with specific motherboard chipsets or something to that effect. It seems like some guys have issues with it and some don't.
As far as USB goes on DAC's, the type of USB connectivity the NAD presents definitely has the ability to be as good as any other connection. Typical DAC's with regular USB, not so much. lol. The motherboard I used in my music server has Optical and COAX on board, when I added a card that also had this to get the Balanced output I could not hear a definite difference in sound when going from onboard to the card. Although that of course would vary depending on the system too. So you may find different results Dave.
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| dmitchell |
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Just tried out the USB input with my laptop as well. Same issue....
Das DAC ist kaput.
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| N1ck |
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That sucks Dave. Since it is under 30 days old to you is your dealer simply going to replace it?? Maybe try USB right in the store?
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| dmitchell |
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Nah, I only took it home as a trial. I'll be bringing the pooched unit back. Not sure if I'll try another one.
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