Dear follow audiophiles,
Imaging that your high-end gear, your gorgeous turntable, pick-ups and arms, your record collection, record cleaner and phone stage, your SACD, NAS drive and DAC, your preamp and monoblocks and a snake’s nest full of cables are all gone. What is left is a single, lonely box. And a pair of speakers, of course. This is not very fun, not much to play with. One box does not make an audiophile. I would argue that a couple of recent developments should make you sell all of your gear, except for your speakers, and buy that one box.
Are you pursuing the most accurate music reproduction? A wealth of high-resolution audio, including a rapidly growing catalog of MQA-encoded material, is now readily available from streaming services. And what is a more logical concept for processing this digital stream than the direct digital powered DAC, a design first implemented in integrated NAD amplifiers?
The source. Why turntables, SACD and NAS drives when lossless audio is so available and convenient to access from streaming services? Are you deliberately seeking the coloration of the sound by the turntable or do you simply think it looks smashing? Today, music is mastered in the digital domain and whatever is produced, MQA delivers to you. Why would you go the analogue route via vinyl and deliberately introduce distortion of the source?
The amplification. NAD’s direct digital powered DACs are computers, and as such lossless, with the exception of the digital to analogue conversion of the signal right before the speaker terminals. While the NADs have received lots of praise, direct digital powered DAC technology can surely be further refined. One day we may even see a tube-based solution.
No one really seems to get that the combination of lossless streaming of high resolution audio and technology such as that introduced by NAD is about to make your gear obsolete. Streaming and that one box is so much more affordable than your record collection and rack of high-end gear, and the combination holds potential to source and reproduce music more accurately. Maybe this is not what you want and that is fine too.
Disclaimer: I am a very satisfied owner of a NAD M32 with BlueOS module. This NAD seems to be reviewed by John Atkinson, so look out.
Soren
Dear follow audiophiles,
Imaging that your high-end gear, your gorgeous turntable, pick-ups and arms, your record collection, record cleaner and phone stage, your SACD, NAS drive and DAC, your preamp and monoblocks and a snake’s nest full of cables are all gone. What is left is a single, lonely box. And a pair of speakers, of course. This is not very fun, not much to play with. One box does not make an audiophile. I would argue that a couple of recent developments should make you sell all of your gear, except for your speakers, and buy that one box.
Are you pursuing the most accurate music reproduction? A wealth of high-resolution audio, including a rapidly growing catalog of MQA-encoded material, is now readily available from streaming services. And what is a more logical concept for processing this digital stream than the direct digital powered DAC, a design first implemented in integrated NAD amplifiers?
The source. Why turntables, SACD and NAS drives when lossless audio is so available and convenient to access from streaming services? Are you deliberately seeking the coloration of the sound by the turntable or do you simply think it looks smashing? Today, music is mastered in the digital domain and whatever is produced, MQA delivers to you. Why would you go the analogue route via vinyl and deliberately introduce distortion of the source?
The amplification. NAD’s direct digital powered DACs are computers, and as such lossless, with the exception of the digital to analogue conversion of the signal right before the speaker terminals. While the NADs have received lots of praise, direct digital powered DAC technology can surely be further refined. One day we may even see a tube-based solution.
No one really seems to get that the combination of lossless streaming of high resolution audio and technology such as that introduced by NAD is about to make your gear obsolete. Streaming and that one box is so much more affordable than your record collection and rack of high-end gear, and the combination holds potential to source and reproduce music more accurately. Maybe this is not what you want and that is fine too.
Disclaimer: I am a very satisfied owner of a NAD M32 with BlueOS module. This NAD seems to be reviewed by John Atkinson, so look out.
Soren