STEREOPHILE's 2020 Product of the Year winner - so what so special about the NAD Masters M33?

" The Ultimate “Just add Speakers” Offering "
(See - NAD M33 webpage)

FEATURES:

- NAD's flagship streaming DAC-amplifer
- >200 Wpc continuous into 8 Ohms, >380Wpc into 4 Ohms
- Employs Purifi 'HybridDigital Purifi (Denmark) Eigentakt™ Amplifier Technology... "to eliminate harmonic and intermodulation distortion and allows for an even, wide and load-invariant frequency response with negligible output impedance"
- LCD touchscreen display
- 6 digital inputs, coax, Toslink, HDMI eARC (Are you there, michaelw? )
- 3 analogue inputs, RCA & Balanced
- High quality MM & MC phono stage
- Discrete headphone amplifier
- 2 sets of speaker outputs, bi-wiring capable
- Subwoofer Output with a fully configurable Digital Crossover
- Airplay 2 and Bluetooth AptX-HD
- 32-BIT/384kHz ESS Sabre DAC
- BluOS High Res multi-room music streaming
- DIRAC Live Room Correction
- MDC Slots for future expansion
- IR In with learning function

US$4999 / £3999 / NZ$8499

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

STEREOPHILE's Kal Rubinson - review:


" ...notably transparent... soundstage was full and wide and there was the impression of significant weight and body... "

" Overall, it was quite thrilling, as music and as sound. "

" the M33's Purifi technology is fully competitive (with) that used in more expensive, separate power amps. Class-D without any ifs or buts. "






(200wpc - where's the big heatsinks? Purifi claims that their amplifier modules are 94% efficient.)

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

HI-FI NEWS - review:


"...whether playing analogue or digital sources, streaming from a network store or accessing an online service, this 'BluOS Streaming DAC Amplifier' is nothing short of exceptional

" The phono stage is extremely good "

" crisp and clean... bags of detail... superb dynamics... seems unburstably powerful... without any sign of hardening or edginess. "

" All the system you could ever want? The M33 has a strong claim to that description... "

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

DARKO Audio:

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

I still dont see many Magico owners being convinced Owen...

Perhaps its the lingering legacy of the 3020 ? And NAD still being thought of as a budget brand ?

It's not made for the Magico market, I suspect.

DarkLantern blog - darklanternforowen.wordpress.com

HDMI input !

I'm in