ROOM SERVICE: the NAD Masters M33 delivers!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- Camera: Olaf von Voss | Editor: John Darko | Motion GFX: John Darko
PATREON: / johndarko ← track IDs & music playlists are here
NAD M33 introduction (US$4999 / €4999 / £3999):
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NAD M33 features and specifications:
nadelectronics...
Dirac Live:
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A BIG thank you to Terry Ellis at Pursuit Perfect System:
www.pursuitper...
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Watch these three videos first for background information on BluOS and Dirac...
Bluesound Powernode 2i:
• Escape the 'world of c...
NAD Masters M10:
• #futurefi? #kallaxfi? ...
Dali Callisto 2C:
• At home with the Dali ...
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Also seen in this video…
Mytek Brooklyn AMP:
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Drop x Sennheiser 6XX:
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Bowers & Wilkins PX7:
• Thrills and spills wit...
JBL L100 Classic:
• Back to the future w/ ...
Hegel H390:
• Passive vs. active wit...
Klipsch Forte III:
• The Klipsch Forte III ...
Rega Planar 2 + Zu Denon DL-103r:
• Back to the future w/ ...
Chord HUEI:
chordelectroni...
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#futurefi #dirac #nad
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Please ensure your comment is 1) on topic, 2) advances the conversation, 3) free of URLs and 4) devoid of conspiracy theories and hubris. Most of all: keep it civil.
Sounds like fun! 😂👍
I love your way of describing amps and how they make you feel John rather than regurgitating list of meaningless specs. This looks like a great product albeit a bit pricey. Apart from the reviews, I look forward to your videos as they are a great source of new music to listen too. I have just added several more of your tracks to this weeks playlist. 👍👍👍👍👍
John? 2 months ago you shared a video of the cambridge cxn.
Are you able to compare the sound of the nad with the cambridge on dac usage? With spotify, is there a difference in sound and which sounds better to you? Whats the main difference?
Sorry. No idea. I've not done that comparison. ALL that I did is IN the video.
Hi John... how is NAD M33 compared to Hegel H390... Please advice
Great video John and thanks for mentioning me in your video, especially at the end :) It was fun working with you
As a complete aside: This is the first time I've heard Jungle/DNB mentioned with respect to anything audiophile related, and as a longtime fan of the genre, it absolutely made my day.
⚡💯👽
The best 25 minuttes you can spend on a glorius sunday ! Perfect video, so good video work ! Thanks
with a huge music content, too ;)
John, I'm a super lo tech hifi Guy (tubes and vinyl) and your channel focuses on high tech yet despite that I have to say your info and production is super compelling. Your content is consistently super high level, great work man!
NAD used to have an MDC module with a USB-B input. It is not available anymore, unfortunately. Hopefully there will be a newer version of it in the future.
Niels Christiaans stay tuned.
I can ask them and let you know if there is one planned.
I just love how you mention each & every song album you play & how it's different.. Love it. Great job John 👏❤️
Bought this device. It's awesome. But, there is a 100ms delay in the audio due to BluOS processing. This is a known issue in these devices and therefore I have to ship it back. I'm unable to DJ or play any instrument or use it for any monitoring purposes. Cinema integration is also troublesome due to this delay, lip sync issues are there and unsolvable.
Yeah, I gave up on my room and, for my digital streaming and storage, invested in a minidsp STUDIO with Dirac. I also gave up on trying to negotiate different speaker placement in our living room. I still do not use room correction on SACD or vinyl. I’m very pleased with the results fro the application of Dirac, very pleased indeed. The improvement is too obvious to give it up. Years ago, I tried the dspeaker Anti-mode and really didn’t like what it did across the frequency range. With Dirac, my speakers still sound like Revel speakers, only better.
Around 40 years ago my brother built a pair of Klipschorn copies from a company called Speakerlab. Klipsch's patent had run out so legal to do so. Long story short as they are always placed in corners the room effects were amplified and overall sounded pretty lumpy. I was working as an audio salesman (and still am) and had access to the just introduced Shure 615 equalization analyzer. After a learning curve we managed to smooth out the response with the analyzer combined with a Soundcraftman equalizer. We were stunned at the difference in the main seating position! Several of my audio salesman friends thought it was the best system they ever heard. I use Dirac all the tiime now and currently use an M10 with a M33 demo on the way shortly(also use MInidsp) so I would suspect anyone with Klipschorns would love the results with Dirac, although admittedly I have never tried it. DSP room correction is the future of home audio IMHO.
The best video you made in the past 9 months! Please consider reviewing Lyngdorf’s Room Perfect, because I am considering purchasing one of their products and would like to know how it compares with a Dirac product. Thanks in advance.
Mike Young +1, really want to hear Johns comparison between the two Room Correction systems aswell!
Mike Le Kruse Madsen Yes, many viewers would be interested in this review/comparison.
@@mlkm87 I have Lyngdorf 2170. And ordinary smaller living room (cca 5x4 m). On Xavian Ambra bookshelf speakers engaging Room Perfect slightly bettered sound but on Audio Physic Tempo 25 it is useless. Too much thin dry sound. Lyngdorf said RP will not bettering sound on all speakers. Its nice amp but iam only using (in case of strong heavy bass) predefined 2 bass corection (called OPEN and MORE OPEN), which are very helpfull. But many people praised RP not so many like me do not.
Yes, and through in the MARS system as well! I love the 'idea' of room correction. Hard to wrap one's head around altering the signal on purpose though!
I been a fan of NAD for over 22 years and use their Equipment since then. At the moment I use the NAD C-388 and Im happy with it did not have the time to experiment with the Dirac yet .The new NAD integrate is a way forward and I never regretted to switch to D power.Thanks for the great review and I do appreciate that you always have a open mind and review equipment that has a forward looking view.
As a convert to Sonarworks last year, I can vouch for how effective it and Dirac must be to improving your music listening experience. If done properly and preferably after a bit of room acoustic treatment first, it's a revelation!
Had the opportunity to hear the M33 with Dirac hooking it up with B&W 804s, it's very very impressive
Cerwin Vegas sound impressive with Dirac
Just a note the packaging for this is the same weight as the amp. So be prepared if like me you bought it whilst travelling on a bus its like carrying home a small teenager!
Hi John, I am 59 and have been into hi end audio since I was 12, really. I agree with you , ranting about analog versus digital is becoming a mute point as the technology moves forward we are not living in 1990 when digital was crap. I also have been Involved in professional audio both the studio and live settings. The end result is the thing my ears what to hear. That said getting your room the best it can be is the way to go and then use what you need.
System/ lots of tubes , turntables, DACS/ Vandersteen 5 and magnepan . People have fun, go see live music ,if you can and buy some nice wine. 😷❤️🇨🇦
The NAD M33 is $7,000 in Canada. Canadian dollars, but that means I can get three NAD C388 amps for that money and still buy a decent DAC from Schiit Audio.
Now that is interesting. NAD generally owns warmth and smoothness. For it to be leaner than the Hegel, departure from character past. ClassD
im loving beirut right now... half the fun of your reviews is all the music you talk about... having room and being able to have all the info of the artists as I listen along is great just love it. cheers darko
My experience with various room correction software; appear to "fix" some things which seduce you into believing they're better but ultimately screw with the sound. Better to spend time with speaker placement and room treatments, which you should do anyway. Genelec appear to have the best solution to date as they have complete control and worth reading up on. It's very early days for these solutions.
Neil Gaydon Well if you don’t believe in tone controls etc then ok, but for me the ability to tune the frequency response of the system to suit the room and get the sound w3 like seems like the way to go.
Have you tried Dirac? It's really good....or have I been seduced? One day I'll learn I guess.
I have an M10 and was initially dubious especially using it with phono. After using Dirac just for the low range NAD give you for free I immediately paid for the full range Dirac. It took some practice to get it right but Dirac is a game changer.
Way Out West! Oh that takes me back.
John, I really love your reviews and this one prompted me to buy a MiniDSP SHD (so I could room correct my turntable as well with DIRAC without throwing away the rest of my stereo to buy the NAD). I just wanted to give you one bit of advice about your episode on relying on “experts,” which would on the surface seem pretty sound advice. I’ve had as many as 40 electrical engineers reporting to me before and I would like to share with you that they very frequently disagree, sometimes very passionately, even though they all went to top tier schools and all graduated near the top of their classes. The great adventure in life is figuring out which ones are actually right, because many of them aren’t.
Keep up the great work. I love that nothing sounds more “musical” to you. That term was always incomprehensible to me too.
Great vid, could you please just pass a quick comment on how you felt the NAD compared to the Hegel ‘after’ applying Dirac? I understood that before Dirac then the NAD had more insight but was not as smooth; the comments from the Dirac application implies it (with your/Terrys tweaks) brought smoothness to it. Can we conclude then that resulted in the NAD being better across the board (I.e now just as smooth but also the extra detail insight)? Thank you.
Yes, I am a "vinyl guy," and no it is not always a mistake to digitize a turntable signal. I digitize the bottom couple octaves of ALL of my sources because there are not a lot of good analog alternatives in the market for bass room correction. Also, some records that I want to listen to I purchased in "less than pristine" condition, and they benefit from pop and tick correction through my SweetVinyl SC-2 which converts the phono stage output to 24/192 before correction. I also use Audyssey (full-band) room correction for video (home theater) sources. All of these thing have their place, as does upper-band full-analog output from high-quality vinyl.
Fatherhood is definitely on my top 90's album list. One of the reasons I watch your video is your music taste.
was about to comment something similar after seeing him play forest drive west. somewhat pleasasant to see an audio gear channel that isn't just a dude testing the gear with zeppelin and floyd haha
MUSIC PRODUCERS BEWARE! It's is a great amp acoustically, I love it. I have the M33 but the problem with NAD amps no one is talking about is latency! If you want to play anything live, like putting the stylus on the record, the gap between action and sound is seconds! So when I try to play some ideas in my living room for music production for example, the latency makes its impossible to use. So its only good for Spotify streaming or digital listening, anything analog or music production it falls apart.... not sound wise but timing wise.
Wow, this is the defining next step in what’s to come. A great video as usual, thank you.
NAD chief designer and Director for Marketing state that the remote was designed to ensure that users need not complain about misplaced remotes anymore. 😬
Is that the industrial designer or electronic?
Great review! Thanks! I'm glad that your recent reviews became more dynamic and live in terms of information delivery to your current and future subscribers. Great job! Once again, thanks!
Thank you John. The longer I've had my little old Bluesound Node 2.1, the happier I am with it. So, in a few years, I'll make the big JUMP to the NAD M33. BluOS reminds me of the MacOS--most days, it just works. (And I used to work in a PC lab). Great review, and thanks for the detail targeting potential users.
You could also look at the Nad C658 for less...
Great review, you kept me engaged until the end , Thanks for being unbiased especially when it comes to the digitizing of the vinyl signal and the room correction program. I learned a lot about the versatility of these modern units. You can have it all with good sound in one box, that in it's self is tough to get my gearhead brain around. I think i might be ready to try a modern class D amplifier,,, well maybe in a month or two!
There is an extra stage of conversion required to input non Sony/Phillips digital data, where schist had to make a special interface. And not essential as it requires special circuitry to implement correctly.
Someone tell me if the M33 has any type of home theater pass through, if it has this I am all in...John I love your channel and your demeanor, keep doing what you do!
google it
Hi John,
And thanks for the excellent review, something that I would find very interesting would be a comparison between a Lyngdorf TDAI-3400. I think Peter Lyngdorf is involved in the Eigentakt amplifier also and both have room correction, Class D, Streaming, similar pricing and so on.
It's all fun and games until someone gets pointed in the eye with an M33 remote!
Thanks for the in depth look at this, and it was great to hear the development background of the anno section in the podcast. I use powered speakers so actually would like a "super preamp" version of this
It does have pre out connections, looking at the rear board at 6:37 - isn't that enough for powered speakers?
Did he just insult the red hot chilli peppers?!
Quality content as always. Love the transitions.
Yes he did! Unforgivable! :D
Glad you reviewed the M33. I have been waiting for months to find a video review, glad it was you. I would be curious if you would consider reviewing some of the MDC modules in future videos? Thanks for the quality videos.
Me too. I saw it on his shelf in a previous video.
The dirac stuff interests me. I wondered about trying a minidsp in my room for low frequency management.
I am getting one, but i won't be using dirac. some good studies published recently that dirac creates audible nulls while trying to iron out inaudible "problems." But i love that this unit sounds good, is light weight, and is effectively a useful all in one. Thanks for the review.
Nice to hear that Terry worked his magic for you..... Superb video on a very clever unit 👍🏻
I think it's so difficult to pick whether I like m33 or 390 the most because i like characteristics in both of them 😶
I just bought you a cup of coffee on Patreon - keep up the good work! ... I'll reach out to Terry for a remote Dirac calibration once I get the M33.. Cheers
I'm going to reach out to Terry too for Dirac calibration when I get my NAD M33. Hope you have a good experience!
I briefly had a NAD integrated w/BluOS and didn't care for it. It was extremely position sensitive and very spotty. I prefer WiFi streaming. The Wifi streaming, to me, sounds so much better than Bluetooth.
Indeed it does!
Terry has a great channel 👍
Interesting box. Started my hi-fi journey with NAD 🤟
Love your stuff. Would love for you to hear a Benchmark Media LA-4/AHB2 stack; another new amp technology.
Adore the way you describe the sound. I've heard this unit and you're 100% spot on. Great work, John!!
Slam dunk! Thanks for the incredible amount of educational material. I don't have anything quite as nice to listen to, but I am still always looking forward to your articles, podcasts, etc. Also, Terry is awesome. Keep it going dude. Eigentakt is so fascinating!
A lot of fun indeed. +1 for the Beirut mention. Nantes is an amazing song.
Great video. I got the M10, and spent a great deal of time in getting the Dirac filters right. I found that correcting to 1KHz or 2Khz worked best for my system rather than going full frequency. I agree with you that It's such a significant difference maker that the amp itself takes a back seat. Only thing it lacks is a bit of power, so I'm quite interested in M33.
Been so looking forward to this...thank you "in advance" for your review and efforts🎶
I only need the streamer, WiFi & 200 watts RMS out of it. So, I think it’s going to be a good fit for me.
Thanks to JD and others who put some very valuable advise on audio gear up online, I've been able to move through this hobby and "ascend" (LOL) up to a simplified Heaven 11 Billie integrated amp, a Lumin D1, Qobuz with Sonus Faber Signums. It might seem this M33 would be a logical upgrade to have even more efficiency/integration and technology (thinking soundstage improvement) but then I do wonder if the emerging world of the "super soundbar" will be the future of hifi with even more integration between amplification/software/drivers?
Do you find that Dirac still maintains the 'life' of the music? I have only had a brief experience of room correction in a Linn demo, with their Space Optimisation technology. The rep was very pleased with the result of turning it on, and I could definitely hear the bass tighten up and the sound become more controlled, but at the expense of all the life and joy of the music being removed. We all came out of the room saying that it sounded better with the room correction turned off.
It is obviously not the same as spending a good amount of time at home setting it up right, but I didn't think it was a very good advert for Linn. I can only hope that they did it in a rush.
Oliver Butcher I had a linn source and space optimisation for a long time and hated their room correction. You measured everything and entered the stats into boxes and what walls and floors were made out of and then it calculates and does it’s thing and your music is gone. Tried lots of things and spent a lot of time with it but hated it. You’re (linn) telling me that SO wants to know that my speakers are on spikes , measure the height, and don’t forget the plinth, yup another ten mm and then it’s supposed to be better? It’s nothing more than an over complex and music robbing graphic equaliser imo!
How have I watched almost all of you videos and not been subscribed, love the channel John :) Thank you for everything you do!
I planing to buy a new amplifier for my Buchard s400 soon and what I take from this video is going with a good amplifier like Hegel h190 (my budget) will make me very happy indeed 👍 one other option are to buy Buchards upcoming class-D amplifier (as a current customer I will get a very good offer) which also has room correction software and Madz Buchard has been promoting this software a lot!! So the big question for ME to answer are, do I want to get into digital domain or not? Tough choice for someone who just want to listen to music.
Really felt from watching that you had fun with this video. Great watch, thanks again.
"General Darko, I've been looking forward to this!"
your stream metaphor is just one of the reasons you are so good
I cannot decide between the M10 v2 and the M33. The M10 would probably be enough, even on my demanding Dynaudio Contour 3.3. But I can't shed the feeling I would miss out on the M33. Which would be a substantially higher investment. Thoughts, anyone?
I would need a Coldplay skip RHCP are fine but Coldplay is wrist slitting bad
Robbie's Incoherent thoughts I must disagree on this one. I am with Mr Darko on the RHCP thing.
Finally, someone who agrees with me 👍
I agree when it comes to 99 percent of their music but have to admit that Im quite fond of a few of their earlier songs.
Thank you. I've been waiting for this review. I want this amp even more now. Now to actually finish building my Purifi speakers.
Thanks John, I’ve been waiting for this for months 👍🏻 appreciate the review
Ha! Red Hot. Yeah. That button would be useful.
I was so near to choosing this amp. I was sceptical on the analogue-to-digital approach, but this has proven my fears unfounded. The only thing that stopped me waiting the extra time for this to hit my local dealer was that it is manufactured in China. I just couldn't bring myself to do it, so I went a more traditional analogue approach and went for a Musical Fidelity M6si instead.
Thanks for the great review once again, John. You are a master of your craft and I love watching your channel.
Musical Fidelity products are made in Taiwan by the way, which is not China of course .
China makes all sort of things. From cheap and miss produced to high-end that requires extreme amounts of presicion.
As a headphone enthusiast, I wish most Integrated amps would give up on the built in headphone jack and just give us loop outs on the back to use your own dedicated headphone amp.
DSP sounds fascinating. It's almost tantamount to having five (in your case) different amplifiers in your room.
My fav remote ever is for the Cary SLP05- tiny. spartanly simple.
Banger Soundtrack!
Great review John ...and you have highlighted one of the fundamental issues and realities of hifi...the importance and difficulties of the listening room. People often spend a lot and/or change equipment often to actually try and adjust and correct fundamental room acoustic problems...often not hifi equipment issues. Therefore it is great that some hifi manufacturers are looking into room correction more seriously as it seems for years consumers have had to follow the old traditional notion of simple clean single path products..due to the dogma of the traditional hifi and anologue listeners and enthusiasts . Luckily things are now changing .
Room correction and equalisers are not better or worse .but just another way to resolve problems ..
as let's be honest very few homes were designed with hifi and good acoustics in mind so its pot luck whether our homes and rooms are ok-ish for hifi or not.
Totally my preference, but I would just run M33/M12 as a preamp to Hegel with Dirac on Soul Sumpreme, and then have a lofi dac alternate for my bad recordings.
Hi John, wondering, in your description of the Hegel sounding a bit more 'meaty' than the NAD, was with or without the Dirac correction turned on? or both? Would love more info on this part. Thanks! Great video
$4999 solution I bet this can beat the V shaped sound of the Uniti Nova and Star from Naim. It is more versatile and Naim can only dream of Dirac. We need to get you some higher end speakers that disappear more.
You had me at RHCP button, great review once again. It’s too bad it can’t stick around for future comparisons, which is what this is all about after all. Cheers!
I'm pretty much sold on getting one of these with the Wharfdale Lintons. Now I just need to find me a deal
The M33 is surely the Alpha of devices of this type. The Apex predator - what a beast it is. And what clever packaging and product design too. It is essentially the 3 in one reimagined for modern times.
Many thanks for your thoughts on this device.
hey John Darko, lovely video! to keep the stuff simple in your nuc/ projector setup; just extract toslink from the projector and done.
I’ve used Dirac room correction for years for home cinema. Last year I got the NAD T758 surround amp with Dirac built in. Finally a receiver that is a pretty good preamp for stereo - very clean, transparent, sweet sounding - but I got it for less than a grand. Adding Dirac is a huge step up from that. I really don’t like things like Audyssey but Dirac keeps your speaker sound intact. It is very good indeed especially in combination with the NAD. The MiniDSP add in boxes can work well for existing two channel set ups. However if you have the money the Lyngdorf Room Perfect system is even better. Most of your sound is from your room, and I am a huge fan of room treatment, but room correction systems are often a very valuable contributor to your system’’s sound quality.
Brightened up my Sunday. Thanks John 👍
Thanks again for a good review.. been looking forward to this amp.. I think it has some really good things going for it..
Wonderful to follow a audio reviewer that embraces audio tech on the level Darko does. A lot of thought have gone in to the description of the sound characteristics of this “super integrated”. Thank you.
Great review -my experience with Dirac was that it made the soundstage sound somewhat restricted. The trick is to not adjust the calibration too far off the natural response of the speakers... and forget about the automatic calibration curves... rubbish. I don't presently use Dirac as a result, but am still interested as well.
Great stuff John. I think this might be the best video I've seen on your channel so far. The only downside is now I desperately want one of these and can't begin to afford it. Not A complaint, only a reality.
Nice review again John . It does look good Didn't you find that it missed bass and pushed the mid range almost until it was false? I ended up buying the Naim Nova and I was really confused as to why the Naim sounded more powerful than the NAD? On paper the NAD should have kicked the Naim to the curb but for me this didn't happen. Any ideas?
I'm still waiting for a trip to Berlin where I would love it if I bring my speakers for you to review :) still dreaming here
Interesting peace of gear that you share with us all here Darko.
Looks like you've been up for a couple of days playing around with dirac and your mind is blown away!
Thanks a lot John, this is the review I was looking for. Great product and great tips.
Thanks for showing the inside!
Great review on many levels, thanks John. Seems logical to me to offer room correction on all sources.
Great review. And good info for those who don't know what Dirac is about. I thought I'd found what I was looking for, but sadly no HT bypass is a deal breaker for me.
The ‘John Holmes ‘ of remote controls !
Wow Dirac on the turntable! Great show. Great job!
How about a review of the Class G Arcam SA30 that will do much the same for £2000. And the matching cd player for £750. That is a big saving John.
Agreed. But you don't get the Eigentakt amps or the BluOS module.
as I have ATC actives I have been thinking please make a pre-amp / streamer version.
M66 looks the dogs danglies for a one box
There is a MDC module for usb sound input if it’s needed.
Very good review. Thank you. Beirut is well an American folk groupI have their record album the flying club cup and it is a gem.This vinyle sounds great 👍🏻
Great video, thank you... I only wish they were more frequent
Does the box digitze the line in signal as well as the phono? If not then it would be a nice way for non believers to A/B test their analogue phono stage v the amps treatment
Yes, all analogue inputs (phono, RCA and XLR) will be digitized because of DIRAC, DSP and BluOS multiroom sync functionality.
Greetings John . I would like to know your opinion: this device will play with the KEF R11 acoustics. thanks for the interesting review and good luck.
I think it was your best vidéo since a long time. By the way I love your Chanel. Congrats ! 😉👍
I wonder at what sampling rate it samples the phono input. Maybe it's quite high. Maybe that's why the digitized turntable sounded better than BluOS? I also sometimes wonder if the reason high bit rate PCM can sound better than 44.1 is maybe because it works around issues in the digital filter.
You say the cartridge is modded in what way? and what is the yellow platter mat.
Well if you're a vinyl enthusiast you don't need to use digital DSP you can use ASP analogue source processing, what works in the same way has digital source processing, and you can use analogue EQ ing as well with a valve parametric EQ, you don't need to go anywhere near digital. Plus you can use an active crossover as well do the same thing that's what dirac live is but in the digital domain