The replacement/update to my NAD M50 has been announced during the Munich High End show- it's a nice looking piece, further improving build quality and features and functionality. Oh, and price, too. It move up market from about $2400 for the original M50 to $3999.
Features:
Still runs a version of BluOS, like the M50, which is fairly capable and mostly only occasionally frustrating :W (that may seem like damning with faint praise, but software is always a tricky topic, and just getting solidly robust playback is considered a significant achievement a few years back...)
One things I'm surprised about is how there are almost no front panel controls- (other than touch TFT panel- hope that works out) I don't like that trend, because that means if the remote is missing or not working, one is well and truly screwed... didn't like that trend in Blu-Ray players, don't like it particularly for an all in one unit as complex as this one is. Reportedly it will be modular like some of the other recent Master series products, with optional modules to plug in (note, one can just barely see the CD slot underneath the front panel touch screen if you look closely at the picture).
There's a lot to like here, EXCEPT, that I really have my heart set on trying out Roon, as it offers the promise of making the front end more engaging and interesting for the average user, adapting to your own collection and it's contents. And the BluOS front end as implemented on the M50 and iPad was at times a bit glitch and inconsistent about how things got offered up- searching on Albums sometimes wouldn't turn up the same result I was looking for as searching by Artist and scanning their albums, for example.
What I don't doubt is that the hardware will be fairly first class- I'm still up in the air about the AURALiC Aries compared with my M50- (and only the fact that my M50 recently quit connecting to the network for some reason has delayed further investigating this- I suspect it's more likely a software or networking glitch than a hardware issue, but I'm going to be completely reconfiguring the network setup and will hopefully get to the bottom of the issue soon.
Still, this might be an interesting unit to have a look see at if you're not married to another playback software system, come fall of 2016....
Features:
- Wireless (Wi-Fi) and gigabit Ethernet inputs
- Automatic ripping of CD to internal RAID of two 2TB hard drives
- Real time playback of CDs
- Decodes FLAC, ALAC, MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg
- SPDIF Outputs; AES/EBU, Coaxial, Optical
- HDMI output
- USB output (mass storage mode)
- USB inputs, 1 front (host), 1 rear (device)
- RS-232 for external control
- IR in/out IR remote control
- TFT touch panel display
- Bluetooth AptX
- Software defined product with upgrade path
Still runs a version of BluOS, like the M50, which is fairly capable and mostly only occasionally frustrating :W (that may seem like damning with faint praise, but software is always a tricky topic, and just getting solidly robust playback is considered a significant achievement a few years back...)
One things I'm surprised about is how there are almost no front panel controls- (other than touch TFT panel- hope that works out) I don't like that trend, because that means if the remote is missing or not working, one is well and truly screwed... didn't like that trend in Blu-Ray players, don't like it particularly for an all in one unit as complex as this one is. Reportedly it will be modular like some of the other recent Master series products, with optional modules to plug in (note, one can just barely see the CD slot underneath the front panel touch screen if you look closely at the picture).
There's a lot to like here, EXCEPT, that I really have my heart set on trying out Roon, as it offers the promise of making the front end more engaging and interesting for the average user, adapting to your own collection and it's contents. And the BluOS front end as implemented on the M50 and iPad was at times a bit glitch and inconsistent about how things got offered up- searching on Albums sometimes wouldn't turn up the same result I was looking for as searching by Artist and scanning their albums, for example.
What I don't doubt is that the hardware will be fairly first class- I'm still up in the air about the AURALiC Aries compared with my M50- (and only the fact that my M50 recently quit connecting to the network for some reason has delayed further investigating this- I suspect it's more likely a software or networking glitch than a hardware issue, but I'm going to be completely reconfiguring the network setup and will hopefully get to the bottom of the issue soon.
Still, this might be an interesting unit to have a look see at if you're not married to another playback software system, come fall of 2016....
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