NAD M33 Streaming Amplifier Review

[pogo]

And also one year ago considered the M33 to replace the M32. But refused to buy M33 and bought Lyngdorf 1120 in the end.

What LSP are you powering on this amplifier?
The 1120 has a different sound character due to its low DF.
DF at 4 Ohm (63Hz/1kHz/14kHz): 26/25/6

 

[Stefan]

Is this statement true according to the manual after a hard reset:
'Low frequency information up to 80 Hz is sent to the connected subwoofer.'

As soon as the M33 is DL enabled, you can set a range of 40-200Hz!

It is set to 80Hz by default, but not active, if you don't select 1 or 2 subwoofers. And you can vary it between 0-200Hz, so not fixed.

 

[unexperienced]

What LSP are you powering on this amplifier?
The 1120 has a different sound character due to its low DF.
DF at 4 Ohm (63Hz/1kHz/14kHz): 26/25/6

I have a JBL4429, but it also use in bi-amping, HF drive by Lyngdorf 1120, and LF drive by Hypex NC502MP PA handmade. Very smooth nice sound.
In the previous version, these speakers were given combinations of the following sets C390+Ucd400, M32+M22, M12+M22+UcD400/then NC502MP.

 

[SIY]

The 1120 has a different sound character due to its low DF.

Evidence?

Oh yeah, I forgot, you just like throwing stuff out there that has no basis in reality. Maybe one day you'll surprise us by doing something honest.

 

[pogo]

And you can vary it between 0-200Hz, so not fixed.

The manual on page 8 is probably not completely correct.

 

[pogo]

Evidence?

The best evidence of this is actually the T+A A200 purifi amp with switchable DF. The sound characteristics have been confirmed by technical magazine testers and a forum member.
But let's leave that topic here. It has not brought us any further in the past.

 

[SIY]

The best evidence of this is actually the T+A A200 purifi amp with switchable DF. The sound characteristics have been confirmed by technical magazine testers and a forum member.
But let's leave that topic here. It has not brought us any further in the past.

"Confirmed." Let's see actual evidence instead of "other people are saying the same silly stuff." Yes, I know, the chances of you actually doing an experiment are close to zero. But you never know, a unicorn MIGHT fly over my house and poop out a dozen gold bars.

 

[BDWoody]

But let's leave that topic here. It has not brought us any further in the past.

How about leaving it before the claims are made.

Either provide evidence for your repeated unsupported claims, or stop making them.

 

[ex audiophile]

"Confirmed." Let's see actual evidence instead of "other people are saying the same silly stuff." Yes, I know, the chances of you actually doing an experiment are close to zero. But you never know, a unicorn MIGHT fly over my house and poop out a dozen gold bars.

As a retired veterinarian with many years of experience and hundreds of rectal exams in unicorns, I can report never having found any gold bars.

 

[SIY]

As a retired veterinarian with many years of experience and hundreds of rectal exams in unicorns, I can report never having found any gold bars.

But you haven't examined every unicorn rectum, have you? See??? You just can't say for sure!!!

 

[Stefan]

What is happening here?

 

[adam_poland]

I have to correct you. NAD M2 is not an AB class. NAD M2 is the company's first amplifier in class D. Then came out with C390DD and then M32. I've been the owner of both the C390DD and the M32 for quite a long period. And also one year ago considered the M33 to replace the M32. But refused to buy M33 and bought Lyngdorf 1120 in the end.

Yes, M2 is Class D or something close to D. Not best design in my opinion - I had issues with electricity fuses blown in apartment. NAD support adviced to upgrade to 16A - but even with 16A apartment fuses it was still issue...

 

[justrideit]

I found one of these for $3800 plus $100 shipping. It was 3 months old. The seller loved it but had decided to get Legacy Aeris powered speakers that come with a preamp. He had no further need for the amp.
I had a Don Sachs DS1 tube preamp and a Don Sachs tube Phono. My amp was a class D Nuclear NC1000L which I loved. I knew I loved class D power and "sound". My speakers are power hungry little devils. I had a Blusound Node 2i for streaming. My DAc was an Ayre Codex. It all sounded pretty good to my 65 year old tinnitus plagued ears.
I started reading about the M33. I read Amirm's review and decided to go for it. I figured I could sell all my gear and cables and easily come out ahead getting the M33. (I did). I was ready for a change anyway. I like trying different equipment. I could clean up my rack and save some space.
I really like the idea of the Dirac room correction. I was considering purchasing acoustic treatment and figured it would cost $3 to 6k. I have a dedicated 19 x 14 building I erected in the back yard just for audio. My Mancave. No WAF!
I am so happy I got the M33. It sounds amazing when using the room correction. I have one correction setting for the main listening chair and another one that is wider, for when friends come over.
It is so easy to use. I plugged my 4TB NAS into the USB input and it works flawlessly. I use Qobuz to stream and it works flawlessly. The Don Sachs phono only did MM and the M33 does MM and MC so I gained some flexibility there. I love the big display for streaming and the Faux meters when using phono and DVD and TV inputs. I have been listening to music all day and I am spellbound by how it sounds.
The only question is reliability. That, we will have to wait and see.

 

[pogo]

This is probably the reason why the volume limit was introduced afterwards
Bridge Mode

 

[EJF]

I recently purchased an M33, and besides using it to listen to music, I also use it to send the audio output from my TV to external speakers. The problem I’m having is that there is a delay in the audio to where it is very noticeably out of sync with the video. I didn’t have this problem with my prior all analog amplifier. The problem occurs regardless of whether I use the optical output from the TV or the analog output. Having the A/V Mode function of the M33 off or on makes no apparent difference. Does this sound like a defect with my M33, or is there possibly a setting on the M33 that I need to change?

 

[pogo]

This is due to the BluOS restriction of 50ms:
Link

You can minimize the delay to 50ms by activating the A/V mode and setting this minimum value. The rest you can try to adjust on the TV.

 

[SIY]

I recently purchased an M33, and besides using it to listen to music, I also use it to send the audio output from my TV to external speakers. The problem I’m having is that there is a delay in the audio to where it is very noticeably out of sync with the video. I didn’t have this problem with my prior all analog amplifier. The problem occurs regardless of whether I use the optical output from the TV or the analog output. Having the A/V Mode function of the M33 off or on makes no apparent difference. Does this sound like a defect with my M33, or is there possibly a setting on the M33 that I need to change?

What Pogo said. But, and bear with me, this may seem crazy, the delay may be in the other direction, and your eye-ear-brain system is dicking with you. If you adjust that control, I'd try making it larger if you're already at the minimum. Don't ask me how I found this out.

 

[EJF]

This is due to the BluOS restriction of 50ms:
Link

You can minimize the delay to 50ms by activating the A/V mode and setting this minimum value. The rest you can try to adjust on the TV.

Thanks for the link. It appears I'm not the only one that's been bothered by this issue. I was disappointed with the NAD response that this is an intended design feature that they don't plan to change. While I think I understand the need for a delay with groups, if like in my case you do not have groups then I see no reason to intentionally delay the audio. But I'm still not certain that there isn't a problem with my particular M33 since setting the A/V mode to the minimum or maximum value, or disabling the A/V mode, doesn't seem to make any noticeable difference. And unfortunately, my TV doesn't have a means of adjusting the video/audio timing.

 

[pogo]

But I'm still not certain that there isn't a problem with my particular M33 since setting the A/V mode to the minimum or maximum value, or disabling the A/V mode, doesn't seem to make any noticeable difference.

If you activate the TV speakers in parallel at a similar volume, you should definitely hear a difference between A/V mode on at 50ms and A/V mode off (250ms). It's also not nice to see the VU meters display before an signal event is audible. Especially with the M33 there should be the possibility to deactivate the forced latency, because very few users group it. This would also simplify integration into an HT system. Currently I have to delay my surround amps by another 50ms and not every decoder/processor is able to do that!

But maybe you can put more pressure on the manufacturer at this point, if the issue is reported by other users to NAD

 

[Remko_K]

Review of M33 ergonomics:

On the positive side:

1. Very nice, very sharp, responsive touch screen display with good colours able to show album covers. Brightness can be adjusted.
2. Good, big volume knob on the device itself that feels well.
3. Real on/off button at the back that can completely shut off the power supply. Can be handy when the M33 display does not show up or the audible volume does not react on volume adjustments, which occasionally happens. Using the on/off button always solved it.
4. Can be controlled via the touch screen display and the BluOS app (mobile and PC version) and the supplied remote control.
5. The BluOS app is nice, although it is not intuitive to play all songs in a random order. Luckily, a kind of manual can be found on the internet on how to do that.
6. If connected to a TV via HDMI, the CD cover can be viewed together with the title of the song and the artist. The name of the album is missing on the tv screen, but not on the M33 display. For viewing the duration of the song and the elapsed time it is the other way around: missing on the M33 display if no button is touched, but visible on the tv screen at all times. I am very happy with the HDMI output to the TV screen , because covers are much bigger on the TV screen and timings are visible. Strangely enough, the M33 manual explicitly states that there is no HDMI output. Luckily there is! There is just no sound output via HDMI.

On the negative side:

1. The supplied remote control is more suitable as a weapon than for controlling the M33: With this large and heavy remote it is possible to control almost any device except the M33, that is to say: The M33 will only react to a few buttons on the remote. Workaround: Use the BluOS app, although I would prefer a decent working remote.
2. It is not possible to select HDMI with the supplied remote control (see my former posts). Workaround: Use the M33 display or the BluOS app or the HDMI/ARC connection for that.
3. If HDMI is selected (via the display or the app) and the device is switched off, it will select HDMI when turned on again. That is logical. What is not logical is, that there is no sound! Workaround: Select any other input (like line in or bluetooth) and then select HDMI again or switch on the M33 by switching on the TV, which will subsequently awaken the M33 if connected via the HDMI/ARC connection of the TV, provided automatic sensing is enabled.
4. The M33 can only be controlled via the supplied remote if the remote is almost right in front of the M33. When I use the remote from my dining table, it won't work, because the angle is too big. Luckily, there is a workaround as far as the volume is concerned: Use the remote control of the TV (requires connecting the M33 with the HDMI/ARC connection of the TV).
5. If a higher volume than -40 dB is used (which is always the case in my case when using speakers) and the device is switched off, the volume will be -40 dB when switched on again. Workaround: Always adjust the volume after switching on the device, although this is a bit annoying. This behaviour does not occur when using a headphone.
6. The M33 display does not show up about half of the times after switching on the M33 when "LAN/BluOS in Standby" is not enabled. This is VERY annoying. Workaround: Enable "LAN/BluOS in Standby".
7. If Dirac room correction is used, the M33 overall volume will remain the same, but it will not go louder than -10 dB (although the display indicates otherwise), because that is the headroom it needs for Dirac, since Dirac can adjust the volume on certain frequencies with a maximum of plus or minus 10 dB. If the tone control is used as well, the volume is decreased by 6 dB anytime, adding up to 16 dB. In that case a pretty high volume is needed to get a decent sound.
8. There is a very slight delay in sound, probably due to all the digital signal processing that is taking place. This causes slight sync issues with the video if the M33 is used for reproducing TV sound (which I always do). I do not find it very annoying, but it is noticable when watching carefully. This is probably the 50ms delay described in the manual.

As a result:

All those workarounds should not be necessary for such an expensive device. So, I swapped the M33 for the M10 and guess what: All of the above is working fine except for the last 2 items in the above list. So, no workarounds necessary anymore! It is a relief! The only thing is that a remote control is not supplied with the M10. Instead the M10 has something that the M33 unfortunately does not have: IR learning! This works perfectly in combination with any IR remote control in the house.

However, the M10 appeared to have a few drawbacks compared to the M33:

1. The maximum volume of the M10 was not adequate enough.
2. The display had a yellowish colour cast.
3. And most importantly: It sounded much less spacious than the M33! I even checked if stereo was enabled instead of mono! Nevertheless, the sound of the M10 was very good, unless one was "spoiled" with the much more spacious sound of the M33. I did notice a slight difference in spaciousness when comparing the M10 with the M33 in the audio shop, but at home the difference was huge! This may also be due to the fact that at home I use speakers that are well known for their spacious capabilities: The SVS Prime Pinnacle. Again, the M10 sounded good, but I was missing the wow factor of the M33. This difference in sound was both with and without Dirac enabled.

I ended up going back to the audio shop again to swap the M10 for the M33. I rate the better sound of the M33 higher than it's ergonomic drawbacks. At least the M33 has (more or less annoying) workarounds for most of those drawbacks, although I still think it is crazy that those drawbacks exist in the first place. Hopefully they will be solved in the near future by new BluOS updates.