Review of M33 ergonomics:
On the positive side:
- Very nice, very sharp, responsive touch screen display with good colours able to show album covers. Brightness can be adjusted.
- Good, big volume knob on the device itself that feels well.
- 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.
- Can be controlled via the touch screen display and the BluOS app (mobile and PC version) and the supplied remote control.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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".
- 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.
- 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:
- The maximum volume of the M10 was not adequate enough.
- The display had a yellowish colour cast.
- 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.