What is reviewed here is how it measures. Nowhere do I see how it sounds or anything significant about the user experience.
Being a person who wanted specifically small form factor with the streaming capability, I acquired the M10 to work with PSB Imagine mini speakers and PSB sub. The M10 has plenty of power to light them up and sounds great. The only input is an ethernet cable and yet I have access to what must be most of the music ever made.
It resides in a cabinet with the door closed and the interface is not used as the M10 is not visible. The display is turned off as a result. It's driven entirely from a tablet or phone using the BluOS app from the listening position. It's a substantially better user experience than the Yamaha device and its MusicCast app that preceded it (RN602). And given its been slotted in behind the same speakers, the difference is not just noticeable but abundantly obvious without Dirac. Dirac elevates the listening experience further. Yes, huge price difference, but definitely worth it, it sounds great in the small space where its been installed.
We can only speculate on decisions taken on determining the underpinnings during development, however it seems to me that companies like NAD are becoming integrators, assembling suitable technologies from which to create their product rather than design and build from scratch. Part of the cost then will typically be licensing for technologies used. Elsewhere in this thread that's been touched on. When you take that into consideration, plus the time and pixie dust NAD invested in pulling the M10 together this is a product that makes good sense for someone like myself. It's at the top end of similar products pricewise, but its performance and user experience from the listening position justify the perceived premium, in my view anyway. Does anyone actually pay the MRRP?
Even unboxing is a top end experience compared the the brown box and styrofoam you get with Yamaha for example. Marketing? For sure. Additional cost compared to brown box packaging? Almost certainly. It's created a lasting impression though.
While not dismissing the measurements, in real life none of those measures are impacting the user experience. Those who condemn a device based on numbers alone may be missing the point.