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NAD C658 Streaming DAC Review
- Thread starter amirm
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bilzebubba
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According to this thread, RAAT works?
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/minidsp-shd-now-roon-endpoint-raat/80366/55
Thankyou this looks very good actually the SHD seem to be a step up for minidsp
Yes, it is a Roon Endpoint. It is not certified, but it currently works perfectly for me. Recently volume control was added to the firmware, which it didn’t have before.
bilzebubba
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Thanks! I currently have 7 Chromecast Audios in the house, feeding various dacs and dac/amps, and I was thinking of getting one of these plus a power amp to replace a newish NAD D3045, which just doesn't drive my 86db speakers very well. I have two further questions, if you don't mind!
1)What I do like about the NAD is how it instantly wakes up from idle when Roon sends a signal to it via the CCA -- will the mini-dsp wake up automatically?
2) If I replace just one of the CCAs with the mini-dsp, would the latency be all that different from the remaining CCAs (i.e., would they more or less play in sync, as they usually do now, or would that require a lot of fiddling?
Thanks in advance!
TimW
Major Contributor
My SHD is working as a Roon Endpoint. It and the SHD Studio both have USB input.
The SHD is either On or Off, there is no standby or automatic wake up. Not even a trigger input or output. And the power switch is on the back.
Roon won't allow you to group chromecast and non-chromecast streaming devices together.
The SHD is either On or Off, there is no standby or automatic wake up. Not even a trigger input or output. And the power switch is on the back.
Roon won't allow you to group chromecast and non-chromecast streaming devices together.
Not sure if that would work as I understand it, but maybe you could just go CCA optical in on the minidsp, keeping the Chromecast as the endpoint, and still be able to group them...?
I too love my many CCA's...
TimW
Major Contributor
You can get the SHD Studio and a couple of high performance DAC's to get better performance than the SHD. However, to get that better measured performance along with the balanced connections that the SHD has, you will have to spend significantly more. And the performance of the SHD DAC's is good enough that the improvement is unlikely to be audible.
bilzebubba
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That's a great option, yeah thanks! Must say, I was a loyal NAD user (their HQ is also 100km away from me!), having had 5 amps of theirs over the years, but comparing the D3045's output to my 1970s QUAD amp (subjectively) and I am mighty disappointed in its sound. So I am not rushing to buy the C658, and could probably live with the minidsp being always on in exchange for what Dirac might do!
It has been a while and still no certification so I have sent a request to MiniDSP for clarification.
- Rich
Hmmm... You're right, the SINAD is actually very good. I should have looked at review again. I remembered some characteristic being somewhat disappointing and it was the jitter and noise spectrum that were plentiful although below audibility. As for the USB audio streaming input, I looked at the manual and you're correct, it does have it. My memory must have gotten mixed up with some of their older products where the USB was used only for controlling the unit.
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The SHD being on all the time with no screen dimming option is an issue for me as bright displays are distracting when watching movies.
Question: Is the screen dimable (I didn't find this in the manual)? Also, a while ago while inquiring with minidsp on this subject, they claimed a firmware update was coming to turn the display off after a period of inactivity. Has this been implemented? Thx
TimW
Major Contributor
The screen is not dimmable to my knowledge. Just checked downloads section on my miniDSP profile and it looks like I need to update.
The last firmware enabled screen dimming dims after 30 seconds I believe. It is not user selectable. Minidsp has said it will be user configurable in the future. But for now the entire front display turns off after 30 sec or 1 min. Also a nice feature is if the Minidsp is on another input than Roon (LAN input), it switches automatically to the roon input. Development isn’t fast, but they continue adding bug free features which I appreciate.
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No USB input, THD + N figures more befitting a product sold in the 1990s, and a $1k+ price tag. That's three strikes.
That looks great if it works. With all the complaints and problems with the c658 (threads on several forums), I think I’d be inclined to go with an Anthem STR integrated over the M33 and buy a separate network streamer.
.....It would be interesting to see the P6 tested but I have a feeling the DAC would be no better than one of the better receivers. I did own a 658 for a few days but returned it for all the reasons previous listed and the subwoofer configuration would reset to factory default after a power cycle. I contacted NAD who confirmed this was a know issue. ???? As a seasoned engineer, I can't fathom these days how so many products go to production with inadequate product verification testing. This used to be a firing offense. It's the curse of the in field firmware update 'get out of jail free' card. Hey, just let the customer do the testing..... False economy I'm afraid.
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