NAD M10 Streaming Amplifier Review

[Vasr]

USD $499 MSRP, with a street price of $389.

What a cheapskate..

If Topping or SMSL were to clone this feature set (not clone the Intellectual Property) with Dirac licensing, they would probably be able to bring it to market around the SHD pricing around $1200, max $1500. That would be the price without a premium for the brand or the high margins required for NAD marketing costs.

But whether I would pay that much relative to Denon or other mass market brand AVR/Streamer is a toss-up.

NAD is going after the Naim Uniti Atom or the Mytek Market and they have done a good job of selecting a set of features and build that differentiates it sufficiently from others so direct comparison is difficult. So, I am not surprised at its pricing. But if aiming for the brand-conscious audiophile consumer market, they missed on SQ and glitch-free operation. If I was in that market, was brand and looks conscious and willing to live with its compromises, I would consider it at $1800-$2000 street price as an alternative to Primare L15 Prisma. But it would be a tough decision based on emotional attachment rather than a rational one.

I am really not in the target segment for this unit.

 

[Vasr]

I am surprised no one has commented on the neat trick in this unit for removing the ESS IMD hump by creating a hump for almost the entire range.

 

[tkr]

On the "budget" side right now $1500 buy this https://www.minidsp.com/products/streaming-hd-series/shd-power

Thank you, I had missed this one so far. When I bought my Blusound Powernode it had not been released. At that time the M10 was on my shortlist but ultimately way too expensive, even though Dirac built in was tempting and pretty much the only option with it for a small one box solution.

 

[Harmonie]

Maybe yes, but they have nowhere near the volume of those 3 brands, not even in the same league (and technically, Japan is still Asia)! There are cost for a western company to set up a production line in asia, yes at a certain vo;ume, and I'm sure they evaluated that it was worth it, those cost are recouped, but still, we are not talking apple here with production batches of millions! Just think about it (My edit was after your reply) A dirac Licence for PC is at the moment 450$. It's difficult to find a decent Network streamer under 600$, There's a Ncore Module, DSP ressources, A massive screen, App development, etc etc. What price would people expect to pay?

How about :

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/netw...nced-streamer-for-raspberry-pi-4-p-14639.html

 

[Koeitje]

Should the 5w measure better than measured here then? See the IOM review.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...d-measurements-of-iom-ncore-pro-pwr-amp.8979/

Not with all the processing going on in the NAD and the noise from all the other components. This would be a nice product at around $1200.

 

[Harmonie]

I think that Amir concluded from the beginning
"So overall, I gave it a "like it" panther award but it is not something I would personally buy. I can be stubborn that way! "

It's probably a good solution for the broad market, but I wouldn't buy it.

 

[audio_tony]

@amirm Can you perform a multitone test on this please?

 

[fordiebianco]

i'm in that group of people, and my shortlist currently consists of Arcam SA30, Lyngdorf TDAI 1120, Uniti Atom (no room dsp though) and of course NAD M10.

That said i recently found out about Onkyo TX 8390 which is a stereo AVR with the same feature set.

As you can see HDMI integration is important for me as it will be in my living room connected to the TV and the HDMI-CEC helps in the ease of TV use for the missus and the kid...

I have the Denon PMA-60. Class D, measures ok. No room correction but great connectivity and so much more affordable..

 

[PeteL]

How about :

https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/netw...nced-streamer-for-raspberry-pi-4-p-14639.html

That's my point, network streamers are expensive. I was mentioning that It's hard to find a good network streamer for less than 600$ this one is 475 USD, using a PI, open source software (so no R&D on the streamer side), and it comes in parts that you have to assemble yourself, and you just have the streamer and DAC. No amp, no analog inputs, no room correction.

 

[iLoveCats]

Hi there, are you using the HDMI eARC input to connect to TV? If so, does the CEC control work well and does it switch the inputs automatically? (e.g. switch to optical to HDMI one the connected tv is powered on)

I'm using the eArc. The M10 automatically switches on with the TV to the correct input (you set what input is auto sense in the menu) the CEC works but the volume is jumpy, it might increase by 3 or 8 or whatever. Never just 1. When playing Tidal then turning on the TV I don't think it automatically switches to the HDMI input for TV sound.

 

[Alexanderc]

I wouldn’t buy this or recommend it based on the issues with the inputs. That’s disappointing, and not the first time we’ve seen something like that from a NAD product. Where value is concerned, however, I don’t think the comparisons to MiniDSP products and RaspberryPi, etc are fair.

Here is an above average DAC and an above average amplifier in a tiny, user friendly package. A MiniDSP SHD plus a Hypex amplifier would have better SINAD, but wouldn’t sound any different and would likely be pushing $2000 already. Add in HDMI, a more robust streaming platform, app-controllable room correction, a functional touch screen, and a tiny one-box footprint and I think the price of this looks more reasonable.

Also, people on this forum might enjoy learning how to use products like the MiniDSP or RaspberryPi, but I am having a hard time thinking of anyone I know who would be willing to go through the hassle. Consumer products have to be plug and play. Touch screens are familiar and easy to navigate. BluOS is in a different league of user friendliness than Volumio. The NAD comes with a full function remote* that doesn’t have to be programmed. It might be possible to piece together a collection of hardware that does everything the NAD M10 does for less money while ignoring the user experience, but there’s no way to do that while making it easy and intuitive.

I get that many of us look at the M10 and see all the ways that it could be engineered better. A MiniDSP SHD, outboard amps, and streaming hardware are things I’m likely to purchase myself in the next few months because I also value that attention to quality and excellence in engineering. But the average person would not be willing to spend the time and effort to learn to use the products that would get them a little extra SINAD and maybe save a few hundred dollars. Again, I’m disappointed by the QC issue with the inputs and would absolutely not buy one as a result, but if not for that I don’t think the asking price is inappropriate.

*Edit: it doesn't. App controlled.

 

[Brian6751]

I have been using mine exclusively with Roon with a wired LAN connection. I will make sure to try both digital inputs and the analog inputs.

I acknowledge the NAD products that Amir has received for testing have not had the most stellar track record for QC, but this is a science oriented group and extrapolating this tiny sample to mean that all the devices in the field have these issues should be frowned upon, yet it happens in the comments very frequently and not just with NAD products. 0-3 dosnt matter; its still a sample size of 3 against thousands in the field. The sample size is too small to pass QC judgements and there is no rep from NAD to give actually failure numbers so this is still just speculation.

Having a Day 1 update is par for the course with most software driven products these days so I dont see how this is a huge deal.

This is yet another NAD product that I own that is compared to the MiniDSP SHD, that I have also owned, and I will again say that I believe choosing one over the other in a blind test would be extremely difficult.

 

[Dj7675]

I wouldn’t buy this or recommend it based on the issues with the inputs. That’s disappointing, and not the first time we’ve seen something like that from a NAD product. Where value is concerned, however, I don’t think the comparisons to MiniDSP products and RaspberryPi, etc are fair.

Here is an above average DAC and an above average amplifier in a tiny, user friendly package. A MiniDSP SHD plus a Hypex amplifier would have better SINAD, but wouldn’t sound any different and would likely be pushing $2000 already. Add in HDMI, a more robust streaming platform, app-controllable room correction, a functional touch screen, and a tiny one-box footprint and I think the price of this looks more reasonable.

Also, people on this forum might enjoy learning how to use products like the MiniDSP or RaspberryPi, but I am having a hard time thinking of anyone I know who would be willing to go through the hassle. Consumer products have to be plug and play. Touch screens are familiar and easy to navigate. BluOS is in a different league of user friendliness than Volumio. The NAD comes with a full function remote that doesn’t have to be programmed. It might be possible to piece together a collection of hardware that does everything the NAD M10 does for less money while ignoring the user experience, but there’s no way to do that while making it easy and intuitive.

I get that many of us look at the M10 and see all the ways that it could be engineered better. A MiniDSP SHD, outboard amps, and streaming hardware are things I’m likely to purchase myself in the next few months because I also value that attention to quality and excellence in engineering. But the average person would not be willing to spend the time and effort to learn to use the products that would get them a little extra SINAD and maybe save a few hundred dollars. Again, I’m disappointed by the QC issue with the inputs and would absolutely not buy one as a result, but if not for that I don’t think the asking price is inappropriate.

It is very true the Minidsp SHD is not like a traditional piece of stereo equipment that is easy to set up. When I first got mine, it takes some time to figure out how to set it up etc. For most people, the M10 would be a very straight forward device to set up, and the small form factor is a great as well in a living room/office etc. For the average user the BluOS would be much better tan Volumio as well. If you are a Roon user, the it is a moot point as Roon works great on the SHD. As far as its price, it doesn’t seem out of line considering the market, its performance, and what it does. In my opinion NAD just misses the mark on getting everything working properly like they should on a device at this price point. It does sound like many users of this device are enjoying it quite a lot. There is a place for this kind of device for sure and it sounds like the device is now working pretty well for most as well.

 

[Kachda]

I wouldn’t buy this or recommend it based on the issues with the inputs. That’s disappointing, and not the first time we’ve seen something like that from a NAD product. Where value is concerned, however, I don’t think the comparisons to MiniDSP products and RaspberryPi, etc are fair.

Here is an above average DAC and an above average amplifier in a tiny, user friendly package. A MiniDSP SHD plus a Hypex amplifier would have better SINAD, but wouldn’t sound any different and would likely be pushing $2000 already. Add in HDMI, a more robust streaming platform, app-controllable room correction, a functional touch screen, and a tiny one-box footprint and I think the price of this looks more reasonable.

Also, people on this forum might enjoy learning how to use products like the MiniDSP or RaspberryPi, but I am having a hard time thinking of anyone I know who would be willing to go through the hassle. Consumer products have to be plug and play. Touch screens are familiar and easy to navigate. BluOS is in a different league of user friendliness than Volumio. The NAD comes with a full function remote that doesn’t have to be programmed. It might be possible to piece together a collection of hardware that does everything the NAD M10 does for less money while ignoring the user experience, but there’s no way to do that while making it easy and intuitive.

I get that many of us look at the M10 and see all the ways that it could be engineered better. A MiniDSP SHD, outboard amps, and streaming hardware are things I’m likely to purchase myself in the next few months because I also value that attention to quality and excellence in engineering. But the average person would not be willing to spend the time and effort to learn to use the products that would get them a little extra SINAD and maybe save a few hundred dollars. Again, I’m disappointed by the QC issue with the inputs and would absolutely not buy one as a result, but if not for that I don’t think the asking price is inappropriate.

i agree that the price would be ok given all the features, functionality and form factor (In spite of this not being SOTA engineering). The problem is that it fails to deliver on the functionality if it cant lock digital signals properly, volume control is iffy etc. I would expect better testing by NAD before asking for $3000 for it.

also, minor point but I believe m10 does not have a remote, the remote is an app. While an app is fine as a secondary method of input, I still prefer a remote for basic functions. Given that $30 fire sticks come with non IR remotes, this is a shame

 

[SIY]

The M10 can use a universal remote. For me, using the app on my phone was preferable to having yet one more remote cluttering up my listening area.

FWIW, the digital input issue was fixed with the last update. It’s galling that this wasn’t right from the beginning, but at least they didn’t abandon the purchasers.

 

[Dj7675]

The M10 can use a universal remote. For me, using the app on my phone was preferable to having yet one more remote cluttering up my listening area.

FWIW, the digital input issue was fixed with the last update. It’s galling that this wasn’t right from the beginning, but at least they didn’t abandon the purchasers.

Great to hear continued updates have fixed the digital input issues.

 

[Deleted member 19195]

Here is an above average DAC and an above average amplifier in a tiny, user friendly package. A MiniDSP SHD plus a Hypex amplifier would have better SINAD, but wouldn’t sound any different and would likely be pushing $2000 already. Add in HDMI, a more robust streaming platform, app-controllable room correction, a functional touch screen, and a tiny one-box footprint and I think the price of this looks more reasonable.

Very good point. I value the objective measurements in the reviews here...but I don't care about measurements that are not audible. Inaudible is inaudible. I think the gear enthusiasts here get a bit caught up in reaching certain measurement thresholds as a matter of pride in engineering. I do not posses the super human hearing that the average 50 to 80 year old male high end audiophile claims to have.

And yes, normal people who buy this product are not willing to mess around with a minidsp or diy kit. They want an elegant appearance and a professional customer support infrastructure.

 

[Alexanderc]

also, minor point but I believe m10 does not have a remote, the remote is an app. While an app is fine as a secondary method of input, I still prefer a remote for basic functions. Given that $30 fire sticks come with non IR remotes, this is a shame

You are absolutely correct. My mistake. However even if you don’t want to use the app, it appears programming the M10 to use any remote control is possible and doesn’t involve looking up codes (someone might have mentioned this somewhere and I missed it).

I am starting to sound like a fanboy, but really I was just perplexed by some of the earlier comments that seemed to claim this was overpriced by more than double.

 

[SIY]

You are absolutely correct. My mistake. However even if you don’t want to use the app, it appears programming the M10 to use any remote control is possible and doesn’t involve looking up codes (someone might have mentioned this somewhere and I missed it).

I am starting to sound like a fanboy, but really I was just perplexed by some of the earlier comments that seemed to claim this was overpriced by more than double.

It’s overpriced if you aren’t prioritizing the integration of streaming and Dirac, and are strictly looking at it as an integrated amplifier.

For me, this is the first major hifi purchase I’ve made in many years, and that decision was made after 6 months of using it. No regrets, I am delighted with what it does.

 

[5wavesup]

Thanks for the review @amirm

I cannot tell you how scared I was when I clicked on the site this morning and saw you reviewed "my" M10. I was prepared for a dismembered panther cadaver with a SINAD of 79 or some such nonsense. So I will take the "like" panther and a ~100 SINAD all day long. (I have not experienced any of the QC issues)