User Review: M51 Direct Digital DAC - NAD M51 Direct Digital DAC: professional-grade sound

January 26, 2012

Products: M51 Direct Digital DAC

Set-up was easy. Beautifully made. Volume control is sweet. From the first notes a sense of professional-grade reproduction and control. Obvious increase in dynamic range. High frequency rendering the best I've heard on my system, especially so with hi-res material. Gorgeously delicate. Sibilants fully and tightly resolved. Stage has moved further back beyond front wall. Greater competence on complex dynamics, with each voice and instrument handled with seemingly independent ease. More believably at Symphony Hall on my Pops favorites. No strain on anything so far. An impression of almost no coloration. Nothing around any sound source but silent emptiness. Characteristic bass fatness of tubes now leaner, more like solid state. Gratefully handing control to M51. Comments above from first few hours of listening. Noticeable sound quality improvement after about an hour of burn-in. System: iMac / Amarra 2.3 / iTunes / NAD M51 / ARC SP-14 / ARC D-150 / Fulton J-Modular speakers (M51 replaced Cambridge Audio DacMagic with Pangea P-100 power supply)

Dez Fretz - Moorpark, CA