Amplifier of the Year $5000-$10,000
Once (and still) known for its high-value entry-level and midrange separates, NAD has had its reputation transformed in the last decade by its Masters series, which has taken the company to a new level. This $8999 M33 is the latest in the series, described by NAD (in a bit of a mouthful) as as a ‘BluOS Streaming DAC Amplifier’, to emphasise the inclusion of the BluOS streaming/multiroom platform (also making it able to communicate with all Bluesound products), and the fact that it has a DAC — as do the vast majority of amps these days, so hardly worth headlining. We’d just call it a smart amplifier — very smart, indeed, both visually with that enormous touchscreen on the front, all the high-res and streaming capabilities, along with a far more comprehensive set of inputs than the smaller M10 (an award-winner last year), as well as voice-control compatibility with both Google Assistant and Alexa, and with Siri too, if you’re utilising the M33’s AirPlay 2 streaming from an Apple device. Considerable effort has also been spent to make the M33 fully compatible with smart home systems including Apple, Crestron, Control4, Lutron, KNX and many others.
As a long-term bonus there are two empty ‘MDC’ slots to the rear, ready to make use of future modules from NAD. This’ Modular Design Construction’ has been a feature of higher-level NAD amps for a decade now, enabling them to incorporate future standards or connections, thereby making the M33 as futureproof as one could reasonably ask.
This is a large, weighty, serious amplifier, and its NAD’s first to introduce a new amplification technology, PuriFi’s Eigentakt, which sees engineer Bruno Putzeys aiming to improve on his previous work with Hypex nCore amplification, another technology used by NAD. We were entirely convinced by its merits during our extended listening time with the M33, which was one of those products we hate to return at the end of the loan, so comprehensively had it delivered the highest joys of hi-fi, all the tech, the buttons and the lovely BluOS control app receding into the shadow of the music, as the M33’s Purifi power took full control of our speakers and — over an utterly silent backdrop — delivered album after album of perfectly honed music. All the detail and expansiveness of the soundstaging, the sheer dynamic power available: it was all truly thrilling.
The analogue inputs are all digitally sampled, including the phono input, to allow the internal processing, which includes Dirac Live, to have its way; we can’t say we were put off by this, as vinyl sounded fabulous through the M33. There’s also a fine headphone output, its socket cut through the solid aluminium block behind the front fascia.
It’s quality all the way with the M33 — it has the looks, the app, the streaming, the inputs, the control and, best of all, wondrous sound. More info: nadelectronics.com.au