@Mapman - I've owned 2 all-in-one systems for a second home. A NAD M10 that I recently replaced with a Boulder 866.
The NAD M10 is truly a lifestyle product as it can play just about any digital source known to man including streaming music via Bluetooth from your mobile device. The SQ via Bluetooth seems compromised compared to streaming via a Qobuz Studio Quality subscription. It also comes with Dirac Live and a microphone to perform some basic room and bass correction. The BluOs mobile device app is intuitive and provides all the functions needed. Overall, the NAD M10 sounds OK but it isn't close to the SQ of high-quality separate components.
As to the Boulder 866, Boulder has checked all the boxes for anyone looking for a single box solution that sounds comparable to a high-end amp, pre-amp and streamer. Not sure how Boulder has pulled this off but the amp section of the 866 seems to have more meat on the bones compared to some of their legacy iconic stereo amps. As you increase the volume of the 866, there's no straining of any frequency range, just higher levels of the same SQ. The Class D amp section of the NAD M10 can't make this claim.
The 866 is in a different price range than most other all-in-1 systems. But for anyone looking to simplify their system while retaining high-end SQ, you'd likely have to spend twice as much in separate components and all the power and interconnect cables to match the SQ of the 866.
The NAD M10 is truly a lifestyle product as it can play just about any digital source known to man including streaming music via Bluetooth from your mobile device. The SQ via Bluetooth seems compromised compared to streaming via a Qobuz Studio Quality subscription. It also comes with Dirac Live and a microphone to perform some basic room and bass correction. The BluOs mobile device app is intuitive and provides all the functions needed. Overall, the NAD M10 sounds OK but it isn't close to the SQ of high-quality separate components.
As to the Boulder 866, Boulder has checked all the boxes for anyone looking for a single box solution that sounds comparable to a high-end amp, pre-amp and streamer. Not sure how Boulder has pulled this off but the amp section of the 866 seems to have more meat on the bones compared to some of their legacy iconic stereo amps. As you increase the volume of the 866, there's no straining of any frequency range, just higher levels of the same SQ. The Class D amp section of the NAD M10 can't make this claim.
The 866 is in a different price range than most other all-in-1 systems. But for anyone looking to simplify their system while retaining high-end SQ, you'd likely have to spend twice as much in separate components and all the power and interconnect cables to match the SQ of the 866.