NAD M50.2


To anyone who has heard the NAD M50.2, how does it compare in sound to other music servers, such as those more expensive from Aurender, etc?
imgoodwithtools
It is, but It still doesn’t seem to support DSD. It also didn’t update the samba protocol to smb2, so the file shares still aren’t showing up on my network. I’m not entirely sure what it did, but if you believe the readme.txt file, it “improves HDMI audio” and tweaked the front LCD panel, which I don’t use. 

Audio plays fine, tidal and my cd rips sound as good as before, but without the file share access and DSD compatibility it’s hard to recommend this over an Antipodes DX, for instance.  Granted, the ADX quite a bit more expensive (especially with the lifetime roon subscription) but it has a complete feature set. 

Keeping my fingers crossed that NAD can get the M50.2 over the finish line. It’s not quite a finished product yet. 
It's been a while, so I figured I'd update this thread:
1) The NAD M50.2 has gone through some software upgrades.  Along the way it picked up DSD decoding ability!

The funny thing is, it doesn't work with the iOS app (on iPhone or ipad), and I assume it's not working on the Android app as well.  However, on the PC, if you go to settings>playback, there is now a radio button for ENABLE DSD PLAYBACK.  You click on this, then browse to your DSD folders, and the NAD converts your DSDs to FLACs and stores them on the NAD.

Good enough!  I don't know when this suddenly appeared, it's certainly not documented in any of the update readmes, but it will do.

2) Due to a software update at HDTracks, the NAD doesn't automatically download your files any more.  They are supposedly working on it, but I don't know when it will be fixed.

3) The fileshare issue still exists with windows 10.  *If* you want to access your music files via window explorer on the NAD M50.2, you need to do the following:

run regedit
go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Paramaters
Look for the value AllowInsecureGuestAuth
change the value from 1 to 0.

Now you will be able to see the NAD M50.2 in your network devices, and you can access the fileshares.

I wouldn't leave this flag at 0 forever.  Just do it to access the NAD M50.2 and once you're done (moving music files) reset it to 1.  

You can also go to the command prompt (administrator mode) and type:

set -smbserverconfiguration -enablesmb2protocol $false

I assume after you're done, run the same command with $true instead of $false.

4) Finally, I don't know exactly what's going on, but the NAD is no longer wakeable via the app (if it's asleep).  It used to be accessible at all times, but now whenever I want to access it, I have to turn the system on manually by touching the capacitative button to turn it on.  I may have done this to myself when I tried to hardware the NAD to my network (took it off since it didn't work and I wasn't able to access the system at all because I had it on a different switch/subnet...totally my fault.  I don't want to bridge the networks though.)  I'm going to power cycle the system when I'm not using it and see if that fixes it.
Power cycle worked.  Also, select network standby in the settings on the front panel of the system.
No one has contributed to this thread in a while. So I will chime in. I have an M50.2. I don’t believe it will serve as a Roon core. Correct? Will it serve as a source from which a Roon core can stream? Additionally, can it serve as a Roon output or endpoint (are those the same)? I am trying to setup a Roon system. I am considering the Innuos Zenith Mk3 and trying to figure how I would use this NAD M50.2 which is currently in my main system, two other BluSound Node 2i units and some other Sonos gear in my home with the Innuos. Any comments or suggestions? Thanks.