Opinions on NAD please


Is anyone excited about the new NAD M66?   Ive been considering it but dont know much about the brand. 

sandrodg73

Funny; I posted a thread just two weeks ago, asking for opinions about the vintage NAD Monitor Series gear, and got only two responses, both pretty dismissive.

I’ve owned a late 1990s NAD 7600 Monitor Series receiver for almost 30 years. Well, to be precise, my first 7600 I used almost every day for exactly 24 years; when it finally began to fail in 2021, I found another on eBay that had been stored for most of its life in the original packaging that has delighted me ever since. And I have some very well-heeled (and generous) audiophile friends, so I’ve been able to compare its sound quality to a variety of far more expensive and "elite" integrated amps. The NAD 7600 sounded more "musical" than anything I compared it to in my listening space and with my other components. Instrumental timbre is very realistic (I play guitar and cello, my wife plays piano, my daughter violin; I can compare recordings to the real instruments in the same space); sound stage is wide and deep; instrumental locations are precise and stable; for rock music, bass is tight and tuneful and very impactful. And this unit is amazingly flexible, with very useful semi-parametric tone controls, a powered balance control one can adjust with the well-designed remote; an outstanding phono circuit—oh yeah, and an outstanding tuner section. The preamp and power amp are the same as what was then NAD’s top separates, just assembled on one chassis. IMHO, this is an outstanding bit of kit.

I own the NAD M33; I am quite pleased with it.   It is well built of quality components, nice feature set, loads of flexibility, and it sounds really good.   In terms of sound quality, I prefer my Krell K300i which is a bit more musical, warm, with a remarkable grip/control on the deep bass.   But the Krell was 3x the price…

I don’t know how that translates to the M66, but I’d guess it would be similar.

In general i like the nad sound period. I have the home theater amplifier - the nad t778 - it has had issues with shutting down randomly and going into protection mode - i have had it worked on about 3 times - shipping it to a service center to get fixed - etc. 

i keep wanting to freak out - but i keep giving it the benefit of the doubt, because the sound quality is so very good - its amazing the things we are willing to do - in the name of good sound quality

 

NAD makes really good entry level gear (to high end audio). Not a bunch of extra functions you don’t need, but solidly built, and constructed for good sound quality. I gave a friend of mine one I had over 35 years and it sounded much better than what he had.

 

My only comment is that putting all those functions in one box introduces many compromises. Today a good quality system will be made of separate Streamer, DAC, Preamp, and amp. However many folks are now using integrated amps, which are a preamp integrated with an amp, so only three components. If you think you may be interested in pursuing a good system I would consider at least separate Streamer, DAC and integrated amp. NAD and Rotel have a number of good ones. The more you spend the better they will sound. This will greatly facilitate upgrading as well… you can do one piece at a time.

Here are some highlights! It's much more than just the pre-amp section of the current M33. Are you planning to match it up with the M23 Power amp?

  • WAY more than just an M33's pre-amp section
  • Ultra-precise resistor-ladder control circuit
  • Flagship ESS Sabre ES9038PRO DAC and
    ES9822PRO ADC
  • Dynamic Digital Headroom (DDH) circuit eliminates digital inter-sample peak clipping distortion
  • Full Dirac Live + Bass Control + License included for 4x Sub Outputs
  • Four balanced (XLR) and four unbalanced (RCA)
    subwoofer outputs - for a 2.4 system!
  • Low output impedance + very high output voltage wired front headphone amp ¼" (6.3mm)