Once again, impressed by NAD

I put my spare NAD 7020 receiver that I keep around into service in my second system a year or so back when my other pre-amp there died, and I have been hard pressed to find a good reason to take it out again. IT does quite well in there!

I bought it for $25 used in a pawn shop in Alabama back around 1986 or so.

One of these days, I'll swap it into my main rig in palce of the ARC sp16, just for kicks to see how it might stack up.

It's not a good idea to use cost as the main metric for what to use or not use. Better to have a budget that need not be extensive, be well informed, do not overpay, maybe but used to try, choose a weapon wisely, and then use your ears to judge how many $$s are needed to get good sound that you like.

In regards to resolution/detail, the easiest way to find out what is possible is with computer or good quality portable devices and a good pair of buds or phones. It's the low cost way to hear what you might hear in a digital recording without bringing expensive home gear, room acoustics, etc. into the equation.

Digital audio has come a long way...do not discount it totally until heard done well, which is not all that difficult these days.

The NAD M51 DAC is a sleeper among this generation of DACs. IMO it shames some DACs costing thousands more that are highly reputed and often written about in reviews.

I was blown away by the beautiful accuracy of the NAD M51 dac. It was better than almost every dac I've heard either before or since with the exception of the remarkable Bricasti product (costing several times more). Were I to have the spare cash, I'd get the Bricasti but I liked the NAD better than the Esoteric, MF, and several smaller companies. Obviously, there is a subjective element at play, but I think it is amazing it is one of the few quality dac/dac preamps out there with HDMI inputs which I really appreciate when listening to the 24 bit stereo content on SACDs, DVDs and Blueray discs.

Lse,

I agree completely. I have owned EMM, Antelope, Berkeley, AMR and others. The NAD M51 totally outclassed them all. There may be better sounding DACs out there -- but not for the money. IMO.

Over the years, NAD has done great things... But the difference between affordable and hi-end amplifiers is much smaller than most people think...