Daniel J SaitNAD Electronics is now shipping the M33, a BluOS enabled DAC/amplifier that can serve as the heart of a reference whole-home system. In its simplest form, the M33 (priced at £3,999 MSRP) is a high-performance streaming amplifier that can also be combined with other players in a BluOS ecosystem of wirelessly networked music players throughout the home.
According to Cas Ooostvogel, NAD’s Product Manager, “The NAD Masters M33 has created tremendous excitement since its preview at CES. As the first amplifier to utilise Purifi Eigentakt amplifier technology, its performance must be heard to be appreciated. The M33 is a true state-of-the-art audiophile amplifier in the traditional sense yet with a distinct difference: It fully caters to the modern world where the majority of music is delivered over the internet with an entire catalogue of recorded music readily available at your fingertips. This is obviously a wonderful convenience. Then, the M33’s ability to distribute that music in a multi-room audio system just adds that much more enjoyment, simplicity and value.”
Unusual in a class of products often associated with complexity is the M33’s intuitive operation, courtesy of the 7in touchscreen colour display combined with BluOS. NAD considers it the most advanced network streaming and multi-room operating system available.
Part of a growing ecosystem of compatible products, BluOS tightly integrates hardware and software and supports the new standard for High Res streaming, Master Quality Authenticated (MQA). BluOS also supports over 20 free and paid subscription services as well as supporting locally stored music libraries.
With BluOS, the M33 retains all the audiophile features and further adds a range of facilities that will expand its capabilities yet simplifies ease-of-use at the same time. Operable with the BluOS app, the supplied remote control or through hands-free control with any Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant device, the M33’s front panel doesn’t actually need to be touched. To expand the multi-room locations, adding additional rooms is both easy and affordable.
Dirac technology comes as standard on the M33 with corrections possible up to 500Hz, and an upgrade to the full bandwidth is available for a modest fee.
Supplied with the M33 is a precision microphone to measure the room at and around the listening position so your system can be precisely calibrated for optimum performance. Each of the five Dirac memory profiles can store a unique room measurement (think of the different acoustics with curtains open or closed, different listening position, for instance), or different frequency target curves to suit a particular musical taste or genre. The M33 also supports Dirac’s advanced ‘Bass Control’ feature with two independent subwoofer outputs.
In its standard form, the M33 is very complete with a wide range of in/outputs, BluOS, Dirac, HDMI eARC and more already fully integrated. It will meet the requirements of the most demanding users. To minimise the risk of future obsolescence, the M33 comes with two MDC slots that allow for further expansion.
Besides multi-room, another compelling feature of BluOS is its multi-room and high-res streaming capabilities. The latter with full MQA decoding support from a local NAS or shared drive but also from internet streaming audio services which offer high-res content such as Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz and others. Music services such as Spotify, Amazon Music, Slacker, TuneIn, nugs.net and many others are also supported.
Whether looking to connect digital or analogue sources, the M33 comes well equipped to accommodate for all of these: five digital inputs and three analogue inputs, including XLR Balanced, MM and MC phono.
The rear panel hosts two sets of speaker outputs capable of bi-wiring and a stereo subwoofer output with a fully configurable digital crossover. Airplay 2 and Bluetooth AptX-HD allow for local wireless streaming from a phone or tablet.
BluOS provides hands-free control with full integration of any Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant device. Through Airplay 2, control is also possible with Siri. Considerable effort has been spent to make the M33 fully compatible with various smart home systems from companies like Apple, Crestron, Control4, Lutron, KNX and many others. The M33 is also compatible with the Roon music platform.
This means that along with lighting, shades, HVAC and security, the integrator or user can seamlessly control the BluOS multi-room music system from a common interface. All integrations are certified for reliable operation. The custom BluOS Apps for iOS and Android tablets and phones, as well as desktop control from Windows and Apple OS are available free-of-charge and are updated regularly.