NAD Masters M33 -- first review

[Nakatomi63]

NAD Masters M33 has won the EISA Smart Amplifier Award

https://eisa.eu/awards/nad-masters-m33/?lang=es

[midi]

Still no delivery date from the German NAD distribution. It seems that NAD has still problems to get some devices on the market. On the other hand there appearing more and more enthusiastic reviews.

[markush]

https://audioxpress.com/article/fresh-fr...fier/14206 Another exciting one

[thumb5]

And from Darko: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pG1qmjMTbE

[mdconnelly]

Interesting comparison to the Hegal. But I've still yet to hear any indepth description of sound quality from the M33. His comments on clarity and detail were enlightening yet what you'd expect from class D amps. Darko spent an inordinate amount of time talking about what Dirac brought to the party. Quite interesting and informative, but then, that's more about changing the sound of the M33 to accommodate room conditions. And, to make that successful, he employed a Dirac expert.

My guess is the only way to know is to get one in your room. Sadly, my local dealer recently told me that the M33 may still be a month away and that he wasn't sure he would keep one in stock. So what we need is an Expert Pro owner who is willing to get out there and make the comparison. Inquiring minds want to know ;-)

[Snoopy8]

Interesting comparison to the Hegal.  But I've still yet to hear any indepth description of sound quality from the M33.  His comments on clarity and detail were enlightening yet what you'd expect from class D amps.  Darko spent an inordinate amount of time talking about what Dirac brought to the party.  Quite interesting and informative, but then, that's more about changing the sound of the M33 to accommodate room conditions.  And, to make that successful, he employed a Dirac expert.

My guess is the only way to know is to get one in your room.  Sadly, my local dealer recently told me that the M33 may still be a month away and that he wasn't sure he would keep one in stock.  So what we need is an Expert Pro owner who is willing to get out there and make the comparison.  Inquiring minds want to know ;-)

Not sure it is right to downplay the review because Dirac Live was used to correct the room, and an expert was brought in (and what he did is easy to do).

To me, Dirac Live is an integral part of the M33, just like SAM is integral to the Expert Pro. It is ok to compare the M33 with and without Dirac Live to see its impact. It does not make sense to use the M33 without Dirac Live in any comparison with other products.

[BoyScout]

So what we need is an Expert Pro owner who is willing to get out there and make the comparison.  Inquiring minds want to know ;-)

Agree.
Untill there, the rest is just a fairy tale (with or without Dirac).

[mdconnelly]

@Snoopy8 - I agree -- just wish he'd spent more time talking about the M33 sound quality. Dirac is a very important component of the M33 and a great selling point. But not a sufficient one alone. I really want to know how good the M33 is as an integrated amp first. If it's just another class D amp with Dirac bundled, well, IMHO that's not good enough. I suspect it is far better than that, but Darko seemed far more focused on Dirac to get a real sense. Not knocking the review - I actually really enjoyed it and probably need to watch it again - just wishing for more.

My point about using a professional to setup Dirac is that I've seen numerous comments from Dirac users that it takes someone who really knows how to use it to make it shine. Nothing wrong with that but I suspect that for most owners, seeking a professional will likely not happen. Still, I am highly intrigued by it because I know my room is causing me some headaches. I can only imagine how excited I'd be if Devialet announced Dirac integration. Just not holding my breath on that one.

[David A]

Not sure it is right to downplay the review because Dirac Live was used to correct the room, and an expert was brought in (and what he did is easy to do).

To me, Dirac Live is an integral part of the M33, just like SAM is integral to the Expert Pro. It is ok to compare the M33 with and without Dirac Live to see its impact. It does not make sense to use the M33 without Dirac Live in any comparison with other products.

Actually, I'm going to disagree and say that it does make sense to use the M33 without Dirac Live in any comparison with other products. I you want to compare the M33 with a Devialet, the only fair comparison is to compare the M33 without Dirac Live to the Devialet without SAM. My reason for saying that is that Dirac Live and SAM are doing very different things. Add them to the comparison and you're comparing an apple to an orange. If you want as close to and "all things being equal" comparison, you compare the amps without using Dirac Live or SAM.

I've got no problems with comparing the M33 to itself with and without Dirac Live active, or comparing the Devialet to itself with and without SAM active, but once you start comparing one amp with Dirac Live active to another amp with SAM active you're no longer just comparing amps, you're also comparing a room correction system to a loudspeaker bass frequency phase correction system and those technologies are doing entirely different things and some people may benefit more from room correction than from SAM, definitely those with speakers for which a SAM profile is not available. On the other hand those have an acoustically good room because of room design and/or physical acoustic treatments may derive little benefit from Dirac Live and more benefit from SAM if a profile is available for their speakers. There are valid reasons why a Devialet user may have no use for SAM and why an M33 user may have no use for Dirac live, and those reasons plus the fact that the 2 technologies involved are correcting quite different problems, are why it really does make sense to compare amps with technologies such as these to each other without these technologies active if you're going to compare one amp to another.

[jvoki]

another new product review from a Czech server from an experienced reviewer.  The main advantage is again in Dirac functionality and ease of use.  

https://www.hifi-voice.com/testy-a-recen...36-nad-m33

ps: I have no knowledge of purifi modules.  Can it be expected that it will be used in other brands of amplifiers ?  Or just NAD? 
When I look at technology, there's a box from NAD.  Dirac, BluOS software and purifi is from a partner?