NAD Masters M33 -- first review

[pvanosta]

[quote pid="97809" dateline="1606397796"]

 Fast forward to 9 months later and still no sign of Roon Ready status at Hegel, so I sold the Hegel and bought the Devialet.

I am still rather amazed that Roon and Devialet were able to work collaboratively to achieve Roon certification.  Granted, it took a fair bit of time but given the experience of other mainstream manufacturers, who have struggled for months going into seemingly years without gaining certification, it's all the more stunning.  I have been critical of Devialet for their lackluster customer service, poor communications and head-scratching updates (sorry, but Sweet Room is a hot mess for those of us who don't have degrees in physics), but I must give them high marks for Roon certification. 

I moved progressively from a Devialet Expert 180 (subsequently a Devialet Expert 200 via firmware update) to a Devialet Expert 220 Pro, with a slight detour to a Lyngdorf TDAI-3400, which incidentally could not hold a candle IMHO SQ-wise to Devialet; with each platform, first with Roon and its implementation of Devialet AIR on the 200, and then subsequently with full Roon certification for the Expert Pro platform, the Roon experience has been sweet.

One caveat to all of this: one serious hiccup along the way between Roon and Devialet has been the problem many experienced with gigabit streaming.  I had the issue until I moved to an etherREGEN switch, which promotes a 100mbps connection to the Devialet platform, which eliminated the problem for me.  I know that Devialet has issued a fix during its most recent firmware update but it has not worked as advertised for everyone.

Bottom line: I will continue with my Devialet Expert 220 Pro but am keeping my eye on the NAD Masters M33, as it has a user-friendly room correction utility that I would quite like to have.  Whether it would match or exceed the Devialet Expert Pro platform in SQ remains to be seen.

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I decided to stop waiting for the Nad to be Roon certified, based on my prior Hegel experience. I bought a second 220 and now enjoy a 440 Pro with Roon RAAT and it sounds really good. It also unfortunately raises the bar for any future upgrades (Boulder 866?)... first world problem