Hi everybody, Dave D. here from the
Crutchfield Demo Team, and today I'm
going to talk about the NAD Masters M10
Series streaming integrated amp. It kind
of just rolls off the tongue! Well,
we've got a small black box here in
front of me, and this thing does all
kinds of stuff, including your
two-channel stereo amplification, but it
also does BluOS streaming for you, so
it opens up a whole new world of music
that is just at your fingertips or on your
smartphone, basically. So what we have is
a built in amplifier that's a hundred
watts per channel times two channels
that does 4 or 8 ohms, so you got
versatility in terms of variety of
speakers you can use with it, and even if
it's your first piece in the BluOS
ecosystem, or you're adding on to
something you already have from BlueSound,
it's a great addition because
it'll get your foot in the door as far
as a small chassis piece that can be a
tabletop placed or on a bookshelf or
it's kind of out of the way you still
have controls to your smartphone, or you
can actually do it from the front
touchscreen panel which you see here, a
lot of options to take care of all your
streaming and all your analog audio
needs. NAD is known for packing a lot of
power into a smaller chassis, they've been
doing it for years now, and this M10
is no different. And we connected a
couple of different speakers, not
necessarily efficient ones, to this
amplifier, it had no problem streaming
clean, solid power to both sets of
bookshelves we used in our demo. And as
we move on to the makeup of this
particular integrated amp, you've also
got an ESS SABRE DAC on board, so not
only is the power gonna handle any kind
of speaker you really throw at it, it's
also gonna make it super clean with
whatever source you're gonna use here
digitally. And speaking of digital, it's
got an optical and coax inputs for you
so you can connect different types of
gear to it. Let's say you have a CD
player or a turntable has a phono
preamp already built into it, you can
connect right to the RCAs on the back
of this thing, and as far as analog
outputs, it's got a set of preamp outputs
so you can add a more powerful amplifier
if you want to step it up later on, you
can certainly do that. And it also has
two outputs for subwoofers, so if you
were a basshead, go for it.
Moving over to some of the streaming
capabilities of this amplifier, we've got
a two-way Bluetooth setup where it's got
Bluetooth with aptX, so you can actually
receive from a tablet, from a phone, or
from either a portable music player that
might have Bluetooth
built-in, but it also transmits
Bluetooth for you, so if you get a set of
Bluetooth headphones, you're in great
shape to listen to your music coming
right from the streaming amplifier. And
then let's move to the BluOS streaming
capabilities of this thing. Not only does
it have its own streaming capabilities
built-in, but it also enjoys being part
of a BluOS ecosystem with a huge array
of streaming sources you can choose from.
You've got Spotify Connect you can use,
you've got Deezer, you've got Qobuz, and
if you're a TIDAL fan you're gonna
really like this piece, because it works
directly with MQA master quality
authenticated songs that they have on
their premium service. So you get amazing
sound from this particular integrated
amplifier. So to control these great apps
that you can stream on this integrated
amplifier, you can use the app that BluOS
provides free for your phone or for
your tablet, but you can also use this
huge touchscreen on the front here. It's
pretty intuitive, you can actually go
into different sources through it, and
while this particular amp doesn't have
a knob, you can actually just touch the
screen and look at the dial and use your
finger to twirl it around like that,
very easy, as you can control very easy
to see album art. I actually like
watching album art that's coming on when
I'm listening to music, so that's huge
for me. And as you move along, to control
this thing you can you'll find that not
only can you just control your music,
there are all kinds of options in BluOS to allow you to customize how you
want to listen to this particular piece
as well as all the other items in the
BluOS family, so very cool stuff. And
speaking of cool stuff, it actually has
Direct Live Lite version built in, which is a room calibration service that
is gonna be available with a
firmware upgrade for this piece, and the
package actually includes a microphone
you connect to your computer. You set up
the calibration system for your room, and
it'll take everything into account as
far as the characteristics of that room
and set it for the best sound capable
coming out of this piece, so pretty cool
stuff there, too. And with room
calibration this piece has an
interesting input as well, it's got an
HDMI ARC input, so let's say you want a
simple two-channel stereo system to add to
your TV, this will make a great add-on
instead of using a sound bar not necessarily
known for great audio, this thing will be
able to let you listen to music you like
on television the way you want to in
stereo, and with great sound. Some other
great features included on this NADpiece are Apple AirPlay 2, the latest
version of AirPlay which lets you not
only control your music with Siri, but
you can also control several different
components that use AirPlay 2
separately.
There is also Alexa capability built
into the NAD M10, so you'll be able to
use voice control and let you know who
do the music choosing for you or do the
work for you, I should say. And some more
expansion capabilities, I mentioned the
pre outs or preamp outs earlier if you
want to add an amplifier, but this piece
also has a trigger output and an IR
input which allows you to basically, the
IR input basically lets you hide this in
a cabinet if you don't really want to see
it, but who wouldn't want to see this? I
mean, it's gorgeous. But if you want it in
the cabinet hidden, you can do that, and
just have an IR repeater outside that
cabinet and feed a remote. And as far as
the trigger out, that will actually send
a 12-volt pulse to another component to
turn it on when this comes on, so you
don't have to mess around with turning
separate things on at separate times.
Like most NAD Masters pieces this has a
three-year warranty, so you know the
build quality is good, and nad like I
mentioned before has done wonderful work
and making huge power out of small
spaces like this eight and a half inch
NAD M10. So if you need any help choosing
your BluOS piece, including the M10
here, please give our advisors a call, or
you can email or chat as well, and they'd
be glad to help you out. Thanks.
