NAD M33 Streaming Amplifier Review & Comments

Pat - can I ask, do you hear a crackling noise coming from your M33, and also a quiet hum, if you listen to it close up?

I got an M33 late November (from Sevenoaks) and straight away upon turning it on, I was surprised to hear it crackling and humming. The hum is easily audible in my room (when the room is silent) from my regular listening position about 10 feet away, so I immediately decided this was unacceptable and I arrange a replacement on the basis that this must be defective (Sevenoaks agreed).

I got the replacement just before Christmas, and it's exactly the same. Sevenoaks have contacted NAD who have said its a known problem with M33's on UK mains voltage which they will fix with a recall at some point in the near future, so for now I am keeping this one.

But I am just surprised no-one else has mentioned it. Does yours do this?
Chippy - I've just received a call from Bob of NAD in Canada. He is aware of the noise problem with a few "high voltage" units and the replacement boards that include the faulty component are now with Sevenoaks. It's not a recall, so the onus is on you to arrange for the repair. Chris is the guy at Sevenoaks who knows all about NAD. I hope this helps. Peter

PS - I'm hoping that my M33 problems (shutting down occasionally or not booting up first thing) will be fixed by the firmware package Bob has sent to me. If it works, it'll save me having to send it to Sevenoaks. A job for the weekend.
 
Chippy and Pat

I was surprised that your M33 was physically noisy. Mine, which is a first-batch one, is dead silent apart from a few start-up relay clicks. I have other problems with it occasionally shutting down or failing so "see" the internet, but that's something NAD is currently addressing - they've send me firmware upgrade instructions today though I've not read these yet,

The digital gain settings are fixed - it's only the analogue ones that can be adjusted. This is a pity as my TV via Optical is low compared with AES/EBU (from my NAD M50.2) or streaming. This is disappointing - you'd expect digital to be easier to attenuate. don't use the percentage volume option as I prefer the decibel attenuation method. I find the volume needs to be turned up several dB when listing to TV via Opt 1.

I presume by DLNA you mean the digital inputs via coax or AES/EBU. I've not found any noticeable difference in sound quality between streaming ((CD quality) or my stored FLAC files on the M50.2.

I'm glad you like the M33. The remote does several things but nothing like the range available when using the identical remote with M32 or M12. It annoys me that so many settings need to be set using the LED screen. My M33 is about 70 cm from the floor so I have to move to the unit and kneel on the floor or squat in order to make adjustments. All this can be done on the M32 / M12 using the remote from one's chair. An opportunity squandered by NAD. In fact I suspect they plan to phase out the wonderful remote that's currently supplied an include a cheap plastic job in future!

Peter
Thanks Peter.

EDIT: Just seen your second post. Thanks - I will contact Sevenoaks. For reference, when I speak to my Sevenoaks dealer in Bristol, where is Chris based please? i.e. which branch?
 
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I placed an order and got it within a week. If that batch is all sold out they have more coming, mid January, apparently
Thats so frustrating. I ordered mine first of October. My dealer says my order shipped late December but now it is lost at port between USA and canada.. I was told an entire shipping container with tons of nad m33 are missing. No shit. I have been following this thread and my excitement is off the charts. I have talked my self into requesting my money back.
 
I've had my M33 since mid Dec 2020 but it makes a whining noise on startup (through the speakers) which takes around 10 seconds to disappear. Wondering if anyone else has had similar problem and if I'm doing something wrong. I just have a network cable, power cable and speakers attached so no other hardware connected other than my Monitor Audio Silver 8's (which sound fantastic after the initial whining noise on startup). SSAV have offered to refund but I fear the new stock might not materialise as soon as expected.
 
I have had my NAD M33 for 2 months and at least with our electrical power in Canada there is no noise at all except for a couple of faint clicks on start up.
 
I've had my M33 since mid Dec 2020 but it makes a whining noise on startup (through the speakers) which takes around 10 seconds to disappear. Wondering if anyone else has had similar problem and if I'm doing something wrong. I just have a network cable, power cable and speakers attached so no other hardware connected other than my Monitor Audio Silver 8's (which sound fantastic after the initial whining noise on startup). SSAV have offered to refund but I fear the new stock might not materialise as soon as expected.
Mine does not do that. Mine just does the whining and humming coming from the unit itself - which does not go away after 10 seconds unfortunately.
 
I've had my M33 since mid Dec 2020 but it makes a whining noise on startup (through the speakers) which takes around 10 seconds to disappear. Wondering if anyone else has had similar problem and if I'm doing something wrong. I just have a network cable, power cable and speakers attached so no other hardware connected other than my Monitor Audio Silver 8's (which sound fantastic after the initial whining noise on startup). SSAV have offered to refund but I fear the new stock might not materialise as soon as expected.
My M33 is dead quiet on startup apart from the expected small clicks from relays and the speakers remain silent until music is plating. This is with 107dB speakers, so I'd hear if anything was amiss.

Precisely when does this noise start and finish? If it starts before the relay clicking has finished, there must be a problem as the relays are there to connect the speakers to the amp only when the amp is fully booted and ready to play music.

I've had M33 problems related to mid-music shutdown, or not starting up when initally switched on. NAD seem to have identified the problem and at first sugggested it went back to Sevenoaks for attention, but last week they sent me a "Firmware Flasher" and invited me to try that instead of return to SSAV. It took some time to get the M33 to communicate with the PC, but I managed (I think) to download the new firmware last evening. So far so good, though my shut-down problems occurred only one a week so so, so time will tell. Peter
 
Ive only ever had one seemingly random shut down and that was just using BluOS so its quite possible that my wireless simply dropped. I do hear the faint start up clicks that you all report and these dont worry me at all. I also get annoying HDMI handshake issues on the 4K MDC board, where, occasionally the sound takes ages to "kick in"......but to be fair to NAD, Ive never had a piece of AV kit that hasnt had this problem. A restart of any piece of kit in the chain normally resolves this and its a very rare occurence..
In terms of on-going "usage noise" the NAD is sooooo much quieter than my previous kit which included 2 x 1K watt power amps that, in spite of having their own ring main, hummed. As a result Ive never noticed this but Im going to listen for a while this evening with no source signal, probably when the rest of the family has gone to bed. I`ll report back. Bear in mind that my M33 is also on that dedicated ring main and running through a mid price Isotek device, too.
Apart from the mildly annoying disparity between the gain of input sources.......which could so easily be fixed.......Im still totally in love with the sound and usability of this unit. I am constantly getting little moments of "damn, that sounds good." And for me, that's almost all anyone could ever want.
 
In terms of on-going "usage noise" the NAD is sooooo much quieter than my previous kit which included 2 x 1K watt power amps that, in spite of having their own ring main, hummed

I had 2 x B&O IcePower amps - rated at 1,100W into 4 Ohms and maybe I was spoiled, but they were SILENT. And I mean silent. Like dead silent room, no central heating on, ear against them and you cannot hear a thing. Nothing. Also same with your ear against the speakers: nothing. Just dead silence.

I was expecting this from the M33 in this day and age. Hopefully the fix from NAD will cure it.
 
I had 2 x B&O IcePower amps - rated at 1,100W into 4 Ohms and maybe I was spoiled, but they were SILENT. And I mean silent. Like dead silent room, no central heating on, ear against them and you cannot hear a thing. Nothing. Also same with your ear against the speakers: nothing. Just dead silence.

I was expecting this from the M33 in this day and age. Hopefully the fix from NAD will cure it.

Any good modern amp should be dead silent mechanically and most should be silent through the speakers though speaker efficiency and amp type may mean you could detect some low noise level if you place your ear close to the speaker. You were not spoiled by B&O - you should expect silence.

My 240 volt model M33 is mechanically dead silent apart from a few relay clicks at start-up - a good thing that speakers are protected during amp start-up. If you detect other mechanical noise, this is something that NAD is aware of in a few 240V models. They have sent boards to replace those that contain the faulty component to distributors who will change the board for you. This is not a "recall" so the onus is on you to contact your distributor. See my post #51 above if you are UK based. Peter
 
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Any good modern amp should be dead silent mechanically and most should be silent through the speakers though speaker efficiency and amp type may mean you could detect some low noise level if you place your ear close to the speaker. You were not spoiled by B&O - you should expect silence.

My 240 volt model M33 is mechanically dead silent apart from a few relay clicks at start-up - a good thing that speakers are protected during amp start-up. If you detect other mechanical noise, this is something that NAD is aware of in a few 240V models. They have sent boards to replace those that contain the faulty component to distributors who will change the board for you. This is not a "recall" so the onus is on you to contact your distributor. See my post #51 above if you are UK based. Peter
Sorry but yes I know this - you told me already ;-)
 
Well, I had a listen and it does actually faintly hum. And i mean really faintly. Its noticeably quieter than my Virgin box and no louder than my blu ray player. I'll have a think about it and decide whether its worth getting sevenoaks to request a replacement board. I was happy to accept this as "normal" but perhaps it isnt ?
 
Well, I had a listen and it does actually faintly hum. And i mean really faintly. Its noticeably quieter than my Virgin box and no louder than my blu ray player. I'll have a think about it and decide whether its worth getting sevenoaks to request a replacement board. I was happy to accept this as "normal" but perhaps it isnt ?
I suggest yours is fine. Mine not only hums very audibly - like I can hear it easily 12 feet away - it also makes a constant crackling / buzzing noise.
 
I have been a big fan of NAD. I have owned several products. Currently I have a c658. I use the 658 with Roon. My Roon server handels all my music library and end points. I ordered a M33 based on my past experience and reviews. After waiting four months my unit arrived. NO Roon functionality!!!! WtF? Roon and NAD have parted ways? Every M33 Pryor to September is grandfathered in. I ordered mine back in September but it got stuck in port during shipping. Now my M33 has Roon removed. Absolutely no Roon control. This is important as I built my entire system around Roon.
 
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I have been a big fan of NAD. I have owned several products. Currently I have a c658. I use the 658 with Roon. My Roon server handels all my music library and end points. I ordered a M33 based on my past experience and reviews. After waiting four months my unit arrived. NO Roon functionality!!!! WtF? Roon and NAD have parted ways? Every M33 Pryor to September is grandfathered in. I ordered mine back in September but it got stuck in port during shipping. Now my M33 has Roon removed. Absolutely no Roon control. This is important as I built my entire system around Roon.
For what I payed I expect at least the same functionality as the c658 I'm replacing. Too bad.. I waited a long time and now I am returning it. NAD lost a great customer.
My understanding is this is a Roon decision to tighten the Roon testing process. I am not sure how much NAD is to blame for that.
 
NAD is to blame for not ensuring that it was certified before release I guess. Or for not dealing promptly enough with whatever was not behaving well enough to achieve certification. Hopefully it will come soon.
 
NAD is to blame for not ensuring that it was certified before release I guess. Or for not dealing promptly enough with whatever was not behaving well enough to achieve certification. Hopefully it will come soon.
Some people would argue that Roon is responsible for suddenly changing the certification rules in September (so after the M33 and other units had been released and were working with Roon, even though the certification was still not completed). Of course they can play the blame-each-other game all day long, and consumers will be caught in the middle. There are some who are also saying that NAD may have a decreasing interest in supporting Roon certification because they want to push their BluOS system.
I just wanted to point out that things are more complicated than they may appear. Thanks.
 
It can always be looked at two ways, but I have to say that NAD (along with some others admittedly) have released a few things now with firmware which generally was not robust enough at launch and then have had to play ‘catch up’ when the flaws are exposed. they have several products on my ‘desire list’ so hopefully they are catching up on making them behave more predictably. Although, if not Roon Certified they will be no good to me.
 
So what's the score with Roon on the M33? Is it not supported, or just not supported yet?
 
My take on it is that the BluOS system in general is clearly Roon compatible in principle, but presumably that each individual component that has it would need to be certified separately. I guess launching products for sale with ‘Roon Certified’ anticipated, rather than actually having received a pass from Roon, is where the problem lies.
 
I understand both sides. Roon needed to hold manufactures compliant. How they went about it leaves a few questions. Nad is a bit responsible in this too. But the good news its coming and soon. I was told the date and understand both sides. I can’t say when as I was asked not to talk about it but suffice to say I’m keeping my m33. I was so bummed to find out roon was turned off my m33 after waiting many months. I picked it up Saturday and wanted to return it the same day.
 
Been listening for three days and really adore the sound. I am having issues with dirac. I very familiar with dirac . I used it on my c658 but its a total fail on the m33. Using nads target curve I have lost at least half of the volume, base is gone and the sound stage totally collapse.
Anyone else have issues with dirac?
Where can I go to get more assistance?
 
I tried Dirac when I first received my NAD M33 in November and like you I found the bass too weak, the soundstage pushed too far back, and the music too compressed sounding. I much prefer the sound without Dirac and have used without Dirac since November. Without Dirac I really like the NAD M33 with my B&W 802D2 speakers....crystal clear, punchy bass, dynamic, great soundstage, fantastic mid range and vocals.

I did move my speakers to the suggested cardas room position after trying Dirac and that seemed to help a lot with bass reflections so maybe that made some of the benefits of Dirac redundant in my listening room???
 
I failed to mention that my speakers are magnipan lrs. These speakers are dipole. It was made clear that dirac is going to have trouble getting an accurate measurement with dipole speakers. So much rear reflection. I have a set of paradigm lrc 450 that I am going to try.
 
Hi all,

I have a couple of questions for lucky M33 owners:

1) I currently have a NAD M10 which I use with KEF R5s. I like the system very much but I can't help wondering what sort of performance upgrade the M33 would offer over the M10. Is anyone able to advise?

2) I have a small unit that the M10 sits on. The M33 is too big for the unit unfortunately. I wouldn't mind the M33 hanging over the sides as long as I know the feet will fit. Would anyone be to give the footprint of the feet alone, excluding the case please?

Many thanks.
 

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