2. digital
  3. 136739-110858

Trying to Decide on my next Purchase

I'm new to digital music and decided on the NAD Master Series M12 and M22 v2 for my music room.  With the M12/M22 setup, I'm using a McIntosh MCD7008 (that I borrowed from my rec room Mac analog system).  My next purchase will be a CD transport to replace the Mac MCD or a digital music streamer.  My budget is ~$3500. 

I'm considering the NAD M50.2, but I'm concerned about usability issues that I read about, in particular, it has no remote and the app must be used to initially play a CD. The blog noted the M12 remote cannot be used to start playing a CD.  Does anyone know if the M12 remote can be used or programmed to control the following 50.2 functions:
  1. Open the tray
  2. Close the tray
  3. Play a CD in the tray
  4. Play any CD stored on the device
The idea of ripping my CD library all over again isn't that appealing, but with the 50.2 I won't need another CD player :-).   
128x128oldschool1948

Showing 2 responses by audiotroy

audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,584 posts
 
The Innuous is way better sounding then the NAD in our tests a $3,500.00 Zenith MK II came quite close to the $15k Baetis Ref, however, their have been a score of improvements in the current Baetis that pushes that unit up even further in the reference class food chain.

The difference in digital severs is quite spooky and quite honestly we don't really understand why there is so much difference between digital sources but there are. 

The Innous is designed to run Roon, got no idea what you mean by LMS fits my needs well enough. Roon is one of the best music management softwares out there and you can do extensive playlist creation.

If its any considertion we have an nice eight bay QNAS with 21TB in a raid 5 configuration, and yes we still play vinyl, very rarely we will actually spin a CD we do have one of the world's best CD/SACD players the T+A PDP 3000.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,584 posts
 
Oldschool we sell a lot of music streamers, and the NAD is a good capable product but there are way better units out there. 

The NAD is great if you are interested in setting up a NAD Blue Sound streaming setup and also like the idea of having a back up drive.

The Blue Sound Operating system is truly fantastic.

We sell the NAD, we also sell Aurender, Lumin, Baetis, Innuous, Naim. 

Our current favorite for the price is the Innous Zenith which offers some wonderful qualities:

1: True Audiophile build quality with a very sophisticated low noise power supply which generates a very clean digital signal, and yes you can hear the difference.  Low clock noise, ethernet isolation filter, proprietary OS which is designed to eliminate noise, vibration shock mounting. 

2: Easy to setup

3: Roon Core 

All the main servers use an app to run them.  There is just too much to control and access in terms of using and selecting files to make a regular remote effective. 

Personally the ability for a server to play a cd rather than rip is not a major issue the Innuous rips in eight mins, and automatically updates your library. 

I would not consider a server just because it is an NAD product, we sell the Masters products and they do stand on their own merits and you can use whatever server you find acceptable.

Food for thought.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
More to discover