derbigpr
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2011
- Posts
- 1,623
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- 275
Say hello to these two good friends. Just a teaser before a review which will come in a few days, probably in a video format.
For now, after living with it for 5 days I'll only say a couple of crucial things that I believe people interested in this unit would like to know but can't find out since there's not a lot of information available on this device, also I'll only talk about it as a headphone amp + DAC, not as a DAC alone. I'll list positives and negatives indicated by the + or - sign before the comment:
+ First and foremost I am glad to report that the headphone amplifier is adequately powerful to power any of the headphones I've tried the unit with (T1, HD650, K701, D600, DT770 80 ohm and several other cheaper headphones), however here I will only talk about how it fares with the T1's since they're the ones I've had with me these days. It really has heaps of gain, I don't dare to turn it all the way with T1's because it simply gets unbearably loud. In fact, it gets louder than when plugged into the Musical Fidelity M1HPAP headphone amp, I can turn the M1HPAP all the way with T1's and it's bearable, with D1050 I can't, this thing is a driver-destroyer if you want it to be. Even with some really bass heavy and dynamic music such as Infected Mushroom - Vicious delicious, which has a crazy punchy bass, the amp holds the T1's by the balls and hits with confidence and solidity, not a hint of distortion or loss of control.
+ The headphone output is completely silent - there's is no hiss whatsoever even with the ultra-sensitive Denon D600's.
+ Volume control is digital - which is positive because it means there's no channel imbalance...
- ...but it's also a negative point because it's a pain to adjust the volume level. Literally, operating this volume knob could be classified as manual labour. It literally takes 2-3 full turns to go from low/medium to medium/loud volume on the T1's, and on top of that the knob is pretty hefty and it takes above average force to turn. I don't want to sound like a nancy, but the knob should be bit lighter and more sensitive, this way it's basically impossible to change the volume quickly. That said, I'd always choose this instead of possible channel imbalance and some other issues with a regular volume pot.
- There is no volume indicator. Basically, I'm not sure why NAD did this, but this is so far the biggest fault of this unit as far the physical characteristics go. I know their D3020 from the same series of products has a volume indicator on the front screen, but D1050 doesn't. This means you can never know how loud the headphones are going to be before you plug them in, so I always end up turning the knob counter clockwise to reduce the volume as much as possible before plugging in the headphones, which again takes about 3-4 full turns just to be sure I won't fry the drivers or damage my ears. At least the volume resets after turning the unit off.
+ The unit is very pretty, pictures don't do it justice (especially mine taken with a phone in a half dark room). It has a very premium feel to it, it feels monolithic, solid, the front face houses a screen with nicely dimmed white/blueish writting. Apart from the glossy plastic parts in the middle of the amp, sides are covered in a rubberized material, there's a little metal mesh that let's you see inside the amp, and the NAD logo is a nice metal badge, not a sticker or just some paint printed onto the plastic. The volume knob is made of some sort of dark grey metal, but has a rubberized edge. All the inputs or outputs in the rear have a feel solidity to it, no loose RCA jacks here, the same goes for the headphone input, it again takes some force to insert the plug and there's a solid click at the end of travel.
- Headphone jack on the front is 3.5 mm. Again, not a logical move by NAD considering this is aimed at higher class headphones meant to be used at home. This means I have to use an adapter with all of my headphones, and using a 2€ adapter on the T1's doesn't feel like the happiest solution, but I'll get one of those 6,3 to 3,5 extension cables. Used to have one that I got with the HD650's, but thanks to my cat, "used to" is the crucial part of this sentence.
---SOUND---
(remember, all impressions are with the T1's)
In one word, sound is excellent. I compared the unit to the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic Plus, Denon DA-300USB, Teac UD-H01, Asus Xonar Essence STU and Essence One (basic edition) and the NAD came out on top. However, take this comparison with a grain of salt since it was in no way done in ideal conditions. It just seemed to me in the store that NAD D1050 sounded nicer than the others. It absolutely declassed the CA DAC Magic, which is rubbish with headphones, and it sounded slightly, but obviously better than UD-H01, DA-300USB and STU. These three were on about the same level, with Denon being behind the other two in terms of power, bur sonically very similar. Essence One was pretty close, however, E1 had some channel imbalance at low volume, so it's out of the equation for me. In terms of power, both were powerful enough to play binaural Chesky recordings (which are pretty silent) to ear splitting levels and both sounded very good while doing it. I can't say D1050 sounds better than E1, it's simply impossible to tell in 15 minutes, but in that short period both left a very positive impression.
What I can say is that D1050 sounds excellent. A level above Musical Fidelity M1DAC I think, even though they're in the same price category M1 shows its age. D1050 is very, very detailed, coherent, solid. Tonality out of the headphone output is neutral, maybe leaning towards brighness. Some might find it bass light, and I can definitely say the bass is lighter and doesn't extend with as much ease as out of the M1HPAP, but hey...it's a 600€ DAC+headamp vs. a 700€ dedicated headphone amp. M1 is slighlty fuller sounding overall, slightly more spacious and more hefty in the bass region. However, it hisses on high volumes, has slight channel imbalance and doesn't go as loud as the D1050.
I don't know what else to say, I don't really want to go deep into describing the sound, because I find it pointless. All I can say is that in my opinion the sound is excellent, better than that of other offerings in the same price range that I've tried and for the money it's definitely a 5/5 product. The headphone amp is very capable, very powerful, silent, balanced, clean, etc. The entire package sounds very clean, extremelly detailed, natural, high in sound resolution, separation of sounds is great, highs extend effortlessly, mids are nice smooth and full, and bass is very tight, detailed and well textured, but maybe somewhat light. Soundstage is good, it's not huge, and depth is not quite on the level of the M1HPAP, but imaging is comparable. Sound is smooth and musical, doesn't have that cold digital feel to it that a lot of cheaper DAC's can have, however, it does feel a bit bright-ish. I don't know, it may be because I'm used to the M1 stack which is pretty warm. To put it into numbers, if 10 was the neutral level, then bass would be 9, mids 10 and highs 11 in terms of presence/loudness.
For now I'll leave it at this, feel free to ask any questios about the unit and I'll try to help out.
For now, after living with it for 5 days I'll only say a couple of crucial things that I believe people interested in this unit would like to know but can't find out since there's not a lot of information available on this device, also I'll only talk about it as a headphone amp + DAC, not as a DAC alone. I'll list positives and negatives indicated by the + or - sign before the comment:
+ First and foremost I am glad to report that the headphone amplifier is adequately powerful to power any of the headphones I've tried the unit with (T1, HD650, K701, D600, DT770 80 ohm and several other cheaper headphones), however here I will only talk about how it fares with the T1's since they're the ones I've had with me these days. It really has heaps of gain, I don't dare to turn it all the way with T1's because it simply gets unbearably loud. In fact, it gets louder than when plugged into the Musical Fidelity M1HPAP headphone amp, I can turn the M1HPAP all the way with T1's and it's bearable, with D1050 I can't, this thing is a driver-destroyer if you want it to be. Even with some really bass heavy and dynamic music such as Infected Mushroom - Vicious delicious, which has a crazy punchy bass, the amp holds the T1's by the balls and hits with confidence and solidity, not a hint of distortion or loss of control.
+ The headphone output is completely silent - there's is no hiss whatsoever even with the ultra-sensitive Denon D600's.
+ Volume control is digital - which is positive because it means there's no channel imbalance...
- ...but it's also a negative point because it's a pain to adjust the volume level. Literally, operating this volume knob could be classified as manual labour. It literally takes 2-3 full turns to go from low/medium to medium/loud volume on the T1's, and on top of that the knob is pretty hefty and it takes above average force to turn. I don't want to sound like a nancy, but the knob should be bit lighter and more sensitive, this way it's basically impossible to change the volume quickly. That said, I'd always choose this instead of possible channel imbalance and some other issues with a regular volume pot.
- There is no volume indicator. Basically, I'm not sure why NAD did this, but this is so far the biggest fault of this unit as far the physical characteristics go. I know their D3020 from the same series of products has a volume indicator on the front screen, but D1050 doesn't. This means you can never know how loud the headphones are going to be before you plug them in, so I always end up turning the knob counter clockwise to reduce the volume as much as possible before plugging in the headphones, which again takes about 3-4 full turns just to be sure I won't fry the drivers or damage my ears. At least the volume resets after turning the unit off.
+ The unit is very pretty, pictures don't do it justice (especially mine taken with a phone in a half dark room). It has a very premium feel to it, it feels monolithic, solid, the front face houses a screen with nicely dimmed white/blueish writting. Apart from the glossy plastic parts in the middle of the amp, sides are covered in a rubberized material, there's a little metal mesh that let's you see inside the amp, and the NAD logo is a nice metal badge, not a sticker or just some paint printed onto the plastic. The volume knob is made of some sort of dark grey metal, but has a rubberized edge. All the inputs or outputs in the rear have a feel solidity to it, no loose RCA jacks here, the same goes for the headphone input, it again takes some force to insert the plug and there's a solid click at the end of travel.
- Headphone jack on the front is 3.5 mm. Again, not a logical move by NAD considering this is aimed at higher class headphones meant to be used at home. This means I have to use an adapter with all of my headphones, and using a 2€ adapter on the T1's doesn't feel like the happiest solution, but I'll get one of those 6,3 to 3,5 extension cables. Used to have one that I got with the HD650's, but thanks to my cat, "used to" is the crucial part of this sentence.
---SOUND---
(remember, all impressions are with the T1's)
In one word, sound is excellent. I compared the unit to the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic Plus, Denon DA-300USB, Teac UD-H01, Asus Xonar Essence STU and Essence One (basic edition) and the NAD came out on top. However, take this comparison with a grain of salt since it was in no way done in ideal conditions. It just seemed to me in the store that NAD D1050 sounded nicer than the others. It absolutely declassed the CA DAC Magic, which is rubbish with headphones, and it sounded slightly, but obviously better than UD-H01, DA-300USB and STU. These three were on about the same level, with Denon being behind the other two in terms of power, bur sonically very similar. Essence One was pretty close, however, E1 had some channel imbalance at low volume, so it's out of the equation for me. In terms of power, both were powerful enough to play binaural Chesky recordings (which are pretty silent) to ear splitting levels and both sounded very good while doing it. I can't say D1050 sounds better than E1, it's simply impossible to tell in 15 minutes, but in that short period both left a very positive impression.
What I can say is that D1050 sounds excellent. A level above Musical Fidelity M1DAC I think, even though they're in the same price category M1 shows its age. D1050 is very, very detailed, coherent, solid. Tonality out of the headphone output is neutral, maybe leaning towards brighness. Some might find it bass light, and I can definitely say the bass is lighter and doesn't extend with as much ease as out of the M1HPAP, but hey...it's a 600€ DAC+headamp vs. a 700€ dedicated headphone amp. M1 is slighlty fuller sounding overall, slightly more spacious and more hefty in the bass region. However, it hisses on high volumes, has slight channel imbalance and doesn't go as loud as the D1050.
I don't know what else to say, I don't really want to go deep into describing the sound, because I find it pointless. All I can say is that in my opinion the sound is excellent, better than that of other offerings in the same price range that I've tried and for the money it's definitely a 5/5 product. The headphone amp is very capable, very powerful, silent, balanced, clean, etc. The entire package sounds very clean, extremelly detailed, natural, high in sound resolution, separation of sounds is great, highs extend effortlessly, mids are nice smooth and full, and bass is very tight, detailed and well textured, but maybe somewhat light. Soundstage is good, it's not huge, and depth is not quite on the level of the M1HPAP, but imaging is comparable. Sound is smooth and musical, doesn't have that cold digital feel to it that a lot of cheaper DAC's can have, however, it does feel a bit bright-ish. I don't know, it may be because I'm used to the M1 stack which is pretty warm. To put it into numbers, if 10 was the neutral level, then bass would be 9, mids 10 and highs 11 in terms of presence/loudness.
For now I'll leave it at this, feel free to ask any questios about the unit and I'll try to help out.
.
