NAD M50 and NAD M2 w/ Macbook Pro

[codyred]

Hi, I own an NAD M2 and use it with a Macbook Pro. I don't have an external hard drive yet but eventually wil. I have some AIFF files from ripped CD's on the Macbook Pro. I noticed the NAD M50 when I saw a Youtube video of the NAD M2, NAD M50 and NAD M52 Digital Music Vault being used as a "suite" and producing some excellent sound at the Rocky Mountain Audiofest in 2012. The sound was clear and real.

 

I don't understand exactly how this all works, since I am a computer newbie, but could I successfully use the NAD M50 with the NAD M2 and a Macbook Pro to enhance my music playback, realizing that I don't have any backup storage etc now, but will have these eventually? I have no intentions on getting the M52 Music Vault as the expense of it and the M50 is more than I'm willing to spend. I'm thinking the synergy between the NAD M2 and the NAD M50 could produce a great sound.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

[wwaldmanfan]

Hi, I own an NAD M2 and use it with a Macbook Pro. I don't have an external hard drive yet but eventually wil. I have some AIFF files from ripped CD's on the Macbook Pro. I noticed the NAD M50 when I saw a Youtube video of the NAD M2, NAD M50 and NAD M52 Digital Music Vault being used as a "suite" and producing some excellent sound at the Rocky Mountain Audiofest in 2012. The sound was clear and real.

 

I don't understand exactly how this all works, since I am a computer newbie, but could I successfully use the NAD M50 with the NAD M2 and a Macbook Pro to enhance my music playback, realizing that I don't have any backup storage etc now, but will have these eventually? I have no intentions on getting the M52 Music Vault as the expense of it and the M50 is more than I'm willing to spend. I'm thinking the synergy between the NAD M2 and the NAD M50 could produce a great sound.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

 

The M50 is a network streamer/CD player/ripper for those that don't have a computer for a music server. Since you are already using your MBP for these tasks, it would be pointless and inappropriate for you to buy a M50.

 

Hard drives are cheap. Get yourself an external hard drive or SSD to hold your music library, or, at least, to back up what you have stored on the computer's internal drive. You should be connecting your MBP to your M2 with an optical/TOSLINK cable. Go into the Audio MIDI Setup utility and set it to the highest bit and sample rate it will support.

 

If you want to take it up a notch past iTunes, buy a stand-alone, third-party Mac music player app, like Audirvana Plus ($74), which has all the bells and whistles you'll ever need for top-quality digital music playback.

[codyred]

Ok thank you for your input.

[dariusz]

Hello, M50 would be an alternative to your MBP. I've never listened to M50-M2, this can be interested to compare with Audirvana on Mac plus usb/spdif convertor (maybe better than optical/toslink) and M2.

Anyone has experienced this?

[Kelly]

How do you feed the M2 from the Macbook? Do you use a USB-SPDIF converter? Do you feed it with an optical TOSLINK connection?

 

The M50 is a VERY good playback device. It is NOT a redundant component unless you have an utterly top notch USB-SPDIF converter. I use the M51 DAC which uses the same technology as the M2 and it definitely improves with a good source. I have heard the M2 and the M51 fed with the M50 and they work spectacularly well together through the AES connection. The M50 can play music stored on your macbook when they are both connected to the same network.

 

The M50 and M2 work exceptionally well together and there is tremendous synergy between the two components. The M52 is not needed as long as the M50 is playing back through the network (ethernet) interface.

 

 

Hi, I own an NAD M2 and use it with a Macbook Pro. I don't have an external hard drive yet but eventually wil. I have some AIFF files from ripped CD's on the Macbook Pro. I noticed the NAD M50 when I saw a Youtube video of the NAD M2, NAD M50 and NAD M52 Digital Music Vault being used as a "suite" and producing some excellent sound at the Rocky Mountain Audiofest in 2012. The sound was clear and real.

 

I don't understand exactly how this all works, since I am a computer newbie, but could I successfully use the NAD M50 with the NAD M2 and a Macbook Pro to enhance my music playback, realizing that I don't have any backup storage etc now, but will have these eventually? I have no intentions on getting the M52 Music Vault as the expense of it and the M50 is more than I'm willing to spend. I'm thinking the synergy between the NAD M2 and the NAD M50 could produce a great sound.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

[codyred]

How do you feed the M2 from the Macbook? Do you use a USB-SPDIF converter? Do you feed it with an optical TOSLINK connection?

 

The M50 is a VERY good playback device. It is NOT a redundant component unless you have an utterly top notch USB-SPDIF converter. I use the M51 DAC which uses the same technology as the M2 and it definitely improves with a good source. I have heard the M2 and the M51 fed with the M50 and they work spectacularly well together through the AES connection. The M50 can play music stored on your macbook when they are both connected to the same network.

 

The M50 and M2 work exceptionally well together and there is tremendous synergy between the two components. The M52 is not needed as long as the M50 is playing back through the network (ethernet) interface.

 

Thanks for that. I use the Audiophilleo2 converter and I also use a Silflex toslink optical cable. I currently use WiFi to connect to internet since my router is on the other side of the house. Is ethernet the only way to accomplish this?

[Kelly]

The M50 can play through wifi but I don't know about reliability and possible quality loss if you wanted to avoid wired ethernet.

 

I may get in trouble with some here but the M50 sounds better than the AP2+PP (or my beloved yellotec puc2) when feeding the M51. It really isn't close. I think the M50 is closer to something like the Berkeley Alpha USB as an AES source. It doesn't get much talk on these boards but it is a really good sounding device.

 

Thanks for that. I use the Audiophilleo2 converter and I also use a Silflex toslink optical cable. I currently use WiFi to connect to internet since my router is on the other side of the house. Is ethernet the only way to accomplish this?

[codyred]

The M50 can play through wifi but I don't know about reliability and possible quality loss if you wanted to avoid wired ethernet.

 

I may get in trouble with some here but the M50 sounds better than the AP2+PP (or my beloved yellotec puc2) when feeding the M51. It really isn't close. I think the M50 is closer to something like the Berkeley Alpha USB as an AES source. It doesn't get much talk on these boards but it is a really good sounding device.

 

You won't get in any trouble imo. To each his own ears. Thanks for the information. I'm considering that M50 to use in addition to the MBP as I'm disenchanted with it.

[dariusz]

So M50 is comparable to Berkeley Audio? If so, it is at least worth auditing.

Do not forget that in case of M2 everything matters, not only usb/spdif converter but also usb cables (i have good results with acoustic revive), speaker cables (not too bad silver as for example crystal cable) and power supply.

Regarding the wifi or ethernet, I would prefer the ethernet specially for hi-res files.

For AES source what kind of cable do you use?