NAD D 7050 Direct Digital Network Amplifier

I am in awe of the sound quality of this amp. I'm partnering the D7050 with B&W 685 S2s and a cheapie sub, and the combo works incredibly well. The 685 S2s have very good distortion specs (below .3% thd for most of the midrange and treble) and this allows the D7050 to shine. Bass is tight, midrange is warm and present and treble is super clean. Imaging and soundstaging are just amazing (honestly, really, really amazing). If you listen to very well recorded music, you can here all sorts of micro-detail. I don't mean to suggest that detail is in any way exaggerated or "spot-lit". But you'll hear all sorts of delicate harmonic information (room acoustics, the wooden "body" of string instruments, voices sound fleshed out and human [in other words, real]). I sound like a clichéd audiophile nerd, but the result of all these qualities is incredibly, incredibly moving music. If you care about music (and, frankly, if you have good ears) the rewards of a pristine signal are enormous. John Lennon sounds like he's strumming in your room; every detail of Rostropovich's musical intention and expressivity in Bach's cello suites comes through; vocals are hauntingly "real," etc. Okay, enough on sound-quality. Hopefully you get the idea. I'm stunned. Moving on: - The technology: I totally buy into the "direct digital amp" circuitry. I was very, very skeptical at first. I'm coming from a history of using a Michell turntable and single-ended tube amplifiers (about as far from "digital" as you can possibly get). Here's the gist: I'm never going back to tubes again. I think this amp represents a total breakthrough in digital technology. Seriously, the signal really is "pristine" and totally devoid of the flaws I'm used to with affordable digital. Also, I've noted that some folks have grumbled about the lack of analog inputs. This is part of the design (certainly not an oversight). The decision was critical in getting an incredibly impressive signal-to-noise ratio. If you really want to use a turntable, you can use an analog to digital converter to send the signal to the D7050. If you think converting analog to digital is some sort of analog sin, consider that most contemporary vinyl comes from digital masters and files. - set up, ergonomics and user interface: I didn't have any issues getting the D7050 set up on my network. Reading about other's difficulties, I was honestly concerned about this. Well, it took all of 30 seconds. I plugged my iPhone into the d7050, tapped a button on the rear of the d7050, and then hit "share network settings" on my iPhone. Done. Literally 30 seconds. The interface is a little fussy. At first, the power button seems totally unresponsive, but it just takes a little while to figure out how it likes to be touched (seriously, you have to tap for power on and hold your finger in place about 3 seconds for power off). - Spotify Connect: I thought nothing of this feature when I bought the amp (I'm a high rez snob). But, when I tried the Spotify Connect feature (with a free trial) I was stunned. The compressed audio sounded vastly, vastly better than any compressed files I've ever heard (I'm using Spotify's 360kbs setting). I don't know if Spotify has an amazing approach to compression or if the quality is the result of the direct digital technology, but - honestly - I'm not sure how well I'd do in a blind A, B test between Spotify and High rez files. The SQ is that good. The longer I've used this amp, the more I've come to appreciate how remarkable it is. We're in a sort of golden age of high quality, relatively affordable digital music reproduction, and I think the D7050 is a stand-out product in this era.

From day one, this “streaming” amp has failed in its one job. My airplay devices (iPhones, iPads, MacBooks) are consistently unable to connect or get bumped off for no apparent reason mid-song. Bluetooth is no better. Buy something else!

Great sound. Just as good as their analog products. I paired with old B&O speakers from the 90s. They have never sounded better. It’s nice to hear all the different range of high quality MP3s. My only complaint is that the remote does not work.

Feature set is great, but power seems barely adequate, I don't believe it is 50 watts/channel, an older 20 watt amp pushed the same speakers much louder and 'fuller' and based solely on recollection, nowhere near as powerful as the original NAD. The remote is quite simply the worst remote I've ever seen. Unbelievably stupid design, flat black, indistinguishable flat black buttons and no matter what won't work beyond 5'. You can control it easily via airplay or a primitive featureless app. NAD-, go ahead and spend $2 for a decent remote just in case someone wants to listen to music without having a phone glued to them. Edit after 1 year: I switched 2.1 speakers from very nice older Mordant Shorts to more efficient Q-Acoustics 3050's looking for better mid-power performance and I also upgraded the firmware. Even though the firmware update version # was lower and had the same release date, I upgraded it and now it gives a newer 2015 date. This seems to have helped the volume gradient issues and with the more efficient Q-Acoustics the overall sound is much better. The mid-level performance is still a bit weak but acceptable, more in-line with other digital amps I have. I still would not recommend this without high-efficiency speakers. I really liked the array of digital inputs and it does play well with apple airplay/apple tv etc. I would probably have done better performance-wise with a low-mid range Yamaha-type AV receiver and bi-amp'ed the speakers, maintaining airplay but likely losing non-HDMI digital inputs. My older v3 Apple TV on this setup still has an optical output, newer models do not and that will be a problem down the road if I upgrade Apple TV and do not have any HDMI inputs on the NAD. Also, my remote is different than the one in the new pictures shown now - basically the same looking but mine does NOT have any white print on the buttons, just flat black with tiny black symbols on them. Maybe they changed it.

Even with NAD Electronics' sparse instructions this integrated amp was fairly easy to set up. Just be patient and look at the pictures in the instructions. Download from the NAD Electronics site the owners' manual and read it before setting up your system. You'll need the latest firmware from NAD's web site. That is a download too. At the outset, I found that resetting the unit (push the Reset Button in the back) and then connect the speakers THEN the power, per the instructions make for a clean setup. Getting the firmware from the NAD Electronics site was easy and the unit recognized the file and self loaded it once it was unzipped by the laptop which was connected to the unit via a USB-a to USB-c cable (not supplied). Connecting to WiFi is easily done with a push of the WPS/JP button,next to the Reset button, while your iPhone is connected (via Apple's USB to a USB-a cable) to the D 7050. Our music source is iTunes delivered via an Extreme Base Station II. The D 7050 connected very easily when chosen as the output device in iTunes, in the pull-down to the right of the volume slider. Not hard. Once you've gone through the procedures it's easy. The NAD D7050 is all it's advertise to be. It's output is clean, and smooth, producing uncolored music. Crystal clear. 50 Watts is PLENTY when paired with speakers such as the Audioengine P4s.