NAD has once again upgraded its M10 streaming amplifier, and this time the company’s midrange option now has a dedicated phono input for turntables with moving magnet cartridges. Plus, it houses an upgraded DAC and the option to use Dirac Live Bass Control, giving you greater flexibility over subwoofer placement. The M10 V3 will be available in late fall, according to the company, with the same $2,499 price as the current V2 model.
Fans of the M10 V2 amplified network music streamer will be familiar with most of the key features, which remain on the V3. There’s a full-color touchscreen, an aluminum enclosure with Gorilla Glass on the front and top surfaces, and it comes with its own remote control. NAD didn’t have any photos to share with us, but we’re told the BC1 remote is new and features dedicated buttons for the Dirac Room Correction settings.
Speaking of Dirac, you still get Dirac Live Room Correction built-in, with up to 500Hz in adjustments. However, the V3 not only lets you upgrade to the full-bandwidth version but you can also add Dirac’s Bass Control.
Inside the V3 is the same 100-watt per channel amplification (with dynamic power of up to 300 watts @ 4 ohms), but the digital signals are now processed by the ESS ES9039 DAC, “one of the world’s best digital-to-analogue converters with unprecedented dynamic range and ultra-low distortion,” NAD said in a press release. The V2 uses the older ES9028.
On the input side of the equation, the V3 swaps one of the V2’s analog line-in ports for a dedicated phono input, and NAD says it applies RIAA equalization to this input to “recreate the original warm sound of vinyl records.”
It also updates the HDMI input from ARC to eARC, which is compatible with a greater range of TVs and lossless Dolby Audio formats.
You still get a pre-out if you want to send the analog signal to a dedicated amplifier, along with two subwoofer outputs.
The streaming brains of the M10 V3 is still BluOS, which can handle hi-res audio up to 24-bit/192kHz from a variety of sources like streaming music services or your personal library, whether it’s on your network or connected directly to the M10 via its USB port. The V3 can fully decode and render MQA streams and will also play converted DSD files.
It’s compatible with Apple AirPlay 2, Tidal Connect, and Spotify Connect. It’s Roon Ready and you can use two-way Bluetooth streaming with support for the aptX HD Bluetooth codec.
