Ultra short non technical review of NAD D1050

origo · June 15, 2014

As linus himself have stated multiple times the sound part of pc computing is a minefield of misinformation and at best subjective oppinions of "mine is better than yours". I therefore I would write a fast review of my NAD D1050.

When talking about DACs the shiit stack comes up in several videos, unfortunately I did not have the option to listen to it before bying it, and therefore I went with the somewhat more expensive NAD

The test setup: linux mint and windows 7 with Yamaha HS5 speakers in 16 square meter room w/o padding. The speakers were on stand and feeded by a JBL 12 inch active sub. For reference I used a AVID fast track solo (same prize range as the shiit stack).

Setup was a breeze on windows, choose your output and remember to set it to 192 kHz and "shazaam" your up and running with studio sound in your home. On linux side we are not that fortunate ALSA defaults everything to 44.1kHz so some hoops have to be jumped.

In this price range you might expect that there was some software bundled with the box (like the pro tools express bundled with the AVID), however there was absolutely nothing with the box. However it just works as intended and has no trouble even when put under extreme stress.

The conclussion: The NAD D1050 sounds as you expect in this pricerange, namely excelent. However I am not convinced that I could not have gotten a comparable experience with the Focusrite or Tascam alternatives which are much less expensive.