NAD Eyes New Generation of Connected Audiophiles Via Modular Card-Based Gear

NAD Electronics is hoping to find a niche in the premium audio market, somewhere between mid-fi electronics and the esoteric high end as it looks to refresh its customer base, the company said during a media tour in New York. John Banks, chief brand officer for NAD parent Lenbrook International, called new products in NAD’s Masters series a “significant shift” for the company, because the series incorporates a digital, rather than analog, amplifier and a modular design using swappable cards for functions including streaming audio via Bluetooth and HDMI inputs that can be changed and upgraded over time.

The Masters Series system connects to all high quality audio formats and can evolve to new formats as they come to market, the company said. NAD is targeting what it calls the “audiophile 2.0” generation, music enthusiasts ranging in age from late 20s to early 40s who have a “great love for music” but “don’t know how to access it,” Banks said. He called NAD a “high-performance” versus a “high-end” audio company with a waning traditional customer base. “There’s not a lot of new blood coming into the high-end market,” he said, and NAD’s effort to entice a new generation of customers revolves around streaming music, a music management system and high-res audio.

The audiophile 2.0 customer could well get sticker shock at $3,499 for the M12 preamplifier/digital-to-analog converter and the complementary M22 stereo hybrid power amplifier ($2,999), but the company believes there’s a younger, performance-oriented, well-heeled customer in the market for such a music system. “We're looking at young entrepreneurs, people on Wall Street, those who have started their own company … a lot of LGBT people with no kids and two incomes,” Greg Stidsen, director of technology and product planning, told us. “No one is making a product for them.” High-end audio products on the market today are “too complicated,” he said, and NAD has tried to simplify the process of streaming high-quality music including high-res files and music stored on a hard drive. Connectivity options are key to reaching NAD’s target consumer, and the company has included inputs for computers along with Bluetooth AptX to give them the connectivity they need, Stidsen said.

NAD is offering video-enabled versions that add five amplifier channels and surround-sound formats: the M17 preamp/processor ($5,499) and M27 seven-channel power amplifier ($3,999). The modular design will enable the M17 to be compatible with Ultra HD video sources and future surround-sound formats as they evolve, the company said.

The modular, card-based system enables consumers to stay current while their audio infrastructure remains intact, Stidsen said. The M12 can accept six processor cards and comes with three: analog inputs for balanced and unbalanced line-level inputs for a CD player or AM/FM tuner; a digital input board offering two optical and two coaxial inputs; and an asynchronous USB port that can accept music files on a thumb drive with up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution. Optional cards include an HDMI board to accept music from Blu-rays and DVDs ($299) and a BluOS card ($599), the “brain,” that offers streaming music services and manages streaming inputs. Bluesound still counts only Geezer, Rdio, Slacker Radio and TuneIn Radio in the U.S. among its streaming music services, but the company expects to have most of the popular cloud services by year-end, Stidsen said. The BluOS card also supports downloads from Murfee and highresaudio.com that can be downloaded directly to a hard drive, he said. It’s also working with HDTracks to integrate that download service, he said.

The BluOS card includes the music management system that’s controllable by an Android or iOS device, Stidsen said. The management system allows music streaming from a storage device on a home network, via Bluetooth and from the cloud, either by Ethernet or Wi-Fi. It decodes all high-res formats, both lossless and lossy, he said. Shipping for the new NAD models is slated for September.