NAD D 1050 USB Digital to Analog Converter

This was released 9 years ago and this was one of the better headphone amps for the price at the time. It offered a headphone amp as well as pre-amp if you had studio powered speakers to drive.It supported the major PCM digital formats, but no DSD. The sound was nice and it drove most low impedance headphones including the cheaper planar types. It lacked any serious power though.Sadly within a year or two NAD discontinued it. It was plagued with electronic issues and would disconnect for no reason. It required the user to pull the power plug and plug it back in. No significant firmware upgrades or driver upgrades from NAD. were offered. I get the feeling they were happy to leave this one behind.It worked well for the 8 yrs I owned it. It was lightweight and a small package that made it easy to move around. I finally upgraded to the HiFiman EF400. Granted upgrading from NAD to HiFiman after 8 yrs will include new technological improvements, but side by side everybody would choose the EF400 for the same price.

I don't know if the Nad is the absolute best DAC below five hundred bucks, but it's the most enjoyable DAC I've heard at this price. The headphone amp is a bonus, because it's a good one, but the DAC portion is what impresses me the most.The d1050 sounds big, full, and spacious. Imagining is not as precise as, say, the Schiit Bifrost multibit, but the dynamics are larger, and the sound weaves a fine line between sounding full and big, but detailed and spacious. It's about as lifelike a sound as I've found for the money.I bought it for my desktop so I had an excuse to use headphones more often, and it's very good for that, but not as good as a dedicated headphone amp. The Schiit Valhalla, for example, gives music more body and meat on the bones, without coloring the sound or robbing it of detail. But it's clearly better than what I had on my computer, so I'm happy.Really, I can't overstate how pleasurable the DAC section is to listen to. Through speakers in my main system, it sounds close to my John Kenny jkdac32, but with fatter bass and not as much refinement or extension in the highs.Some downsides...For some reason, NAD decided to use a mini jack on the headphone out instead of the 1/4" plug most high end headphones use. Not a big deal to me, since the headphones I use with my computer use a mini plug, but it's worth mentioning.The Volume Control requires a lot of turns to adjust volume, and there is no volume indicator on the unit. Makes adjusting volume a bit of a tedious guessing game. It also, does not control volume on the pre outs, so if you're hooking it up to powered speakers, you need a volume out on them, or use your computer as a volume control.That's about it. For the money, it's a very good unit for desktop, or stereo systems alike. It's a huge improvement over my old Audioengine d1 I previously used with my desktop, and one of the easiest DAC's to listen to for long periods of time. It has a large sound that gives up some precision for long term listening pleasure. It's really, at its price, the least expensive DAC I've found that makes digital sound...well, like music. Highly recommended!

Update: I wish I had just burned a pile of money than buy this hunk of junk. My iPhone sounds better than this thing. Functionally it makes we want to throw it out the window. I've long been a fan of NAD, but no more.***A few hundred hours in using Tidal lossless and Shure SE846.The audio quality is very good for the price, but I find the frequency trigger to be endlessly annoying. I have the 1050 hooked up to a desktop via USB and any change to the source audio from the computer will initiate the trigger. For example, say you start to watch a news clip via Chrome. There will be a frequency trigger with an audible click and a couple seconds of silence. If you immediately follow that with listening to something like Tidal, you'll get another audible click and couple seconds of silence. I try to leave some sort of audio playing just to stop the incessant clicking...I love NAD, but come on...

Do not buy this if you plan to use it with USB on windows 10. The driver doesn't work because NAD doesn't know how to sign their drivers correctly. After checking in a couple times with their support people, I was told that it wasn't a priority to ever fix this. I will never again trust a company that can't figure out how to properly sign drivers.

After over 500 hours of burn-in and use this my opinion. Wonderful sound in 16/44, 24/48, 24/88, 24/96, 24/176, and 24/192. My CD rips sound awesome. Hi-Rez puts you there. A little boomy in the bass until 150 hours and now has really tightened up nicely. Headphone amp is very strong with sensitive cans with wonderful soundstage. Won't drive higher impedance cans to concert level, but when used as stand alone DAC and my HeadAmp GS-1, grins abound whether through cans or speakers! Brilliant allrounder, slugging far above it's price range.Speaker Setup: MacBook Pro with Audirvana software -> NAD D 1050 -> HeadAmp GS-1 -> NEW A-60 amp -> Quad 22L floor stander speakers in small listening room.Headphones: KEF M500, Audio Technica ATH-A700, Sennheiser HD595, Sennheiser HD600, Grado RS-1, Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro (250), Bowers & Wilkins P-5Cables: Nordost Blue Heaven ICs and speaker cables. JPS Labs power cables.

I bought the Nad d1050 DAC to upgrade my system. Connected to it is a Yamaha 5 cd player and Google Chromecast music; both using optical cable for input. The DAC is then connected to my Audiolab integrated amp with XLR cables. So the DAC has great connection options. It also has a couple of quirks, it will shut off when there's no signal. And the volume control knob is just for the headphone amp. So what, this thing sounds great. It has a clear, spacious, balanced, natural sound that you would expect from Nad. Great way to upgrade old components.

petite taille , belle marque au son généralement très apprécié, la sortie casque est exemplaire de clarté et de dynamisme, la sortie analogique est bonne . Tout ceci est facilement mis en oeuvre et ne pas oublier en cas de prise sur ordinateur, le cable usb qui va bien et surtout la bonne application nécessaire à la transmission décodée des données informatiques vers le DAC. Sur MAC OS j'ai choisi "Audirvana plus", intégrant Qobuz pour les amateurs de transmissions de fichiers musicaux en haute résolution... Il en existe quelques autres dans le monde PC bien entendu

Really impressed with the sound quality for my headphones as well and having some studio monitors connected via the XLR inputs.

bonne condition

Ich bin ein NAD-Fan. NAD steht für hohe Qualität zu einem vernünftigen Preis. Ich habe viele Testberichte und Rezensionen zu einigen D/A Wandlern gelesen und habe mich schlußendlich für dieses Gerät entschieden. Ich besitze einen analogen NAD-Vollverstärker. Was hat mich zu diesem D/A Wandler getrieben? Ich streame fast ausschließlich Musik nur noch aus dem Internet (Spotify). Dazu benutze ich den Airlino, der ins Heim-Netzwerk eingebunden wird. Via „AirPlay“ sende ich dann Musik vom Smartphone, Tablet oder Mac zum Airlino. Das Ganze ausschließlich digital. Der AilLino wird dann analog mit dem Vollverstärker verbunden. Im Airlino befindet sich zwar ein D/ A Wandler Chip, aber der schafft eine qualitative Lücke. Die Lücke ist so groß, dass es zu deutlich hörbaren Qualitätseinbußen kommt. Irgendwie war ich mit dem Sound nie richtig zufrieden. Abhilfe schafft hier in der Klangkette ein extra D/ A Wandler, in dem deutlich mehr Bauteile und Know-How stecken. Der AirLino wird jetzt via Lichtleiter mit dem D/A Wandler verbunden und umgeht den einfachen „Billig-D/A Wandler Chip“. Der NAD D/ A Wandler wandelt jetzt das digitale Signal in ein anloges Signal um und zwar wesentlich hochwertiger. Erst so gut verarbeitet wird es dann an den Verstärker weitergeleitet. Wer jetzt glaubt das Ganze sei teurer Hokuspokus dem sei gesagt..... FALSCH.....Als ich die ersten (neuen) Töne von „Spotify“ hörte, fiel mir schlichtweg die Kinnlade herunter. Der Unterschied ist so deutlich, dass ich vom ersten Augenblick an überzeugt war. Der Sound ist wesentlich voller, detailreicher und die Bühne ist breiter. Der Bass hat einen ordentlichen Zahn zugelegt, vorher wirkte die Musik irgendwie immer zugeschnürt, wie hinter einem Vorhang. Jetzt ein deutlicher Qualitätssprung. Gut..., zugegeben, beim Abspielen des CD-Players, der nun auch via Lichtleiter dem D/ A Wandler die Signale digital zuspielt kann ich keinen oder kaum einen Unterschied hören. Der Grund dafür ist aber verständlich, denn so gut wie in jedem Mittelklasse-Player und in allen Klassen darüber steckt schon ein guter D/A Wandler. Als Fazit kann ich sagen, dass dieses Gerät jeden Cent wert ist. Es sieht hochwertig aus, fühlt sich hochwertig an und verändert deutlich hörbar den Sound, Denn Streaming ist die Zukunft und irgendwann wird die CD ausgedient haben. Auch dem digitalen Sound gehört die Zukunft und ich bin nun schon ein Stück auf die Zukunft vorbereitet.