Digital Music System NAD D 7050 Review (Part 2)

Digital Music System NAD D 7050 Review (Part 2)

Sound quality

Fresh out of the blocks and feeding a pair of Audiovector Mi 3 Signature floorstanders, the NAD immediately presents itself as an articulate performer. Unlike similarly priced products with strong personalities, it doesn’t have an obvious penchant for one type of music over another, instead it simply gets on with the job and tries to unearth as much musical detail as it can muster.

Streaming The Police’s Walking On The Moon from Spotify through my iPhone 4s over AirPlay garners cleaner than expected results, given the limitations of the combined source hardware and software. The D 7050 ensures Stewart Copeland’s distinctive cymbal flourishes within the track are crisp enough to allow the source’s shortcomings to be forgiven, and Andy Summers’ guitar notes retain sufficient jangle to bring my tweeters to life.

NAD D 7050

Beaming a 16-bit/44.1kHz ALAC fi le of Carole King’s So Far Away over AirPlay from my laptop gets far more out of the NAD, as it’s put to work extracting the piano notes from within the mix and defining their precise leading edges. Using this streaming solution really throws the door open for it to demonstrate how it can unearth extra degrees of subtlety, and it doesn’t disappoint. The D 7050 lets each haunting note from King’s ivory keys hang in the air with just the right amount of natural ring, controlling the track’s tempo.

Despite driving a pair of $4.897 loudspeakers, which present a modest load, the NAD keeps everything in check across the frequency band. Although compared to the best of the Class AB breed at the price, it can sound a tad apathetic. King’s performance is brimming with emotion and on some levels I’d welcome more of the realism that gets Carole’s voice pulling at your heart strings.

NAD D 7050

Turning back the years to hear Jon Strong’s 1993 track Bad News On The Mountain, reissued as a 24/192 FLAC on Linn’s 40th Anniversary Collection, really plays to the NAD’s strengths, especially when piping it directly into the S/PDIF coaxial input. It’s a first class recording that the amp exposes with aplomb. Strong’s electro-acoustic guitar strings appear to resonate with exceptional vibrancy and the echo of the drum’s rimshot clicks take me closer to the studio master. Not that you’d know the quality or content of the source from glancing at the NAD’s front panel, as its minimalist display only shows volume, selected input and wi-fi  strength, so there’s no song name, track information or fi le type to interrogate.

The bass is evenly controlled, but in power terms it lacks the wallop of some of its rivals. With the D 7050 pushing my Audiovectors to more modest levels, the slow pounding kick drum of Ben Howard’s Black Flies packs less punch than I’m used to and the bass texture isn’t as rich or fulsome as the best at this price, but this is perhaps the trade off it makes in return for its more holographic window into the music.

NAD D 7050

Conclusion

The D 7050 is a well thought out and stylish package that’s achingly simple to use, despite being loaded with streaming options and digital inputs. What this means is that you’ll spend more time enjoying your music, which gets to the heart of what hi-fi should be all about. Sound wise its digital DNA is evident, and it may not have the sonic scale or emotion to match the best of its analogue rivals, but it’s effortlessly clean and fluid sounding without being overly bright or revealing.