Listening

We start with the album “So tonight that i might see” by Mazzy Star. We choose the song ‘Five String Serenade’ and we are immediately in the music. Originally this is a song by Arthur Lee but we prefer the version of Mazzy Star. The song drags itself terribly slow and brings you almost into hypnosis. Next to the beautiful voice of Hope Sandoval the tambourine is going to walk with attention. It sounds fresh and clear without biting. The guitar resonates nicely and the violins sound velvety soft. A good start.

New work comes from the Belgian jazz band The Milk Factory who have five fantastic songs on their eponymous EP. We go for ‘Dof’, the second song on the album on which the brushes immediately come through flawlessly. When the piano comes in, the song comes gets its momentum and it seems like you’re taken along on a train ride, staring at the landscape. The atmosphere of the song comes through well, the supported bass has enough body but sounds a bit dry on the Atcs. We clearly hear that the sax is a bit more backward when it interferes in the debates.

Time for some solid beats with the EP “Refractive”, a collaboration between Synkro and Arovane. Here we notice the advantage of the wide and lineair bandwidth that Nad rightly mentions. Unbelievable how rich the detailing is and how all the bleeps and blops float from left to right. The beats sound tight, clean, dry and without a gram of fat. The song ‘Facing North’ crackles and splashes. This is musical pleasure!

The phono input on the Nad C 658 is okay but not at the level of the input on the Naim Nait XS 3. That is somewhere logical considering the price difference and the other typology of this device but even then we miss some gain and experience through this input. The digital part of the Nad C 658 is much better. If you want to play vinyl at the same level, connect a separate phono stage.

Compare

With the Ps Audio Stellar Gain Cell Dac (also a whole mouthful), we have a very versatile preamp in our system. Just like the Nad C 658 there is a Sabre dac but the structure of both devices is quite different. The Ps Audio does not stream, has no phono input or sub-out but does have an XLR input and an I2S input.

We connect our Nad M50 to both Sabre dacs and, with the best intentions, we hear no difference. In both the Nad and Ps Audio the Sabre-dac sounds excellent. Not clinical, analytical or sharp but rich in detail, punchy and fast. We also don’t hear a clear difference between the built-in streamer and the M50 on the dac of the Nad C 658.

However, the M50 can be taken to a higher level with a more expensive, seperate dac because it is equipped with digital outputs. The Nad C 658 doesn’t have one. The presentation of both preamps is slightly different. The Nad places the music a little bit more back, where the Ps Audio plays a little more forward.