NAD MDC USB DSD – New MDC Module for USB Audio

Once again, NAD Electronics is expanding its range of MDC modules with the new NAD MDC USB DSD, which is designed for streaming Linear PCM and DSD data directly from a PC.

For some time now, the Canadian hi-fi manufacturer NAD Electronics has been pursuing the strategy of building selected solutions on a modular basis. This should give users the option of upgrading or converting them with various expansions at any time. NAD Modular Design Construction is what the Canadians call this.

This NAD Modular Design Construction can be found, for example, in the amplifier systems of the NAD Masters Series, but also in selected solutions of the NAD Classic Series.

The NAD MDC BluOS 2i, for example, is currently available to enable hi-res audio streaming on the basis of BluOS. The NAD MDC HDM-2 adds HDMI interfaces to compatible amplifiers, and with the new NAD MDC USB DSD, a solution is now available to allow direct connection to a PC or Mac and thus play back audio data in linear PCM as well as DSD.

The new NAD MDC USB DSD can be used with the NAD M33, NAD M32, NAD M12, the NAD C 388 and NAD C 368, and will soon be available with an update for the NAD C 658.

The NAD MDC USB DSD is inserted into the corresponding slot of the aforementioned amplifiers and is ready for use. It offers nothing more than a USB port to connect to a PC or Mac. The NAD MDC USB DSD supports USB Audio 2, offers asynchronous data transfer and can therefore process audio data in Linear PCM with up to 24 bits and 192 kHz, as well as DSD including DSD256. For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that DoP, i.e. DSD over PCM, is used here.

In addition to your own content, you can of course also play content from various online services in this way, be it Spotify, TIDAL or Qobuz.

No additional software is required for operation on an Apple with macOS X, as the operating system already includes the necessary USB Audio 2.0 drivers. On a PC with Microsoft Windows 7.0 or higher, however, the NAD USB Audio Driver is required, which the manufacturer provides in the latest version on its website.

According to the information currently available, the new NAD MDC USB DSD will probably be available in April 2021. So far, we only have the manufacturer’s price recommendation, which is US$ 499.

Getting to the point

The new NAD MDC USB DSD module is designed to provide users with convenient playback of high-resolution PCM and DSD data and streaming via popular NAD amplifiers such as the NAD M33, NAD M32, NAD M12, NAD C 388, NAD C 368 and NAD C 658. The Canadian hi-fi manufacturer NAD Electronics is thus once again expanding its range of NAD Modular Design Construction solutions.