Once again, impressed by NAD

Lse,

I agree completely. I have owned EMM, Antelope, Berkeley, AMR and others. The NAD M51 totally outclassed them all. There may be better sounding DACs out there -- but not for the money. IMO.

Over the years, NAD has done great things... But the difference between affordable and hi-end amplifiers is much smaller than most people think...

"The other conclusion is that the Pass integrated is not as good as you thought or your systems resolution is in some way compromised"

I'll say no to option one as years back when I had a Madrigal amp that needed service I once again temporarily use the NAD and had the same impression.

I'll agree to option two as mine is in no way an all out assault on the SOTA, but it's resolving enough. But I still,think the little NAD is the real deal on terms of sound quality.

Proof that hi-end need not mean big dollars

Hey, an honest 15-20% improvement (though it's really nebulous to assign
percentages here, since we each have our own internal scales) for a $7K MSRP
layout is actually a GREAT deal these days in
this hobby, especially in non-transducer components. All too easily, you can
spend way more for way less. There were times when I would've been thrilled to
get 15% more performance from a specific component for $7K (say 3.5K used).
So I don't consider your experience to be a knock on the Pass; really more like
validation. And NAD has always been a respectable company that gives you a lot
of engineering and sound for the money.

I recently heard some new $8K cables in my system that were very subtly
different from my current ones -- really more like a side-grade. At least they
weren't obviously worse. Definitely NOT the way for a working class audiophile
to go.