Well I had the chance to replace my CD 541i with a new C525BEE and I wanted to find out what the BEE models were all about. Having owned DENON's high end players in the past, I find NAD players almost as good. This new BEE model, a 20 bit player, is tonally quite accurate. Detail is great, but not holographic, the soundstage is believable but not quite "right there" like expensive players and these are mostly minor quibbles. The only real shortcoming, on this very affordable player, is a slightly compressed dynamic range, compared to 24 bit players, this is somewhat typical of delta-sigma chips, but this is your price point at work. I note the player required more than 2 weeks of playing to get rid of a strident and "tinny" sound during the first 10 hours. Given the price, though, this is a deal.
>>>. I note the player required more than 2 weeks of playing to get rid of a strident and "tinny" sound during the first 10 hours<<<
This is exactly what I experienced with the Apollo.
The way this phenomenon sounded to me was sort of like a new pair of guitar strings before they've been broken in. Then, with more burn-in the more it relaxes and opens up.
Yeah - when I first pressed PLAY, the soundfield just "wandered" all over and was really BRIGHT. Just after a few minutes, the player began to tone down and the soundstage stabilized. The high end portion of the sound smoothed out too. Now after playing for hundreds of hours I notice very agreeable sound, nicely detailed, lively - without the full dynamic range and SLAM of 24 bit players or multi-chip players, but overall very fine indeed for NAD's midrange equipment.