I am really disappointed by NAD's efforts on their first DAC, or lack there of. If you need a wireless DAC???? ahhh sure but that thing is a huge piece of sh!t if you ask me. I hope they come out with a high end DAC shortly, perhaps one model in the classic series then a beast in the Masters series. Lets go NAD, a little behind on the ball here.
I am hoping so Leo. A lot of people disregard NAD as being a high end product, but their latest offerings are very good and weather people like the sound or not, their Masters series are built like tanks (QC aside). I hope NAD gets their boots on and digs in deep with some quality DAC's soon. Personally, I do not think releasing a wireless USB DAC first was the best choice.
I hope the NAD stuff works out. I'll check out the wireless DAC, since I may actually have a use for it!
Now, Quality is an issue I've been acquainted with for 30 years in a manufacturing environment for electronics......and I gotta tell 'ya that if you find something wrong with QC (Quick Check) you got other problems. The key? Design a process with minimal points of failure. We called part of that FMEA....Failure Mode Effects Analysis and used it to 'mistake proof' the process. Part II is to TRAIN the people to do good work. Statistical Process Control.....SPC, is used to measure that which can be measured and keep track of the performance to goal. Operators all have to work to a standard and wide knowledge of 'best practices' encouraged. Part III is to analyize field failures and feed the information BACK to the factory and improve the process. The categories would be Man, Machine or Material to 'fix'. It's more complicated than I make it out, but the long / short of it is that there is no need for quality problems. Well, maybe on the first runs of a new product....but generally, a mature manufacturing operation should be able to make a new product well. At least one that is a proper, robust design which has been designed to be manufacturable from the start. I remember talk about the NAD capacitor problem from a few years ago. Perfect example. Purchasing or some bean counter bought the absolute miniumum spec part with little assurance of a high MTBF under 'real world' use conditions. How much would it have cost to buy a better part, ensure proper cooling and maybe give the part a little more cooling space? I'll bet the loss of good will, the rework and buy-backs cost NAD a bunch more than doing it right the first time. Also, having worked with some Mil-Spec and Rad Hard semiconductors, I know that the end buyer will only allow a few reworks. Not by number, but by type. Some operations are simply NOT reworkable, even if for other parts it was a routine. For prototyping, they even want all the scrap silicon. Break a wafer? Sweep it up and give 'em the pieces.
I know they are going to come out with the dac module for the 356/375 shortly as well.
I just find the usb plug in aspect of the dac-1 interesting. Not only can I use it on my computer by the at&t uverse box also has a usb input as well but I don't know if it would work on that yet..