ЦАПы — Master Fidelity Nadac D

The NADAC D is a DAC and headphone amplifier from Master Fidelity of Vancouver, the Canadian company founded in 2015 as Merging Fidelity Inc., a partner of the Swiss firm Merging Technologies, for which it developed the MERGING+CLOCK and MERGING+POWER. It took its current name after the Sennheiser Group acquired Merging Technologies in 2022, and its design lead is Weishen Xu, a former recording engineer. The NADAC D was launched in 2025 at GBP 25,000, the same price as the matching NADAC C master clock.

Key specs that matter

A native one-bit custom ASIC, developed in-house, performs the conversion. PCM up to 96 kHz is converted to DSD128, and PCM from 176.4 to 384 kHz to DSD256. The USB Type-C input on a Neutrik mediaCON socket accepts PCM up to 32 bit and 384 kHz and native DSD up to DSD512, while AES3, coaxial and TosLink inputs accept up to 192 kHz and DoP64. A 10 MHz clock input sits on a BNC socket. The XLR output delivers 4 V RMS with 200 ohm output impedance and the RCA output 2 V RMS with 100 ohm. The 4.4 mm balanced headphone output gives 300 mW into 32 ohm and the 6.35 mm output 100 mW. THD+N is 0.0003% at 4 V and 1 kHz, signal to noise ratio is 120 dB A-weighted, channel separation is 120 dB and frequency response is 10 Hz to 20 kHz within 0.2 dB. Consumption is 46 W typical and 80 W at most. The chassis is milled aluminium and measures 435 x 95 x 390 mm, with a weight of 9.2 kg.

Engineering and use context

Instead of a commercial converter chip or an FPGA, the one-bit conversion runs on a custom chip, the first one-bit DAC ASIC since the Philips TDA1547 of 1988. Converting every input to DSD means the ASIC always works in one format, and the output stage that follows is discrete. Five independent supplies feed the unit, one linear, three switching and one oven-controlled supply dedicated to the ASICs, which keeps their temperature stable. USB clock jitter is below 800 fs with the internal clock and 66 fs with the NADAC C connected. An optional lossless attenuator offers 20 steps of 3 dB. A touchscreen selects input, filter and volume and shows file details and warm-up status, and a nine-button remote is supplied. A RAVENNA network input is listed but temporarily unavailable. Phase error stays below 0.1 degree.

Pairing

The NADAC C clock, the NADAC L preamplifier and the NADAC S music server complete the system, and the XLR output drives balanced preamplifiers or power amplifiers.

Alternatives

Master Fidelity has no other DAC, as its range otherwise consists of the NADAC S server, the NADAC C clock and the NADAC L preamplifier.