Audiolab M-DAC Nano

Minute size but very powerful and great sound. Getting it to pair was slightly tricky - you need to hold the on button until the LED flashes alternate red and blue - in instructions but not too clear. Switch between 16 & 32 bit sampling also needs care - don’t hold too long or it will switch off and the LED goes from blue to green, not always clear. But the step up in quality is clear and outstanding.

Bought this little wonder in the hope it would improve my music listening over a Bluetooth connection while commuting and also listening while wandering around the house and garden.... Well, it does one thing well (not stunningly) and one thing abysmally.Let's kick off with what it does really well first:Portability: Its brilliant.. no bigger than a small box of matches, this device will fit anywhere and not get in the way (I tucked mine in my shirt pocket) or feel bulky. Audio Lab also supply a nice little pouch for you to keep it on your belt if that's your thing.Wireless charging: Not really necessary but a cool way to charge this device.Err, that's your lot I'm afraid... Good points... It's portable and wireless charging (sorry).Now on to the middling stuff:Build quality: OK, yes there is an apparent increase in definition and spaciousness of the soundstage... But for the £150 asking price I expected more, a lot more. I didn't think I'd have to keep swapping from no DAC, to low Res DAC and then high Res DAC settings and listen intently to hear any dicernable difference in what I was listening to... Yes, switch to the high Res setting and it does seem clearer with more space, but there is also an increase in volume... Lower the volume and some of the gaines disapear and come closer to the low Res setting and using no at all... Don't get me wrong, there is a difference in sound quality and that may be enough for others to justify the price tag, but not me.... I want to both hear the difference and enjoy my music... Not play my music and strain to hear little changes in what's playing and not enjoy it. To me, just up your volume on your phone a little, or alter the sound with an app (I use neutron player and it makes a hell of a difference to the phones output).Build quality: Not great! it's very plasticy and creaky.... The dial for volume is a little loose and it all just feels very cheap, which again, at £150 it is not.Bad stuff:Bluetooth: The distance you can wander from your device using this DAC is truly woeful... To put this into contex. With just my phone (OnePlus 7 pro) and earphones (AGK K845) I can move all around my house and around the garden with no loss of signal (or quality) at all... Not a blip.With the Audiolab M- DAC Nano attached, you will be lucky to get further than 2 mtrs from your device before the connection fails... It is very poor indeed, with drop outs ruining any music or podcasts you may be listening to. This my just be a fault with my unit, but definately something to keep in mind if you are considering buying this DAC.Conclusion: I used this DAC for a little over four hours before deciding to return it and just stick with what I have. The Audiolab M-DAC Nano just isn't worth the cost being asked for the slight increase in sound quality, plastic build and woeful Bluetooth performance... Unfortunately, this is one device I'm sadly unable to recommend.Audiolab are an excellent HI-FI company with a fine heritage and have produced some outstanding amps, DACs and cd players over the years.. Unfortunately they appear to have jumped on the portable DAC bandwagon with the Nano and on this occasion have failed to do justice to that heritage.

The media could not be loaded.  I purchased an M-DAC nano in November 2020 and have been using it with a Samsung S20+ and V-Moda Crossfade M-100 Master headphones. I am very happy with the sound quality and volume produced by this setup. However, the nano came out of the box with a very badly assembled and flimsy housing, as can be seen in the video I am posting. Also, blue-tooth range is disappointing.

The sound is OK but you cannot overlook the fact that when charging it it overheats and expands so much that the casing pops open to reveal it's inner workings. Eventually it cools down and you can pop the casing back on. However after a year of ownership it has now completely broken. When I bought this to the vendors attention they didn't want to know.My advice would be to avoid this one and go for a different DAC and supplier

Love the sound but a battery life of 3 hours if lucky, is a nuisance.

I returned my Audiolab Nano when the cheaply made volume knob stopped working after 3 months. Although a good DAC when it was working, it has ALOT less features than other products in a similar price range. The battery life is fairly poor and the customer support was not helpful. I swapped to the Fiio BTR5 which is a beautifully made product with tons of features. Although I always like to support small innovative companies like Audiolab, they need to work harder in terms of Build Quality,Price, Features and customer support than the big players if they want to compete in this fiercley competetive market.

ProsExcellent sound improvement over both iPhone and laptop especially on higher sampling rate optionMeans can use headphones with 3.5mm jack with iPhoneVery light and neatConsThe plastic panels top and bottom have a tendency to fall out if you drop it. Need to push them in firmly to connect with the lugs which seems to do the trick

Bought this a few days ago for use with an iPhone XR. Set up fairly straightforward and working well so far. Gives useful boost to power particularly useful with hard to drive headphones and using maximum volume would be unadvisable as there's more power than you need. Upscaling function makes the sound more spacious and adds more detail though uses 30% more battery power - haven't used it for long enough to know whether battery life an issue yet. I wouldn't recommend using this with over bright headphones and to get the best out of it you need good quality source material - it would be a waste to use this with low bitrate music. Pleased so far overall though it's a "nice to have" rather than a "must have" I think....

Nous avons un Quasqai 2019 avec un système de son so-so...Après plusieurs lecture de critique etc, j'ai choisi l'audiolab...quel belle surprise, meilleur présence, des basses et surtout définition dans le son...je l'imagine avec un sub bass comment le tout sortirait...même dans les écouteurs il y a une différence importante et j'ai de Bose!...Le tout se porte bien vu sa dimension, la connection bluetooth se fait bien.Je recommande ce produit au plus haut point.

It is acoustically an excellent device. Sound is great, can drive my semi-open Beyerdyamics. Wish battery life was longer but not really too bad, never timed it, but I get several hours from it. The charger is quirky, but as a plus it does charge on all induction mats I trued. So if you have that type of charger around the house it is a great investment. Just drop it on for a quick recharge while at rest.

No pensaba que algo tan pequeño y tan poco pesado podia sonar tan bien como este dac/amplificador de Audiolab. Es perfecto para llevarlo en el bolsillo o de viaje, suena increible para conectarlo por bluetooth. La unica pega es que si lo colocas en 24bits/192, la bateria dura tres horas...pero a 16bits/44 te dura casi 10 horas, y sigue sonando igual de bien.

Tolles Ding. Wohl einer der besten mobilen DACs in der Preisklasse.Ich verwende ihn mit iPhone X und mobilen Kopfhörern von Denon. Der Klang ist sehr gut, wesentlich besser als direkt aus dem iPod, m.E. neigt der DAC bei großen aber Lautstärken leicht zum Übersteuern in den Höhen. Das Aufladen auf seiner Ladeschale ist fancy, allerdings auch etwas fummelig, da er so leicht ist und entsprechend verrutschen kann. Die Ledertasche funktioniert gut.

Collegato via bluetooth ad un iPhone xs max e ad una cuffia B W p5 mi consente di realizzare un impianto hi fi in mobilità , la resa sonora è eccellente con grande dettaglio ed equilibrio in tutto lo spettro di frequenze .Se poi si tiene conto dell'estrema compattezza , della buona autonomia e della comodità d'uso direi che è uno strumento indispensabile per chi non vuole rinunciare al buon suono durante passeggiate o attività sportive.