News

NAD Introduces New Masters Series M4 Analogue-Digital Tuner (31/7/2008)

New Tuner Delivers Maximum Performance for FM/AM and DAB Radio Broadcasts

NAD has announced the introduction of the Masters Series M4 Analogue/Digital Tuner, the most advanced tuner NAD has ever developed.

NAD's new M4 Tuner performs at the outer limits of radio broadcast quality while sharing the sophisticated style, innovative design and premium build quality of NAD's award-winning Masters Series components. The M4 combines a highly sensitive FM/AM tuning section with the latest digital technology to extract maximum sound quality from the broadcasts it receives, including DAB.

The M4 is the perfect way to add radio to a Masters Series stereo or surround sound system. Whether listening to FM, AM or DAB broadcasts, the M4 delivers superb interference-free reception. Its easy-to-use, transparent Auto Tuning finds all the stations available in any given area. It also features a 40-station preset memory, which allows listeners to save their favourites for fast, easy recall from either the front panel or the supplied IR remote control.

The M4's clear display, a two-line dot matrix with RDS capability, shows information about all broadcasts from RDS-compliant channels, including station IDs and song and artist information.

The M4's high sensitivity and high overload margins give it strong station-pulling power and clear reception. Its excellent selectivity and capture ratio allow it to receive all stations on the often-crowded FM dial, even in low signal areas. The intermediate frequency (IF) stage features three ceramic filters for low distortion and high-quality channel separation.

The M4 also features superior sound quality. A double-tuned FM detector is included for low distortion and frequency response correction for the multiplex (MPX) filter, and to improve the audio frequency response without sacrificing the filter's ability to block out the pilot tone. A Mute function eliminates inter-station tuning noise, and a Blend function reduces the noise from distant or "fringe" stations by reducing high-frequency separation.

The section comes equipped with a shielded multi-stage metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) designed to handle radio frequency (RF) signals in precise 0.05-MHz increments, and compensate for contaminated multi-path signals. Also included are a crystal controlled synthesized phase lock loop (PLL) with an IF counter for accurate VCO tuning, and a two-stage loop filter for PLL output. In addition, the oscillator-to-synthesizer stage is buffered to suppress spurious responses.

For AM broadcasts, the M4 employs a highly sensitive AM tuner. AM channels, while never able to achieve the low noise and distortion levels of FM broadcasts, sound open and dynamic, and noise levels are well suppressed.

Digital Audio Broadcast combines noise-free performance with an unprecedented selection of stations. Since DAB uses audio compression (MP2) to maximize station selection, it is critical that the decoding and conversion to analogue be as accurate as possible. Operating at a 48kHz sampling rate and 24-bit word length, DAB broadcasts have low distortion and wide dynamic range. The M4 excels at extracting the maximum sound quality from digital broadcast using premium quality devices and advance circuit design in the digital and analogue stage.

Additional features include audiophile-quality TI/Burr-Brown digital-to-analogue converters, T/I Burr-Brown operational amps, and separate power supplies for the digital control and audio stages. An IR input on the rear panel for interfacing with external IR sensors, an RS-232 port, and a 12-Volt trigger all allow the M4 to be fully integrated with advanced automated control systems.

The NAD Masters Series M4 Tuner is available now at a suggested recommended retail price of around £1200.00 including VAT.

www.nadelectronics.com