Great Picture; Even Better Sound; Simplicity; Good Build Quality;

Like others, remote

I have the NAD T550 hooked up to the T760 and think the this DVD is tremendous. The sound is great, the picture quality is top- notch. Unlike others, the build quality seems to be great. It takes a few more seconds to read the disk than I am accustomed to, but the sound of all DVD's and CD just rocks the room. The picture is crystal clear without being artifical.

CD audio is very good

slow to respond & read disks

I bought this DVD player to replace my existing CD & DVD players and I wasn't disipointed. The sound is as good as any $500 CD player but for the DVD side of things this player is average with nothing really standing out.
For the quality of the CD audio I can't complain, the way I see it I have a quality CD player that also plays DVDs for no extra money.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DCD835 & Pioneer 525

CD sound quality. Looks. Reputation.

Remote. DVD picture.

I bought this machine when my old Pioneer CD player died after 10 years faithful service. I decided that I wanted a DVD player but couldn't spare any more room or sockets to buy two machines. What worried me was that although most DVD machines will play CD's not many will play them well. I originally looked at the Arcam and Cyrus but they were five times the price and although sound quality is the most important thing to me I doubted they were that much better having listened to other CD players in that price range. The NAD didn't dissapoint with the sound seeming brighter and more detailed than my last machine although the base may not have went quite as low. The picture didn't seem quite as good as the picture on my computer but I put that down to moving from a 17 inch screen to a 26 inch. My only complaint is that I noticed a slight freeze in the first movie I watched and that was the main reason I had wanted to stop using the computer as that would frequently freeze but I put that down to programmes running in the background something I did not expect with the NAD. The only other complaint is the remote, it works fine but I own a learning remote to replace my other remotes and I can only pick up some of the NAD's buttons. For example I can use play and fast forward but not stop or repeat, if anyone knows how to beat this problem I would be grateful. Also how can you tell if you have the latest model or not?

Similar Products Used:

Computer DVD player.

Picture quality, Audio-capabilities and quality

None that are significant

After my beloved Pioneer DV717 broke, I decided to give NAD a chance, and I have not yet regretted it.
It is just as good (if not better) than my Pioneer even though it was only half the price.
Really nice, clear and detailed picture. Couldn't be better.
The cd-capabilty of this DVD is outstanding. If you like NAD products you won't go wrong here.

This really IS a no nonsense product. No gimmicks or fancy features. Just value for money.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV717, Sony DVP715

Good smooth sound reproduction.

Light and cheap feel. Bad remote. Average DVD performance. Expensive.

My first real hi-fi system had a NAD 3020i at the heart of it, and ever since I've loved NAD products.

That said, I am slowly beginning to sway towards other brands. NAD produces very good products that really look the business. The minimalist approach seems to gain much favouritism with audio buffs like myself, but at the end of the day you still get an average product. The NAD T550 is one of those average products. NAD has not only gone with the minimalist approach on the exterior, but also on the features. My previous Pioneer was a mid range player, yet it was packed with features and sound and picture quality were not bad at all. This player was also half the price of the NAD unit.

The performance of the T550 is slightly better than the Pioneer especially with audio, but not different enough to make you go wow!!. I often have to convince myself how good my NAD equipment is, and as long as I don’t visit friends with good set-ups I believe it. I was at a party last year at an old mate’s house. He had his Onkyo / B & W system in the lounge area blasting out some late 80’s pop music. The sound was awesome and straight away I could hear what my system was lacking.

I am one of many that are addicted to brand buying. I really enjoy music, how it makes the hairs on my arm stand on end, or when it takes me to another place and another time. To me music is like memories because I’ve hung a lot of my memories on songs, and I recall them when I listen. So when I purchase my next system I’m going to close my eyes to the brand names and buy the gear that has the magic sound that I am looking for. You never know maybe it will be a NAD!!.

I seem to have drifted away somewhat, anyway…The T550 is a good product which is most definitely better than (I hesitate to say) every low end player, but only marginally. Still it looks good on top of the my T770 AV receiver, and it does have a very different look to most other players.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV....

Sound quality, picture

Slow loading and reading. Sometimes 'latches up' causing re-boot.

The original price of £500 seems quite steep for the DVD player. However, with the cracking deal from Richer Sounds the T550 is simply stunning. (If you can put up with the s-l-o-w loading and disc processing.

It has an excellent picture when used with a quality Scart lead although I would have liked component video outputs for my RP TV.

It comes into it's own when playing CDs. I have auditioned several CD players including NAD's own C521 and this beats it hands down. The sound is amazing.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba WH08B RPTV, NAD T751 AV Amp, Kef Cresta 3 fronts, KEF Cresta Centre, Eltax Bipolar HT2 rears.

Good picture quality, good CD sound quality

Slow start up, poor fast forward (especially in CD mode), terrible remote

On the whole I'm happy with this DVD player. Since I mostly just load up movies and hit play, I can't say I feel particularly strongly one way or the other. I'm partial to NAD equipment, and I wasn't disappointed to purchase this - it works, and works well.

The remote, however, is another story ... it is absolutely terrible, and in my quest to replace it with a decent universal remote, I posted the following text in the T751 review section, and I thought it might be useful here too:

For the benefit of others, I though I would mention that I have successfully used the NAD T751 receiver and the NAD T550 DVD player with the Sony Universal Remote RM-VL990.

The trick was to follow the instructions in item 23 at:

http://nadelectronics.com/Support/faq.html

For the T751, the main trick was the bit about pointing the remote away while starting it up.

I found the T550 much harder to program than the T751. The main trick here was to only tap on the key you are trying to learn, rather than holding it down continuously as the Sony manual says. Even then, I would sometimes have program a key two or three times to get the signal learnt properly.

By the way, the Sony RM-VL900 universal remote is about a bazillion times better designed than the crappy NAD remotes. NAD should be ashamed of their remote designs.

Given the Sony remote only costs about $70 US, I highly recommend it for people who own this NAD equipment.

Similar Products Used:

None

Excellent Picture with Audiophile Sound

None

First, let me state that I'm a music listener, and have all new equipment that I purchased within the last month, but it's a traditional 2-channel stereo set-up. Not interested in surround-sound at this time.

I recently purchased a NAD C541 CD player (great sound). I wasn't sure if I should spend the extra $$$ for a DVD/CD player such as the T550, since I already had a new Toshiba 2710 DVD player.

I'm primarily a music listener and don't watch a lot of movies. But I do like musical DVDs (DVD video, not DVD-audio). I was disappointed in the shallow sound of DVDs on my Toshiba DVD player and on other mainstream DVD players that I borrowed for comparison. So, I went out bought a new NAD T550 DVD at a fair price, based on my good experience with other NAD products. Now, the music (from both DVD video and CD) on my T550 sounds about as good as my NAD C541 CD player...and the sound is incomparably better than it was my Toshiba DVD. Non-music DVD movies with wild sound effects also sound good, even though I'm not hearing it in surround-sound mode.

In addition, the T550 picture is excellent. My Toshiba DVD's colors were a bit too vivid, I think. T550 color looks natural without over-saturation. Reds and flesh-tones are good.

The T550 picture is sharp, clear, and stable. I was watching a black-and-white DVD movie on my Toshiba DVD. In it, an actress was wearing a dress with a herringbone pattern....the herringbone pattern was flickering annoyingly. But, the same movie on the T550 showed a sharp herringbone pattern on her dress, without the fluttering.

The movie, "The Matrix", played well on the T550. I heard that "The Matrix" would be a good test of the T550's picture. It was fun to watch and the picture and sound couldn't have been better.

According to NAD tech support, the digital-to-analog converters are similar to, but not the same as, the C541. In most cases, I cannot tell the difference in CD sound between the NAD C541 CD player and the T550 DVD player. In some 20-bit remastered CD recordings, the C541 CD player puts out a little more bass than T550. Otherwise, T550's sound staging and imaging are close to the C541 CD player. If I would have bought the T550 first, I probably would not have also purchased the C541 CD player...the T550's sound is quite good.

It may be redundant having a C541 CD player and a T550 DVD player for listening to music, but the C541 is a little more CD-friendly, so I'm keeping the C541. The C541 has a complete track counter on the display, and a CD loads up faster on the C541 than on the T550. C541 also has HDCD capability, but HDCDs are hard to find. If you had only the T550, you would be most happy with the sound on all of your DVDs and CDs.

Let me address a few comments that others have posted:

Complaints about slow loading and slow track-changing:
True, when you insert a DVD or CD, it may take many seconds to load...but we're talking seconds, not minutes. Changing DVD tracks on the T550 DVD player is almost as fast it was on my Toshiba DVD.

Complaints about T550 mistracking or not loading:
I rented some visibly scratched DVDs that, at first, would not load. I used a microfiber cloth and some purified water to wipe them off, and then they played perfectly.

The T550 does lack some of the unnecessary fine-tuning features for sound and video that the Toshiba and other mainstream DVD players have, but who cares? The whole idea is to relax and watch a good movie without endless tweaking of the settings, and to hear good sound.

People also gripe about the remote control, but if you can learn to just kick back and watch a movie from beginning to end without pressing buttons, then it's a non-issue. There's is no component in the audio/visual world that has the "perfect" remote.

In summary, the NAD T550's picture is great and the sound is superb. I think it's a unique well-constructed product and reasonably priced. Other DVD players that have both good picture and good sound cost more than $1,000 (street-price).

My system is a stereo 2 channel set-up:
NAD C740 receiver
NAD C541 CD player
NAD T550 DVD player
Paradigm Reference Studio 20 speakers
Paradigm PDR-10 subwoofer
Toshiba 27" 27AF41 flat screen TV monitor

I like NAD products. I now have Audiophile sound at a resonable price. Recommended to anyone who wants good picture and sound. Best if your audio components are good enough to capture the extended sound of the T550.

Bruce

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba 2710 DVD player

Very good sound, good picture, Nice design

Plastic faceplate, remote, a little slow.

So far in my experience, the NAD T550 has performed very well. The sound quality, for a DVD player, is very good. The sound on both 2 channel stereo and 5.1 sountracks is detailed, warm and nicely balanced. The picture is Clear and accurate. Clean,simple design.

The unit uses quality components on the inside, however, the build quality could be a bit more solid. The plastic faceplate is cheap, aluminum would be better. The layout of the remote could be better. The unit seems to be a little slow.

Fortunately, I have not (yet) experienced any of the quality problems of some of the previous reviewers.

For what it is, the NAD T550 is a very good unit, but not for more than $500.00. Any more than that, go for Arcam DV88, Cal.Audio Labs., or dedicated CD player, as I plan to.

System includes the following components:
NAD T550 - CD/DVD
Arcam Diva A65 - int. amp for stereo
Denon AVR 1601 - receiver for 5.1
Acoustic Energy Aegis 1 - front
Klipsch KSB1.1 - back
Boston Acoustics Micro90C - center
Audioquest/Monster - interconnects/speaker wire

Audio is awesome. Video is great. Clean simple look.

Remote could use a backlight.

This unit is a perfect addition to my LINN based audio system and 50" Pioneer TV. The video is clean and sharp. The audio is excellent for a DVD player, although is no match for my LINN CD player. I use it only for movies and this is where it shines. The simple front panel goes well with my other components. It doesn't have that plastic look and feel to it. So far it has played everything perfectly-The Fifth Element in superbit is fantastic. You can get a good deal on these players now. The T550 doesn't have the bells and whistles, but it is a nice player it you want something different...

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba, sony, pioneer.