But finally, with help from NAD (but not their manual, which is mute on the matter), I found out that you can switch from two-channel to multichannel mode simply by stopping the player, pushing the right cursor on the remote's "joystick," then pushing Play to start the player again. To reverse the process to two-channel, repeat the procedure but push the left cursor.

Looking and Listening
I did most of my viewing and testing of the M55's video through the player's HDMI outputs. Starting with the dry bits, the M55's deinterlacing and scaling was generally first rate on my standard assortment of torture tests, though it did do slightly better at 720p and 1080i than at 480p into the Sharp XV-Z20000 1080p DLP projector. At its best, it did show some flicker on the 2:2 pulldown cadence in the Silicon Optix HQV Benchmark DVD. Its color bandwidth didn't stay as flat the Pioneer Elite DV-79AVi's at the highest frequencies, but I never saw any indication of this in normal program material. (Rolled off color bandwidth is a typical and deliberate characteristic of Faroudja video processing.)

The M55's picture may well be the best I have seen in my home theater from standard definition DVDs. While that doesn't mean it's the best you can get (I have not, of course, seen every DVD player on the market), I seriously doubt if anyone will be less than thrilled with the images from this player, even on the best video display available.

No, as noted earlier, it's not high-definition, and HD DVD and Blu-ray do produce significantly better images. But neither can I deny the pleasures I got from watching old favorites on the NAD. I tried it at both 720p and 1080i into the Sharp projector. I marginally preferred 720p, so that's what I settled on. But it was a close-run thing, and I didn't spend a lot of time obsessing over the choice.

Two of my favorite DVDs, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Charlotte Gray, are superb looking discs I've used so often for evaluations that I could run through them in my sleep. And both looked as consistently fine on the M55 as I've ever seen them. Shadow detail, color, and resolution were all superb. On a first-rate, big-screen display, either of them could fool many viewers into thinking that they were watching high-definition.

The same goes for the standard definition DVD of Over the Hedge--an underappreciated computer animated feature. Here I was reminded of some of the best theatrical DLP presentations I've seen, minus only that little extra oomph that only a real high-definition source can provide. But it didn't miss the HD-look by much, even on my 78-inch wide screen.

The picture was so impressive that I had to ask myself if the Sharp projector was largely responsible. The only way to answer that was to compare the M55 to one or more good DVD players. Fortunately, I have duplicate copies of a number of DVDs, and since I wanted to do the comparison using HDMI, the Sharp has two HDMI inputs.

First up, my long-time reference Pioneer Elite DV-79AVi. I've been watching a lot of high-definition recently, and though no standard DVD player can deliver an HD image from a DVD, the NAD more closely approached the detail and crispness I see in true HD sources than the Pioneer. The difference was much less pronounced in a direct AB than my initial impressions suggested—the Pioneer is an excellent player and the NAD does cost nearly twice as much—but I consistently preferred the M55.

Not that the NAD's added resolution was always a plus. I did have to back off on the projector's sharpness setting a bit for the NAD when I compared the two players using Shakespeare in Love. That transfer is generally superb in close-ups and medium shots, but its longer cover shots often reveal the DVD's edge enhancement. The NAD's inherent cleanness and detailing did not hide this artifact as well as the slightly softer looking Pioneer.

On to a comparison with the Toshiba HD-A1, using standard definition DVDs, of course. Here again I stuck with 720p on both players. The differences were less obvious than with the Pioneer. I still found the NAD subtly better on fine details, though the differences were now closer to what I see in most DVD player comparisons. But the two players here are very different animals. One is a universal, DVD, DVD-Audio, SACD machine. The other foregoes the high-rez music formats but offers HD DVD playback.

While I doubt if any of these player-to-player differences would be obvious on a screen much smaller than 50-60 inches (diagonal), the NAD is clearly a superb DVD player, competitive with any that I have seen at any price, and superior to most of them.

Of course there's more to a DVD player than great pictures. How does the M55 sound?

Audio Musings
One of the reasons for the delay in this report was that the digital output level of the first player sent was wrong, and I requested a second sample. The analog output levels from DVD and CD players can vary with a player's design, but the digital output level should be a standard value. The level from the first M55's digital outputs was just over 6dB lower than the level from the digital output of either the Pioneer DV-79AVi or the Toshiba HD-A1. Even so, with a digital connection from the M55 to the M15 and the M15's volume control within 3dB or less of its maximum setting, I was able to get serious (but not headbanger!) listening levels from my system. But if I had wanted more volume, or was using speakers much less sensitive than average, this could have been a problem.

Oddly, the digital output level from the first M55 on soundtracks (Dolby Digital and DTS) was the same as the output level from those other players. In other words, the low output level affected only standard CDs.

The first player also froze up on a couple of CD-Rs, in one case repeatedly in the same spot. But when I returned to the first sample of the player after a layoff of about three weeks, it played these discs without a hitch.

As it turned out, the second sample had a correct digital output level, which was now virtually the same as the levels from the Pioneer and Toshiba players.

But the second sample had a different problem. Whenever I pushed Play for either CDs or SACDs the disc would go through the initial loading cycle, during which the front panel displayed the word "Reading." But after the read was complete the player would stop. The display window would show the total time and total tracks on the disc, but the disc would not start playing unless I then pushed Play a second time. The player did not do this on DVD-Video and DVD-Audio discs, but played these formats the first time I pressed Play.

You can read about the sound quality of the M55 on CDs and DVD-Video in my review of the NAD M15 and M25. All of those observations were made in the first sample from the coaxial digital output into a digital input on the M15 pre-pro. But I confirmed that apart from the level difference, the sound from the second sample was essentially identical to the first.

I'll limit my further observations here to tests conducted from the player's multichannel outputs into the M15's multichannel analog inputs.

I do have reservations about the player's bass management. The auditions suggested that the apparent slope of the low-pass filter to the subwoofer was a bit slow. There was some audible output in the sub channel up into the upper bass and lower midrange. Even the lowest range of female vocals could occasionally be heard through the subwoofer. Whether or not this will be a problem in a given system will depend on where the subwoofer is located relative to the main front speakers.

This wasn't a serious issue in my system, but on material with a lot of midbass content I was able to tighten up the sound noticeably by turning on the subwoofer's own crossover. Such cascading of filters (the low pass filter in the player together with the low pass filter in the sub) can be tricky. Most experts do not recommend it, but it worked for me in this case.

The best answer, of course, is a better crossover in the player—or an HDMI or other proprietary digital link that will carry all program material, including SACD and DVD-Audio, to the pre-pro in digital form. Unfortunately, the latter option is not available with the NAD M55 player and M15 pre-pro. According to NAD, the M55 will carry DVD-Audio on an HDMI link, but SACD is available only from the player's multichannel analog output. (Also, recall that the NAD M15 pre-pro will not accept any HDMI audio.)

The bass level was also tricky to set. The level recommended by the M55's own calibration test tones was considerably higher than the level suggested by several multichannel Dolby Digital test discs. But trial and error is often the best way to fine-tune the subwoofer level in a multichannel system.

Once I arrived at a satisfactory solution to these issues, however, the M55 sounded superb from its analog outputs into the multichannel input of the M15 pre-pro. There is a smoothness, ease, and silkiness to the sound from both SACD and DVD-Audio that can beat the best I've heard from CD. Not always, of course; the recordings released on any format can be highly variable, and garbage in will always produce garbage out, no matter how shiny the pail. But the best high-resolution audio discs in my collection sounded superb on the M55, particularly through the midrange and top end. This confirmed both the performance of the M55 and the transparency of the multichannel analog inputs on the M15.

Conclusions
The M55 initially appeared to have a number of troubling problems. But apart from some lingering concerns about quality control (the low digital output level in the first sample and the double push for Play in the second), I ultimately resolved them all. I'd like to see steeper slopes on the bass management high- and low-pass filters, and a multichannel default mode on SACD playback. And if you want bass management for CDs, you'll need to use a digital connection to your pre-pro—but that will be true of many competing players.

The biggest issue, however, is the fact that today's market is brutal for high-end DVD players. Despite the format war, the action is heavily slanted toward the HD DVD and Blu-ray formats. And despite the complaints from some quarters on next-gen players being expensive, commercially risky purchases, they are far cheaper than many of the standard definition DVD players being offered to serious home theater enthusiasts with money to spend.

The current reality is that you can buy both an HD DVD player and a Blu-ray player for less than the cost of the NAD M55. There's no point in trying to spin that fact. But many DVD fans still have huge collections—collections it will take years to replace, if ever. I can't think of a better performer to serve such a collection than the NAD M55.

Highs
Outstanding video performance
Superb audio through coaxial (CD, DVD-Video) or multichannel (SACD, DVD-Audio) outputs
Top quality fit and finish, matching that of the entire NAD Masters Series line

Lows
No 1080p upconversion
SACD playback defaults to two-channel
Bass management could be improved with faster slopes on the subwoofer output channel