6Moons.com review of Nagra HD DAC...

[cmalak]

Originally Posted by Glisse

It will be at least 2 months before I attempt another one

I do admire Srajan's mastery of the English language given he is a native German speaker, but at times I suspect he might have learnt from reading a dictionary, and not the Concise version...

It's so funny you say that. I posted the review on another site as well and those were my sentiments about Srajan's reviews in general...he loves to use obtuse metaphors and while I agree with you his command of the English language is generally very good, I can't help but think there might be a German to English translation sometimes going on with certain metaphors he uses.

I often find also that simplicity in writing to be the marker of clear and organized thinking (and that's why it's so hard to do effectively), whereas 7 pages of endless rambling actually is the result of lazy thinking and organization (paradoxically).

In any case, I often read the first and last paragraph in a Srajan review and if I find something in the beginning or the end that captures my interest, I will leaf through it in a bit more detail. But the guy needs to hire an editor for sure!

[jfrech]

Originally Posted by JCR

Yes you read that right! The sound gain is really big! The MPS powering the external drive makes everything sound analog and fluid with lots of texture and remove a lot of the grain in the sound. I tried using a drive inside my computer since I now also have a linear power supply (Teradak) for my computer but it is nowhere as good.

One because I think having an external hard drive is better (in my setup anyway) and the Nagra MPS is so much better then the Teradak! Too bad Nagra does not make a bigger power supply. And using an external drive with its own little switching power supply kind of defeat the purpose!

Interesting on the Nagra MPS, my dealer is ordering one, I really want to try it with my Nagra VPS...would have never considered it may have a 2nd duty as a hard drive power supply...

You have a very nice system btw !!

Speakers: Rockport Altair 2
Preamp: Robert Koda K10 Amp: Ayre MX-R
Cables: Transparent Opus MM2 Spkr, Opus MM2 & Trans Ref MM MM2 Intcnct.
Power Shunyata Triton/Typhon, Anaconda Zitron cords (x9)
Digital dCS Vivaldi DAC & dCS Scarlatti Clock & Transport with Transparent Reference XL Digital cables
Phono: Grand Prix Monaco TT, Schroder LT arm, Jan Allaerts MC2 Finish & Lyra Atlas, Nagra VPS/VFS
Racks: Grand Prix Audio Silverstone F1 (x2)

[JCR]

Originally Posted by jfrech

Interesting on the Nagra MPS, my dealer is ordering one, I really want to try it with my Nagra VPS...would have never considered it may have a 2nd duty as a hard drive power supply...

You have a very nice system btw !!

Speakers: Rockport Altair 2
Preamp: Robert Koda K10 Amp: Ayre MX-R
Cables: Transparent Opus MM2 Spkr, Opus MM2 & Trans Ref MM MM2 Intcnct.
Power Shunyata Triton/Typhon, Anaconda Zitron cords (x9)
Digital dCS Vivaldi DAC & dCS Scarlatti Clock & Transport with Transparent Reference XL Digital cables
Phono: Grand Prix Monaco TT, Schroder LT arm, Jan Allaerts MC2 Finish & Lyra Atlas, Nagra VPS/VFS
Racks: Grand Prix Audio Silverstone F1 (x2)

Great! is you are getting an MPS then it is a must you use is as well for an external hard drive. I use a Lacie external drive (Porsche Design) because I found the casing of the Porsche series to be very inert.

Let us know what you find once you get it! I am sure you will love it!

Jacques

[tunes]

Interesting that you are using the mps for you hdd. From the review, it appears that nagra jazz (which i use) doesn't benefit from mps. Not sure whether the cdp would benefit either. Sounds as though the vps phono and the dac benefit from it. Jacques, does your lacie hd use the nagra stock mps lemo connector cable or something different?

[JCR]

Originally Posted by tunes

Interesting that you are using the mps for you hdd. From the review, it appears that nagra jazz (which i use) doesn't benefit from mps. Not sure whether the cdp would benefit either. Sounds as though the vps phono and the dac benefit from it. Jacques, does your lacie hd use the nagra stock mps lemo connector cable or something different?

Reviews are reviews, but a friend of mine with several Nagra component came to a different conclusion and saw a big improvement in performance using the MPS for his Nagra gears. Since I only have the MPS I cant really comment more but sometimes reviews , well are just that may not reflect the result in our own setup at home.

I personally find that very often, component that get amazing review sound terrible in my setup.

Just my two cents...

[JCR]

Tunes, sorry i forgot to answer one of your question. To power my hard drive, i use the stock greyish cable that comes with the mps (with the nagra connector on the mps end). These cables came without the other end terminated. Not sure if this was a special request from my dealer when he ordered then. Then i simply soldered a 2.5mm power connector at the end connecting of the hdd. Sound complicated but in fact i cut a piece of 2 inches or so of the stock cable that came with the lacie drive, stripped the cable and soldered together with the nagra cable.

Hope this helps

Jacques

[jfrech]

Originally Posted by JCR

Reviews are reviews, but a friend of mine with several Nagra component came to a different conclusion and saw a big improvement in performance using the MPS for his Nagra gears. Since I only have the MPS I cant really comment more but sometimes reviews , well are just that may not reflect the result in our own setup at home.

I personally find that very often, component that get amazing review sound terrible in my setup.

Just my two cents...

I have to agree with you on reviews. Could you ask your friend for more comments or possibly post here? Not a lot of Nagra MPS's out there just yet. I am using my Nagra VPS with a battery right now (Red Wine Audio) it makes a nice improvement in transparency and fluidity)

Speakers: Rockport Altair 2
Preamp: Robert Koda K10 Amp: Ayre MX-R
Cables: Transparent Opus MM2 Spkr, Opus MM2 & Trans Ref MM MM2 Intcnct.
Power Shunyata Triton/Typhon, Anaconda Zitron cords (x9)
Digital dCS Vivaldi DAC & dCS Scarlatti Clock & Transport with Transparent Reference XL Digital cables
Phono: Grand Prix Monaco TT, Schroder LT arm, Jan Allaerts MC2 Finish & Lyra Atlas, Nagra VPS/VFS
Racks: Grand Prix Audio Silverstone F1 (x2)

[tunes]

Originally Posted by jfrech

I have to agree with you on reviews. Could you ask your friend for more comments or possibly post here? Not a lot of Nagra MPS's out there just yet.

+1
While i usually approach reviews with a healthy dose of scepticism and usually find i have more questions than answers after reading them, they can be useful when reading between the lines or compiling one reviews findings with a different reviews. In this case, what interested me was the fact that a reviewer that clearly knows and loves nagra gear was actually not recommending the mps for some nagra components. Usually reviews suggest the opposite and encourage sales. Like jfrech, i'd be interested to hear your friend's impressions of the impact of using the mps with their nagra gear.

[JMAC]

I notice that the remote, except for color & labeling, is the same odd little one McIntosh uses for the MEN220.




Oops - also one less button.

[Glisse]

Whilst I have poked some fun at Srajan for his painfully verbose style and manipulation of web layout to benefit his advertising "credentials" rather than assist readers, he is a smart guy. And one of the few reviewers left who takes the time, and has the inventory, to try different components to see the effect of synergy. Rather than dump the review product into the existing reference system with no other changes. Which most other reviewers now do, and which I find completely useless.

Also, I do find Srajan to be quite consistent in his descriptions and preferences. If he describes something as pure, I know I will find it bleached and sterile. My tastes coincide with the "old" Srajan, not the new one.

In the case of the Nagra MPS, the inference is that the latest Nagra equipment contains improved power supplies versus their older gear, and so benefits less from the MPS. However, M. Latour suggested that to Srajan before he listened to the components, which is not such a good idea because of expectation bias.

Also, Srajan is not what I would call an "AC guy". He moved from an old apartment in Villeneuve, to a new apartment in Chardonne. The AC environment would be quite different between the two, but he made no changes to power conditioning or AC cables. When he first arrived in CH, IIRC he used adapters, which kill the sound.

So I would not be using him as a reference on the affects of power supplies. Try them yourself. At first blush, I thought it was crazy to be using a Nagra MPS to power an external HDD. Then when I saw the rest of Jaques amazing system, it seemed entirely appropriate

Although I do think Lacie's d2 and Thunderbolt drive cases are more inert than the Porsche Design cases.

For myself, even though I am a Shunyata guy for most things, I find the best isolation of computers, switches, HDD, NAS etc to come from running all these off a PS Audio P3 power plant's regenerated circuits. This totally isolates any noise.