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

[cmalak]

6moons audio reviews - Nagra HD DAC

[Pider]

Not my cup of tea in the looks department, but apparently it performs well enough.

[JCR]

A friend of mine have one on order for his studio. I will likely give it a try by curiosity, not that i think it would match the dCS Vivaldi stack. I was not familiar with Nagra product before getting their MPS power supply which is now a key component of my system...Jacques

[antipop]

I heard a late prototype at a show and it was great with an impressive sense of rythme. It would be on my short list if it wasn't so expensive... 20k€ is way too much for me. At 10k or 12k, it would have been a "hell yeah" !

[Harmonix]

Anyone know how it compares to the EMM DAC2x and the new Berkeley Alpha Reference?
Lot's of new flagship DACs coming out!!

[Glisse]

Buried in the typically verbose review stretched over multiple pages to increase apparent web traffic counts is the comment that Redbook doesn't sound very good compared to higher rez files. Given the digital guts are designed by Andreas Koch, as Nagra don't really have any digital expertise, that doesn't come as a big surprise. As I am probably at 70% rebook, 29% hi-res PCM, and 1% "real" DSD, it is not for me. Nagra gear is beautifully made, however, and the analogue out section is clearly very good.

I find the whole concept of converting PCM to DSD weird.

[antipop]

Originally Posted by Glisse

Buried in the typically verbose review stretched over multiple pages to increase apparent web traffic counts

You're truly a patient man to have read it all.

I usually give up after the first page or so. 6moons reviews can be quite a mixed bag but I often find that the format doesn't fit me

[Glisse]

Originally Posted by antipop

You're truly a patient man to have read it all.

I usually give up after the first page or so. 6moons reviews can be quite a mixed bag but I often find that the format doesn't fit me

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...

[jfrech]

Originally Posted by JCR

A friend of mine have one on order for his studio. I will likely give it a try by curiosity, not that i think it would match the dCS Vivaldi stack. I was not familiar with Nagra product before getting their MPS power supply which is now a key component of my system...Jacques

Just curious, are you using the Nagra MPS to power your hard drive for your music server? Did I read that right? What sound gains do you hear? I'm a pretty big Nagra fan (using their VPS/VFS currently) but haven't tried the MPS yet...

Thanks in advance...

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

Just curious, are you using the Nagra MPS to power your hard drive for your music server? Did I read that right? What sound gains do you hear? I'm a pretty big Nagra fan (using their VPS/VFS currently) but haven't tried the MPS yet...

Thanks in advance...

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!