Nagra HD DAC

Nagra is not a company known to throw a few products together each year, and instead create their precision-machined wonders at a glacial pace befitting their Swiss heritage. As their press release states: "Introduction of new models follows a strict procedure at Nagra. A new product is considered worthy of appearing in the catalog once it brings a true improvement in sonic reproduction." More than one person asked if I had been up to the Nagra suite near the top of the Mirage hotel to see the new DAC.

The HD DAC does indeed look like a serious piece of test equipment, and sports a full complement of inputs on the back as well as both balanced and unbalanced outputs. Inside, internal processing runs at 72 bits and 5.6MHz (which the company says eliminates the need for steep slope input filters in the analog section) and can handle anything PCM up to 24/384 as well as DXD and DSD64 and 128. Andres Koch of DSD fame was engaged to help on the HD DAC internal design.

Available in March, pricing depends on which power supply option you choose and ranges from $23,750 to 27,250.

Source : stereophile[dot]com