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

[JCR]

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. I am using my Nagra VPS with a battery right now (Red Wine Audio) it makes a nice improvement in transparency and fluidity)

I will check with my friend but I think most of the MPS they sold (at least 10 of them) was for customers using the VPS phono stage. Except for two of them using the MPS for an external drive - namely myself and my friend himself who use it on an external hdd for his recording studio. I am not personally familiar with other Nagra equipment (other then the MPS) but will check.

Red Wine Audio makes very good battery power supply and I did have one before getting the MPS. My overall system did change quite a bit since then but I recall the Red Wine doing a very good job at "cleaning the power noise" and making the sound more fluid - for an external hard drive.

When I got the Nagra MPS, at first I thought I would use its battery output but as it turns out I really like the "normal outputs as well. I found the sound to be fuller, thicker and richer using the MPS (both battery or regulated output) compared to the Red Wine Audio. Not sure if this could be generalized as other system setup could influence preference here.

Jacques

[JCR]

Originally Posted by Glisse

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.

It sure is crazy to use the MPS for a hard drive I totally agree! But, the first time it was suggested to me I found the idea totally crazy and unnecessary... until I was able to borrow my friend's MPS to plug with my hdd. Once I saw the impact it had on the sound and the overall system, making for the first time my PC music server sound truly "analog", then looking at the bigger picture with the rest of the system, it "made more sense"! But I have to agree without comparing an external hard drive using a switching PS versus the Nagra, I thought it was a bit over the top to say the least! After all, I am only storing my music on this hard drive.

Regarding the LaCie various model options, my choice of the Porsche design was mainly because I needed a USB connection (as opposed to a Thunderbolt). I am using the same model of silver USA able for my external hard drive as I am using to connect my PC (through a SoTM USB card) to my dCS Vivaldi. In A/B comparison test, to my surprise I found the cable used between my external hard and my PC made as much difference in the sound as the cable used between the PC and the dCS. Because I loved my SIltech USB cable, I went with the Lacie, but I am sure there more options out there.

That said, new standard like Thunderbolt make it difficult for high end manufacturer to build good audiophile cable because their connector is so small. I also had good result connecting my external drive through a firewire Siltech cable. Speaking of inert hard drive casing, I tried putting my hand on their "Christoff" version but could never find one for sale... And finally regarding other means of storing your music, I know a lot of people are using a NAS server which connect to the music server through the house wifi or network, I tried this many time and could never come close to my current setup. There must be something about having the musing passing through standard CAT5 cable and stuff, or maybe I just don't know how to do it! Either way...

This is a very interesting topic guys! Hope this helps...

Jacques

[JCR]

Originally Posted by Glisse

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.

Sorry I missed your last comment. I was always curious of the PS Audio regenerated units. So you find you get better result then putting your computer into the Shunyata? For myself funny enough I have everything into the Shunyata, except the computer which is in one of my Chang Lightspeed.

Have you tried the PS Audio regenerated units with other equipment?

[Harmonix]

Originally Posted by cmalak

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!

I listened to the Nagra + MPS today and as far as DAC's go it is in the top tier. This was in a completely different setup from my home system so it is hard to compare things like imaging and sound stage; too many different variables in the chain. What I can say is the texture and timbre of instruments were superb - fast & neutral while maintaining overtones and harmonic richness of instruments. The macro and micro dynamics also show very well.

The one striking thing was how much more obvious recording qualities between albums are and this I think says alot.
I think this thing beats my EMM DAC2x... Now I wonder how the new Berkeley or the trinity compare to this??