 Nagra is the visiting card of the Swiss ‘school’ of audio. And in some way also the Polish one. If somebody would not know that, I just remind, that the company was founded and led for many years by the engineer Stefan Kudelski (the company was founded in 1951). But I will not repeat myself and point you to the details in the previous articles in “HIGH Fidelity OnLine”: )
I have already tested the PL-P, together with the MAP power amplifier, and the test appeared in February 2006 in “Audio”. So why do I return to it? I think, that the best products must be listened to, from time to time, to have some solid reference points. And Nagra is such a reference point. Besides that, it is good, to confront the current understanding of the sound with the past. It is not so, that we are always the same and that we always think the same and judge the same. I underline this each and every time I can: testing a device we do two things at the same time – we describe the sound and we evaluate it. One must not always be related with the other. In the ideal world, when the recording would truthfully reproduce that what happened in reality, and the devices would be able to reproduce that registered reality, the description and evaluation would be the same, because both ingredients would not depend on the variable factor, the human. But we change and we learn. Because learning is the keyword here. We do not live in an idyllic world, but in a world, in which the sound reproduced at home is only an approximation of the live event, and that being subordinate to many variables. One of those variables is what a given listener understands as ‘music’ reproduced by his system. Because for everybody this will be something else. I think that there is a margin, where we can agree to some things, but it will always be a reflection of the place, where we are in, mentally. That is why I wanted to listen to the Nagra, this time with my power amplifier, here and now. From that time, from that test, almost three years have passed and I changed my understanding of the ideal sound (I am talking about recorded music now). I think that hi-fi, meaning the elements susceptible to quite detailed description, like bass reach, quality of the treble, saturation with harmonics, speed, etc, is only a fragment of what sound is. Unwillingly, but irrevocably, I start to put more weight on the elements of sound that cannot be described easily, that are not straight-forward, and thus are a bit ‘suspicious’ in their indetermination. I think about something like ‘communication’ – meaning how the device ‘talks’ to us, I think about the ability of transferring the ‘spirit’ of music, the intentions of the musician, etc. The engineers do not like that kind of talk because – and I mentioned that – it is devoted from ‘hard’, ‘objective’ premises. Pragmatics states about such elements, like about psychology – a science that cannot be proven and can only be believed – that they cannot be falsified. And only things that can be falsified, meaning susceptible to the rigors of logic, and discussion, have real value. And I am a pragmatic by belief. The more difficult it is for me to write about something, that cannot be described well, because I have the feeling that I cheat on you not giving a clear explanation. This leads to the fact, that I make you take my words. But I will keep on trying, to describe as truthfully as possible what I heard, moving mostly within the hi-fi terminology, verifiable and recognizable. But under my skin, I feel that this is only an introduction to real audio, an invitation to real adventure, an adventure of listening to MUSIC. SOUND )
Like I wrote - the more precise the description the better - because it changes slowly, if at all. Only the description of the impressions is time dependent. That is the reason why I want to quote the description I made during the test PL-P for “Audio”: Nagra combines precision and wealth of harmonics – this is where we can guess that there are tubes inside. But the quick attack and reverb do not suggest that having us look among the solid state preamps. Everything is mixed together and we get a combination of smoothness, slight sweetness and hard hits, which is not very common. So it should not surprise, that the voices are almost hypnotic sounding, the less well recorded like from the old disc from Sarah Vaughn After Hours (Sony Records [Japan], SRC 9515, Master Sound CD), as well as from the well recorded and issued by the Japanese company FIM disc Cafè Blue Patricia Barber (FIM 010, HDCD, gold CD). Sometimes PL-P may be regarded as too soft, because the compressed and harsh recordings, like from the new single from Depeche Mode Enjoy the Silence...04 (Venustone, XLCDBONG34, SPCD) sounded nice and were devoted from the metallic coating. But when we put in the player a reference recording then the softness will turn into coherence.” „Audio” 02/06 I read it again now, and I still can sign it with both hands. The sound of this device is very vivid and nice. But I know now, that this enjoyment is not coming from eliminating the unpleasant elements from the sound, but from reproducing the complete communication, complete spectrum of timbres and emotions, without underlining ones and eliminating the others. The sound has a deep timbre and a splendid gradation of planes. The latter come from incredibly truthful keeping of a timbre without imposing its own character on the recordings. This is one thing, that I see differently than before. Because in description categories, the Nagra’s treble and higher midrange are a bit laid back. But I tell it differently: slightly warmer than in other high class preamplifiers like my Leben RS-28CX or BAT VK-52SE. One could say, that in this aspect, the PL-P has a similar character like the C-1000f from Luxman and C-2810 from Accuphase. The difference is, that there this was done on purpose, like a will to smoothen the sound, and here it comes from the sound itself, from sounding in a non-offensive, but very natural way. My Leben plays everything a bit more precise, but also – now I hear it clearly – a bit more guesstimating. This could be followed closely on the disc Invitation Milt Jackson (Riverside/Mobile Fidelity, UDSACD 2031, SACD/CD; review HERE), and on the brilliant disc from Wes Montgomery Full House (Universal Music Japan, UCCO-9207, CD). In both cases the leading instruments, meaning the vibraphone and electric guitar respectively, were strong and saturated, a bit to the front, but without throwing in the face. They just had a full body and perfectly captured space. The headphone and gramophone preamplifier from Nagra sound similar – this is the chosen direction. I had some problem with my AKG K701, because the volume turned fully up did not produce loud enough sound. This was within the range of comfortable listening, but sometimes I needed more power and it was not there. I think, that this is related to the medium gain of the preamplifier – with the input and output potentiometers set to 0dB I had to set the output on the Lektor Prime to ‘74’ to have the sound loud (‘86’ means 2V on the Lektor). But the vividness, creating of the planes and pleasure from listening were really brilliant – better than from the Lebena CS-300 and the Manley 300B. It might seem, that it will be better with the Ultrasone PROLine2500, but it turned out, that the upper midrange is damped in this combination, and while it was louder and I got more bass and treble, the vividness disappeared – an exceptional thing here. So I returned to the AKG. In general I could say, that the quality of the headphone section is very good, but not as exceptional as from the Manley Neo-Classic 300B or Leben CS-300. The line preamplifier is most important here. The gramophone preamplifier is also very nice, but – just like with the headphones – we can find a separate device for less money, that can do it better. Frankly speaking the Swiss device sounds a bit like the best Japanese brands showing maximally true sound in a nice way. If we have to choose between the underlining of the attack and natural warmth we will always get the latter here. Dynamics in macro terms is a bit quieter; there is no doubt about it, but from my experience this happens always with battery powered devices. This is not about a slow-down of the sound, but a slight toning down of the attack. When necessary the Nagra can hit, as the micro dynamics is splendid. This allowed the military orchestra big drum on the disc Dreamland Madeleine Peyroux (Atlantic, 829646, HDCD) to sound deep, deep with a big reverb. Only with quicker music, for example electronic, everything ‘sat down’ (e.g. with the single World in My Eyes Depeche Mode, Mute, CD Bong 20, SPCD). This was still incredibly good sound, but without the drive as supplied by the BAT VK-3iX and Manley Neo-Classic 300B. )
Taking all this into account and weighing the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ I must say, that the Nagra is the best preamplifier I had at home. There are still a few devices before me, which I heard during shows and expositions, like the Reference 3 Audio Research or REX BAT, but not in my system, so I do not know everything. But here and now I must say that the Nagra is an incredible device, that reproduces natural sound. There are places where it departs from the ideal of the ‘amplifying wire’ but it approaches the real music. Does this mean that I drop the Leben and start the fight for the Nagra? No. I know now where my Leben has problems, but I appreciate more what it can do for the money it costs. The listening session with the Swiss preamplifier pointed me to another problem: my CD player. This is another brilliant device, but remembering what the Jadis JD1 MkII + JS1 MkIII can do and listening to the newest version of the Lektor Grand SE Ancient Audio I know that I will not sit in my place. And again: this does not mean that the Prime is the weakest link in my system – in contrary, I think that it will sound as good with amplifiers three times as expensive. But… I am oversensitive to the sound of players. Working many years with studio analog tape recorders and now with gramophones I have an imprinted digit detector. I created a small essay on this topic that will be published next month. Nagra showed me what direction to follow, where to put the accents. Because this is really a visiting card of the hi-end. DESCRIPTION Nagra devices look unique. The preamplifier PL-P is placed in a small enclosure, developed for small reporter tape devices many years ago. In the field nothing can be left to chance, because somebody discovered some hot topic to a reporter and the recorder broke down and the Pulitzer Prize just vanished. The devices must be extremely solid. PL-P complies with this rule. The whole is made from thick aluminum sheets put together with incredibly high precision. For such a small device the PL-P is extremely well equipped. In the front we find the adjustment of the input sensitivity (dual mono) and the volume control, a modulometer (a precise volt meter) with a double needle, separate for each channel, a mono/stereo switch and a headphone socket. The latter is not only for show, as it is powered by shielded output transformers and we can listen to headphones or control a power amplifier. In the package we get also a refined MM/MC gramophone preamplifier, where in MC mode we can choose to work with a compensation transformer or without it. In tube devices longevity of the tubes is one of the biggest concerns. Having this in mind Nagra equipped the PL-P in a tube wear meter. Some surprise is the lack of the remote control. There is also a line only version of the preamplifier, that differs by some details, and having a remote. Andre Kudelski responded that in the PL-P there was no place for the remote anymore. Let’s believe this explanation. )
The Nagra preamplifier is built based on tubes. In each channel we have two double triodes from Sovtek 12AX7LPS, then 12AX7WXT from the same company and in the end JAN 12AT7WC ElctroHarmonix, coming from old military reserves in USA. Seemingly the choice of the tubes was by listening, as the LPS are a special version of the popular ECC83 with a large anode (Large Plate) giving a more linear response and a special filament (Spiral Filament) reducing microphoning. I think, that this is one of the best Sovtek tubes from the 12AX7 line. Beside it we find a different version of this tube (WXT) – a military version with reduced microphoning and prolonged life. The RIAA section is based on the Ei ECC83 tubes coming from former Yugoslavia and the 12AT7WC from ElectroHarmonix. The circuit is placed on one big PCB with gold plated traces put on springy elements. The passive elements are not super-exotic, but chosen according to needs – the separate stages were coupled with polypropylene capacitors from Philips and the cathode resistors with bipolar capacitors from the same company. Attention is drawn by a well thought setup of the inputs and outputs: the signal is supplied on the left side of the cabinet near the input tubes and goes out on the right side, near the output tubes. On the right side we have also the tape loop. This is also not a coincidence – the loop bypasses the input sensitivity regulation and the input buffer. It is worth to try out this input, as it will sound differently. I kept the best for the end: PL-P is battery powered – via a transverter – from the batteries placed in the main enclosure. The transformer needed to recharge the batteries is placed in a separate cabinet connected by a very long cable to the main unit.
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