This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below

Like Linn, Nagra has championed switch-mode power supplies for ages. With Nagra's outboard supplies for their preamps and digital decks not showing in most commercial photography, the company simply failed a bit at promoting this fact. Perhaps it's due to how most upper-crust hifi manufacturers with lesser engineering resources have very successfully demonized SMPS as fit only for noisy computer applications. Leashing hifi machines to off-the-shelf laptop-type supplies as is common for low-power T amps should fully validate those expectations. However, audition for example the Austrian Crayon Audio CFA-1 integrated amplifier or tiny MiniWatt valve amp from Hong Kong. You'll have to confess that their sonics—both with 6moons awards—aren't despite their chosen power management solutions. They're because of it. Bang & Olufsen's popular ICEpower™ modules also rely on SMPS as do the Philips-sponsored Hypex equivalents. Thinking folks now add to the emerging picture that like Nagra, the Danes and Dutch run far more sizeable engineering departments than the average boutique audio outfit which so loudly condemns switch-mode supplies. Draw your own conclusions.

Nagra's CDC and PL-L will make contributing appearances to describe the sound of a complete Nagra system - three-piece or CD-direct to amp. What follow are mini tours through their innards. For formal circuit and feature descriptions, refer to Nagra's website to not overburden this report. Common to all three machines are the compact footprint; the triple footer system with captive Delrin ball tips; matching indentations on the covers for stacking; and the optional two-layer support system with viscoelastic pellets.

Not equally shared is Nagra's sideways orientation of the connector bays. The PL-L preamp still adopts the hardcore house tradition with inputs on the left cheek, outputs on the right. The CDC's stock orientation has become conventional—to the rear—but may be ordered sideways (Nagra to date had only one such request). The MSA meanwhile is exclusively conventional in layout. This clearly reflects three different model generations.


It's one area where tradition becomes a curse. This is particularly true when one's product is exceptionally long-lived to remain active in the field over decades. Change and your new machines no longer match the legacy units. Don't adapt and eventually end up painted in a weird corner. It's a no-win situation but intrinsic to being iconic. It will probably take a change in management for altogether fresh blood and/or the further passage of time before a comprehensive makeover can address these idiosyncrasies. Another oddity are the MSA's exclusive XLR inputs. While RCA/XLR adaptors are provided, why couldn't those be integrated to avoid wobbly unsightly afterthought interfaces?



Nagra shares with Esoteric an area where tradition can slow down progress. Both firms are stout advocates of exemplary mechanics. Esoteric has invested heavily into the creation and ongoing refinement of its VRDS sleds for CD, SACD and DVD. Nagra invested into its unique ejectable CD drive as a true marvel of Swiss precision engineering. But VRDS and Nagra-style transportation clearly is costly.


Enter iMac, laptop and streamer/server sources with cheap DVD/ROM drives to rip data and play back from hard disc or SSD. This renders overbuilt mechanical solutions obsolete. Neither Nagra nor Esoteric offer present Firewire connectivity. While Esoteric has added USB to some of its models, it's neither 24/192 nor async. The former Japanese leader in digital audio has seemingly fallen behind small firms like M2Tech and HRT. Nagra seems yet further behind.

Alas, it's easy to appreciate why hitching a ride on the express train of streaming audio would be especially challenging for champions of superior old-fashioned solutions like Esoteric and Nagra. It turns the expensive Swiss CDC platform into quite an anachronism. Yet this needn't mean the desire to own one is on the endangered list. There will be customers of proper liquidity and appreciation for extreme mechanical excellence who'd single out the CDC over anything else on the market for precisely those reasons. Going this route—as customer and maker—simply isn't cost-effective, user-friendly compared to iTunes convenience or still required to obtain superior performance.

The CDC in particular would seem to exist primarily because Nagra could engineer it that way, not because anyone asked for or really needs anything remotely like it.

That too is part of being iconic. It's about statements nobody expected but which leave indelible impressions and set new standards regardless.


The CDC lacks direct track access buttons on its front panel but adds a headphone output.



Here we have the vacuum-tube PL-L version of Nagra's preamps sans phono module and top panel.


The volume and balance pots are made by Alps to Nagra's specifications.