Ever since their founding in 1951, Nagra’s company culture has driven the pursuit of perfection. Combine this with the Swiss tradition of precision engineering and it was inevitable that constant research and development on the HD line platforms would result in advances fully justifying the release of products that substantially extend the sonic envelope of the HD line.
The latest products to bear the “Reference” name are the Reference PREAMP, Reference DAC and Reference AMP.
Intensive research and painstaking extensive listening sessions resulted in essential component changes in the audio unit, including custom made capacitors. Nagra created a new generation of high voltage power supplies inside the audio signal unit (generating the 200 V DC grid tension). For the power supplies, they added super-cap capacity. The Reference DAC can be upgraded to dual chassis power supplies, one dedicated to the audio signal section and one dedicated to the digital section, as well as all controls and relay switching, including home automation.
Although the Reference DAC can run on a single power supply, the sound is more spectacular and life-like with two PSUs. Starting with one PSU will give customers an easy upgrade path and allow them to add a second one for unrivaled performance at some time in the future.