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Headfi. If you don't power off your speaker amplifier, switching the Nagra DAC to headfi won't completely mute the main outputs. A little signal does leak. So turn off the main amp. Starting with Audeze and Hifiman planars, my verdict tracked that of the soundkaos ovals. There was more finesse, extension and gossamer ambiance to be had than they could resolve. Moving to the Sennheiser HD800 proved it. Whilst even with a superior after-market leash this German statement dynamic still has my ears call it a bit bright and incisive if also supremely spacious—an ultra-wide bandwidth Bakoon or Questyle amp pushes it over the edge—on the HD DAC, their signature bite and sizzle were AWOL. Absent with official leave. My going objections to the Germans had been honourably discharged.


Hence the HD800 became my favorite Nagra mate. Beyerdynamic T1 and T5p with ALO leashes too usurped the top spot usually occupied by my Audeze LCD-2 and LCD-XC. Had planar man lost his religion? This points at an observation I'd made during my first PCM-to-DSD encounter with Ed Meitner's MA-1 converter. True DSD DACs particularly in the treble sound sweeter and softer. Vinyl aficionados who never friended digital when it was pure PCM claim that DSD comes a lot closer. I don't do vinyl. I can't confirm or deny it. I can say that compared to good PCM DACs, Nagra's conversion to DSD sounds mellower and fruitier. There's more emphasis on the decays, less on the leading edge. But it's not a vintage NOS DAC sound with its minor HF roll-off. This treble is fully developed. It's simply warmer.

If your sonic notions are built around PCM's more crystalline top end and sharply articulated transient demeanour; and if consequently you've gravitated toward more toneful dense transducers to compensate and arrive at a particular middle which struck you as correct and pleasing... then to remain in the same place with DSD could require slightly friskier more energetic transducers. For me and headfi, this had meant super-lucid Bakoon amplification + luscious chewy planars from Audeze. With the HD DAC's character sharing more with the latter, it was quite predictable that I'd favour more lucid fast lit-up transducers both on and off ear to remain in my personal comfort zone.
What did come as a surprise was the HD800's bass. As an LCD-2 v2 devotee, the Sennheiser low end had never really impressed me. With the HD DAC that begged to differ. The Nagra didn't inject fat to arrive at Audeze's original slightly elephantine personality. The Swiss built out reach and control to balance out Sennheiser's HF brilliance and sparkle.

Switching to my Eximus DP-1 of equally combined DAC, preamp and headfi functions, I felt back in the cooler Nordic climes of PCM.

Now I lusted again after planarmagnetic compensation as headfi's take on paper-driver widebander sound. Even with the DP-1's analog bass boost engaged, it didn't match the Nagra DAC's grip over the HD800's low registers. Simon Lee's bass boost added fat and mass, not wiry extension.


The most relevant difference between these decks was really one of gestalt. The Nagra was a denizen of the warmer South but not from an arid desert region. Its locale was moister and slightly humid. Quasi tropical.


In some ways it's the type sound which SET valve aficionados pursue not relative to diminished bandwidth, transformer-incurred phase shift or immodest 2nd-order THD; but relative to the textural elasticity that comes from more generous tonal fades. If much transistor sound applies from high to extreme damping, zero feedback tube sound without the genre's weaknesses will still differ. It'll be more fluid, less damped. That's where Nagra's take on DSD conversion overlaps. Given that the company loves valves and has one inside the HD DAC without feedback, none of it surprises once one considers the bigger picture.

For those who equate resolution with choppier more metronomic time keeping, crisper transient focus and a more crystallized treble, the HD DAC could involve a period of adjustment. One might have to refocus or recalibrate one's notion that resolution needn't be about sharpness per se. To stay clear of absolutism, let's also state the obvious. Opinions on this diverge. Bel Canto Design for example champion conversion of DSD material to PCM. Weiss offer a DSD-to-PCM converter box. Certain Brit firms have called DSD the technically inferior process and a mere fashion phenom. Preferring what might be 'the sound' of one format over the other is merely that; a preference. It's like that vintage American divide between men who drove Ford or Chevy. Despite all the usual arguments on what's better, it's really not a matter of being right. But if you do fancy the DSD flavour, it means that Nagra's HD DAC will be very right for you indeed. Now you'll get that sound from bog-standard Redbook. Your entire CD library converts to DSD, including the vast majority of titles which never were released in that format.

Because the HD DAC and its headfi port are joined at the hip, its user eliminates the usual losses from interconnects, added connectors, impedance mismatches and greater box count. Just so, this rich fruity DSD flavour dominates. To dilute it would require offboarding into something like Bakoon's battery-powered HPA-01 whose current-mode output plays up separation and transient exactitude. Why bother? Does a Ford man drop in a Chevy engine block? To swing Nagra's flavour towards more incisiveness, go with a lit-up dynamic headphone like an HD800 or AKG K812. That sticks to your chosen engine but uses higher-octane petrol.

Either way, the 6.3mm port of the HD DAC is a very different proposition from what was in their iconic CDC player. That disc spinner's headphone socket was a convenience item. With the HD DAC, I even had sufficient gain to drive HifiMan's HE-6 though I'd not call that combination ideal. It lacked the grip, definition and jump factor which signify proper control. Meanwhile all else in my collection—including AKG's K702 with its propensity to sound a bit boring and monochromatic when the amp doesn't provide proper drive—attested to Nagra's seriousness of purpose. With the HD DAC, you really needn't offboard for a headphone driver. If you're sufficiently liquid, this very much is an extremist on-ears desktop system!