To return to the beginning now, unwitting first-time Nagra visitors would most likely end up at the gleaming corporate headquarters of the Kudelski Group first.



Should they be properly suspicious that high-end audio's boutique status doesn't really justify such palatial corporate expanse, they might instinctively gravitate to the older and somewhat smaller building to the right only to find access most sternly denied.



They'd lack proper clearance credentials. Returning to the reception in the main glass building silently questioning where in its slick vastness the audio division might hide, the multi-lingual receptionist would politely inform them that they're really bound for a different building altogether. Off campus so to speak. With the other audiophile misfits. Provided map sketch in hand, they'd retrace their steps back into Cheseaux, crossing a railroad track, then veering sharply to the right into fields... and presto, the promised land of the K2 building. Its far more modest outward appearance—not shown, forgot to take outside photos of K2—should instantly be more familiar to our hobbyist kind.



If said visitors caught a quick glance around the back of this 'forbidden' building before their hasty departure, they'd have spotted a Nagra Travel sign, even a full-blown ensconced bakery. Humming the main theme to Diversification, The Complete Series, they'd shortly have arrived at the final destination in the properly calibrated frame of mind.



Home to NagraVision SA and its bespoke audio emporium, they'd still be greeted by rather a lot more personnel and equipment than is typical for most high-end hifi companies - at least those I have visited in the past.



In K2, one may spot Matthieu Latour, Sales & Marketing Manager of Nagra Hi-Fi Products, in his dashing alter ego guises as le bon docteur and an extravagantly maned and coiffed His Royal And Most August —or was that October—Excellency Matthieu XIV. Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne sits squarely in the French part of Switzerland after all. A bit of proper decorum is essential.



With plenty of glass but very little natural light, NagraAudio the work place is a combination of corporate maze and freewheeling brainiacs who dream up cutting-edge circuitry and complex mechanics under the stewardship of a vast corporate empire. With all the engineering and financial resources this entails as well as the multi-level hierarchical workings of any multinational conglomerate, it's quite the heady mix. In fact, those deeply into true production costs and sustainable profit margins couldn't be blamed for assuming that the entire audio division can't possibly be very profitable. It must instead run more on true passion as subsidized by the founder's vision and corporate support. If Nagra charged for its gear what they should given what they put into it... well, I dare say then it probably wouldn't be sellable. The Kudelski Group as audiophile benefactor? It was just a hunch and far from disingenious but the thought did cross my mind more than once while I digested what I saw and heard here.



Back on audioland's terra firm, nothing perhaps epitomizes Nagra's particular spirit more than their present CDC. It combines meticulous mechanics from the golden age of analogue with state-of-the-art surface-mount componentry and multi-layer PCB construction which derive from military, medical and aerospace technologies. Whilst the modulometer and chunky rotary controls scream vintage, sonic competitiveness is thoroughly modern.



To come full circle with our opening coverage of the forthcoming Nagra 300B integrated amplifier, what other hifi company would tackle such a project in precisely this unique fashion? Committed to championing antiquated valve technology but honor-bound by strict engineering ethos to rely on exacting measurements and firm standards on what constitutes acceptable distortion and component interactions, I predict that Nagra's 300B amplifier will be unlike any we've ever seen or heard before.


In fact, my tour guide Matthieu Latour had auditioned it twice already. Asked how he'd compare it to the VPA and MSA—which as reported seem to me rather more alike than not—he simply cracked a boyish grin. "Completely different." That's about as fitting a general closer on this famous company as is possible. Over and out for now.