In situ. Bedding in upstairs meant good-bye Vinnie Rossi L2 linestage so about €17'000 saved. Auf Widersehen too to a Crayon Audio CFA-1.2 amp which was €4'250 at time of purchase. The swap essentially refunded the latter's fee so my prior sonic reference was properly in the frame. Without a pre-out, our usual Dynaudio 18S subwoofer was sadly sidelined. The 4-driver 3-way monitors from Switzerland's sound|kaos had to run full-range. With their 36Hz port tuning and some life below, that's no misnomer despite the petite dimensions. To get premium locking bananas from Furutech properly tightened to the INT was a bit tricky. Due to close channel placement, their fat barrels with slightly winged grips interfered. But I managed and instantly had sound thereafter.
With ~92dB speaker sensitivity and a 2V/625Ω source signal, Nagra's 0dB gain setting required a 14'00" attenuator setting for standard SPL whilst the 12dB setting knocked that down to 10'30". The zero-gain option isn't just ideal for speakers of higher sensitivities and/or high-gain sources. It also gives a sonic tuning option. That's because Nagra's gain toggle uses two different negative feedback values. Higher gain equals lower feedback. Golden ears might hear a difference. If for your SPL needs either toggle position works, give it a try. You might have a preference. "The input stage is identical to the Classic Amp's. The first stage is built around a top-quality op amp—not popular we know but actually sounding very good—before the volume control. That potentiometer is followed by another buffer then driver stage. The rest is virtually the Classic Amp. We believe that's one of the reasons for the INT's success. Its preamp is literally 'integrated' inside the amplifier so very direct and transparent."
Now two movie quotes to get into the mood. "How do you write women so well?" "I think of a man and I take away reason and accountability."
Woman at table: I said, "You love me the way you do your remote control as long as I switch every time you press one of my buttons."
Man at table: That's great! That's terrific –
Melvin Udall: People that talk in metaphors ought to shampoo my crotch. Eat up."
What's a review without metaphors? A multiple-choice test score. As for reason and accountability, in a rave they don't factor. And today will rave on a bit since I loved everything about this deck. It was the perfect size. It didn't raise a steam. Turning the master knob to 'R' powered it up/down by a remote which I've always thought one of the best. Our Crayon uses it too. I could name inputs. I could dim and even extinguish the display. Most of all there was the sound. It was 100% my kind of sound. So it virtually copied what it replaced but still bettered it in small but important ways. First up was the bass. Without bulking up or going gonzo—that would be overly striated, ratcheted up, synthetic or hyper damped—it was wonderfully elastic and nimble. That played like a dancer yet still added articulation and reach. Fleet of foot, finely nuanced and structured, it was still more intelligible and formed than before. That seemed to point at Nagra's fast-recovery power supply. Its bass was adroit not ponderous. These gains in extension and definition not only defied any remnants of the portly and pudgy but also the unnaturally snappy which is all attack, no followup from the hip. In short, I thought the balance between speed and substance ideally weighted. Bass should just continue the midrange with no textural or other changes. Rooms begin to interfere below ~300Hz but if we've listened to a lot of gear in one room, we have a good baseline from which to appreciate when and where certain things go beyond. The Classic INT's first advance was in the low end.
Soundaware D300Ref SD transport ⇒ I²S/HDMI ⇒ Denafrips discrete R2R Terminator DAC ⇐ Furutech NCF-enhanced passive power delivery.
For the full Hakuna Matata across music's kingly lion share, the midrange expressed the very same balance. Knowing of Nagra's historic valve use, one might predict that they'd err on the voluptuous heavy side like an Avelines Noir chocolate from Versoix's Favager on Lake Geneva. That's just not what I heard. With an outsized tweeter aka small AlNiCo widebander plus upfiring Raal ribbon on hand, I was keenly aware just how finessed the Exicon lateral Mosfets present in the treble. That openness and follow-to-the-ends ability injected harmonic light and transient speed into the vocal range. It quickened any cocoa-butter DNA one might have suspected. Needless to say, one would never mistake this midrange for that of a high-feedback switching amp. It's moister and darker.
Just so, my allegiances to 'need for speed' found no fault. These days I really couldn't say so for the vast majority of valve gear, David Berning and his LTA licencees excepted. I surprised myself to find the Classic INT to so skillfully carve that white center line between density and resolution. The latter ticked off all the demands my tastes and familiarity with über-resolution ribbon headphones make, then added the necessary mass as though as bonus. 'As though' is key. I rather think that Nagra approached this from the other side to then add the strategic sprinkle of spritz as bonus. It's a way of suggesting that no matter from which side of the fence one nears the middle, with the Classic INT one could feel right at home.
