Famous branding, managed. With iconic status attained as Nagra undoubtedly have, modernizing one's cosmetics can play havoc with buyer expectations on both dealer/distributor and consumer fronts. How the Fine Sound Group have tackled the often contradictory demands of tradition and renewal is shown at right. There's a McIntosh preamp without green lights or meters; an Audio Research deck with rounded corners, a black display and no frontal handles; and a Wadia with a restyled logo recess. The intent is obvious. Capture the stylistic essence to retain instant recognizability; update looks for 2015 and beyond.


When Nagra Audio's nested existence inside the Kudelski Group flew the coop to go solo, the new owners under the freshly formed Audio Technology Switzerland umbrella faced opportunity to revitalize the brand; and the associated danger of diluting or killing off its essence in the process. If one planned on the latter as Thiel's new owners seem so hell-bent on, it's invariably better to launch an entirely new brand from scratch. Clearly Pascal Maroux and Marguerite Kudelski have no such intentions.


The first product completely conceptualized, designed and built since their acquisition was the HD DAC. Its looks remain true to the established laboratory profile with trademark modulometer. The need for more real estate than the legacy footprint provided was cleverly concealed by moving the two power supplies offboard; and by increasing the main casing's depth without altering its width or height. The change is practically invisible inside an equipment rack. Assembling a classic Nagra stack remains visually unified.


The next project became the monaural HD amps. They finally gave Nagra truly load-invariant muscle amps to drive any speaker ever made. It's something they never had before. A first showing at CES 2015 with Wilson speakers really drove that point home. It was merely logical that this ambitious amp platform would soon spawn smaller models. Today's Classic Amp is the first such offshoot. Twice as powerful as the MSA it replaces, it also kicks off the planned demarcation of Nagra's catalogue into two lines called HD and Classic.


Unlike the Fine Sound group led by relentlessly fêted young celebrity designer Livio Cucuzza, the far more conservative new Swiss managers so far resisted the challenge to stamp a new visual imprimatur on their legacy Nagra cosmetics. By name alone, the Classic range promises no change whatsoever. Whilst the top-end HD models should lend themselves to a suitably respectful makeover, the HD DAC as its first member hadn't broached the subject. That was likely a function of timing. Pascal and Marguerite were still growing their sea legs when that early project got underway. Now one wonders whether that precedent shut doors. Even the breath of fresh naming air of Jazz and Melody preamps has passed. The multi-source power supply became the MPS and there's zero lyricism in the new amplifier names. At Nagra, it's business as usual.