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And, as I've noted before, balanced Pono and HEK are a great combo! On vacation, left the HEK home, miss it.
Dream combo ? Only +25.000 $
The Nagra products look like an EZ-Bake oven…but do not be fooled. They are incredible components.
The dave looks ridiculous. Guarantee you're paying at least 30% for aesthetics lol.
The dave looks ridiculous. Guarantee you're paying at least 30% for aesthetics lol.
+1 on that, might be different in person though
What is it the warrants or even justifies a price tag of 25,000 dollars for a headphone amplifier? This is more than a rhetorical question, and I'm NOT just talking about Nagra products. I'd like to know the answer(s) to this question as it relates to high end headphone audio in general.
Some possible reasons:
1) SOUND QUALITY
- It's truly the best product out there in terms of sound quality, and this is the consensus of the vast majority of the
knowledgeable headphone audiophiles. This level of sonic excellence can ONLY be had at this price.
OR
-It's a special and unique sonic signature that a small minority of headphone audiophiles crave. Only this product at this
price gives this sonic signature, so this group of people will pay it.
2) BUILD QUALITY/COST OF PARTS (hypothetical example: made of solid platinum using a 3-D printer)
3) SPECIAL PROPRIETARY TECHNOLOGY RELATED TO #1
4) SOME PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS (but they still have money)
5) OTHER.
Thoughts?
Anyone?
You really have to listen to one. Find one of the ten US Nagra dealers and schedule an hour with the Nagra HD DAC or any of the 20 or so DACs out there from 20K to 150K.
I was very much like you. I thought my Chord Hugo at $2300 was the beast. I never expected the Nagra HD DAC head amp to beat it in anyway. After the first 30 seconds, I was blown away. It was not just the quietness or the increase of details. The performance just seemed to be there, real and in my head. It was truly a live performance. Nothing I experienced with the Nagra HD DAC seemed like a recording.
It's probably based on that old engineering adage. If you want something that's 90% accurate, it'll cost you a dollar. If you want something 99% accurate, that's $100 dollars. If you want something 99.99% accurate, that's $10,000 dollars. If you want something 99.9999% accurate, that's $1 million dollars.
The more perfection you want, the more expensive things get.
Beats me, but they're not the only ones with such expensive gear. .................... Prices seen to escalate to what the market will bear. Sometimes I think high prices are used to prove how good a component is (a manufacturer may say to himself, "if I charge $1000 for this, people will think it is ordinary. If I put thick, engraved casing on this and charge $5k, they'll take it more seriously. Of course, there are lots of sharp listeners out there, so great sound is a must to pull this off. And I don't mean to imply every manufacturer does this, but I'm sure it goes on). Happened in high end, took longer in the headphone world, but, as interest grew, so did opportunity.
I agree very strongly that one has to LISTEN for oneself before judging. Also, if someone hears something magical (and that has happened for me 4 times as an audiophile) and they can afford to buy it, then I'm happy for them.
Fair enough. If performance is at least partially related to with price, then it's a different calculus. Still, I'm left wondering how closely the (curve that would be generated by tracing the the steeply increasing) real world audiophile price points truly represent(s) an asymptotic approach toward "perfection." I often wonder whether the reality is more closely reflected (in the vast majority of high end audio pricing structures) by this notion:
This is a known phenomenon that's been tested under controlled conditions, as referred to in this Audiogon thread.
Anyone?
You really have to listen to one. Find one of the ten US Nagra dealers and schedule an hour with the Nagra HD DAC or any of the 20 or so DACs out there from 20K to 150K.
The very best DACs will sound identical to being there, at the time of the recorded session. Often, you can hear more things or old things a lot differently. You will recognize that the noise disappeared, there are more space between instruments and even the parting of the singer's lips. Besides the technical details of the sound, you can feel the music. Even with headphones, the difference between an uber class DAC and a really good DAC can be heard. You need not have a trained set of ears.
When you get the appointment, bring good an bad files and a comfortable set of headphones.
I was very much like you. I thought my Chord Hugo at $2300 was the beast. I never expected the Nagra HD DAC head amp to beat it in anyway.
After the first 30 seconds, I was blown away. It was not just the quietness or the increase of details. The performance just seemed to be there, real and in my head. It was truly a live performance. Nothing I experienced with the Nagra HD DAC seemed like a recording.