The new Nagra Streamer

[vinothkumar]

SQ-wise of course.

Could you please elaborate a bit more on sound quality on both grimm and holo or even with nagra? Want to understand where it excells in sound quality.

 

[rsjaurr]

Everything has an FPGA chip on board these days - even the above holo red does.

But not everyone can program these in the same way. This is where the real game could be. The high-end companies like Esoteric, dCS, Nagra, MSB, Aurender, etc might be doing better here compared to the Chinese who have come very close, if not equal or better to the high end companies regarding hardware quality. That might change in the future though.

If done right, the SMPS power supply could be as good as a linear one. IFI, sotm etc do make SMPS PS for audiophiles.

 

[sachinchavan 15865]

I can see some online stores in India stocking this already at an MRP of 6.2 lakhs.

they were nice enough to post a photo of the internals of this thing as well.

View attachment 88609

Interesting. Just wondering, and the DIY gurus here might be able to help, what might be the aggregate price of all those parts and case etc (ie the material cost) to get an idea of the gross profit high-end audio equipment make on their products?

 

[mbhangui]

Interesting. Just wondering, and the DIY gurus here might be able to help, what might be the aggregate price of all those parts and case etc (ie the material cost) to get an idea of the gross profit high-end audio equipment make on their products?

I dare not. The first example that will be hurled at you is the iphone. But to be fair, immense amount of R&D has gone into the iphone to utilize every amount of space to cram useful electronics, battery, etc into the case. Taste and Hearing is heavily influenced by psychology of the person tasting some item of desire or listening to an object of desire. Nagra knows that and all it needs to do is not to botch it up so badly that it looks like an Allo streamer. In all such glaring cases (this clearly is not an iphone) you just need to say YMMV and move on.

The device that @reignofchaos posted should cost much more than the Nagra.

 

[reignofchaos]

But not everyone can program these in the same way. This is where the real game could be. The high-end companies like Esoteric, dCS, Nagra, MSB, Aurender, etc might be doing better here compared to the Chinese who have come very close, if not equal or better to the high end companies regarding hardware quality. That might change in the future though.

If done right, the SMPS power supply could be as good as a linear one. IFI, sotm etc do make SMPS PS for audiophiles.

Most of them are just resting on their past laurels and will soon be history if they don't change. At least in the digital space, change is happening at a really fast pace - especially in streamers. Putting mega buck money on streamers makes no sense as they get obsolete very very quickly and better things land up on the horizon.

A streamer is rather simple - you need some form of board to get the data stream via a convenient format and then reclocking/retiming hardware to adapt it to standard audio outputs. It's simple enough for diy guys to build one - check the ian canada streamer. It is really good.

So what matters is:
a) Quality of the soc used,
b) The board layout and quality of clocks
c) Isolation and power supply and finally
d) Software.

The last one is where most money needs to be spent. So either you do it all in house or use Open source. The former is unsustainable in the long run.

 

[Mayasandra_l]

I am not sure if the chase to the latest and greatest "new" tech and costly streamer is useful. As what was noted by @reignofchaos and others, software is the key to the operation of the streamer. Wiim started the disruption, with a software interface that needed no tweaking by the user. Bluesound was forced to bring in new products at lower price point, with improved interface. Many others are following the same path. Where would the uber expensive streamer (I would call anything above USD 1000 expensive) land, is a big question mark.
Not everyone has a system that can detect the SQ difference between a streamer with SMPS and LPS. With time, the SMPS have improved big time and delta in SQ between the two is shortening with each passing day. Hence personally, I would prefer a Roon ready, lower budget streamer (ie under USD 1000) with an software interface that is easy, intuitive and is preferably supported and upgraded by the manufacturer regularly. Roon is an excellent interface and with more manufacturers adopting it, may be the de-rigueur in the times to come. Logically, this should also lead to a lower cost of Roon subscription and lowered price point for future streamers. With an interface like Roon, manufacturers do not need dedicated software development team to continually upgrade their interface. Hence the possible price benefit. Full disclosure - I still use the Audiolab 6000n with the archaic "play-fi". I just love the SQ that this streamer brings to the table. But yes, after about 3-4 years of use, I do plan to retire this streamer this year and replace it with a Roon ready streamer under USD 1000.