The Nagra seems to be state-of-the-art in a single box:
The leading German HiFi-magazine Stereo reviewed the Nagra in its February, 2007, issue.
They found it to sound substantially better than their up-to-the-review reference, the Esoteric X-01. Wrote editor Matthias Böde: "The Swiss player defines audiophile and emotional categories partly anew. The most defining characteristics is a hereforeto unheard soundstage. The CDC shows a stage definition in width, depth, and height, and a three-dimensional sound, against which our reference (the Esoteric) sound more compact, less dimensional, and with less body...The bass was thicker and less well defined than with the Nagra....the midths were slightly coloured (with the Esoteric), which we heard never heard before, in comparison with lesser players (than the Nagra)...Until now, we never have heard our Soulution amps with Wilson Sophia 2 so perfectly, with digital sources. (Böde is an experienced vinyl head, too)
Regards,
Florian Hassel
The leading German HiFi-magazine Stereo reviewed the Nagra in its February, 2007, issue.
They found it to sound substantially better than their up-to-the-review reference, the Esoteric X-01. Wrote editor Matthias Böde: "The Swiss player defines audiophile and emotional categories partly anew. The most defining characteristics is a hereforeto unheard soundstage. The CDC shows a stage definition in width, depth, and height, and a three-dimensional sound, against which our reference (the Esoteric) sound more compact, less dimensional, and with less body...The bass was thicker and less well defined than with the Nagra....the midths were slightly coloured (with the Esoteric), which we heard never heard before, in comparison with lesser players (than the Nagra)...Until now, we never have heard our Soulution amps with Wilson Sophia 2 so perfectly, with digital sources. (Böde is an experienced vinyl head, too)
Regards,
Florian Hassel