eguth
pfm Member
I have recently acquired a remarkable MC transformer. It has the lowest hum level I have ever experienced: hum virtually inaudible.
This accounts for the superior low level detail. The Nag is wound with 99.99% pure silver wire. It is engineered with a very short magnetic circuit, said to be the reason for its phase coherence.
Compared with a K&K Premium MC transformer (optimally loaded with shinkoh tantalums) the Nag has slightly better image width and depth in my system. And the Nag sounds more live and realistic. This is not a subtle difference and it is immediately apparent.
In my system, which is tri- amped and star wired with no crossover from the dedicated valve midrange amp to the midrange drivers, the midrange speaker cable is a 1.5 metre run of 99.99% pure silver/ptfe - cryogenically treated. I made it myself, but I dont survive in such low temperatures so I sent it away to a freezer geezer to be treated.
I also have 99.99% silver/ptfe cable running from the tweeter monobloks to the tweeters, and pure silver wire in various other places in the systems components.
The silver windings in the Nag account, in part, for the Nagatrons superior performance. Using my toggle- switched attenuator it reveals clear differences between vishay bulk foil and vishay nude resistors that are largely masked by the K&K Premium transformer.
There are disadvantages with the Nag. It has a fixed load and is almost ideal for my Dynavector DVXX2(II). Ideally it should be used with cartridges having a 3-5 ohms impedance but using my van den Hul, with an ideal 60ohm load, it will probably not work as well as the K&K, nor will my (modified) Denon AU320. The Nag specifies a maximum input of 300mV. The vdH puts out 400. I expect that the Nag output will overload some preamps. It is inflexible compared to the K&K but I am delighted with its performance and it is a clear and considerable improvement on the K&K. It makes my entire system sound- well- more realistic.
It is curious that the Nag has not improved after breaking in. It sounded as good as it gets straight out if its brand new 30 year old box.
Credit for this Nagatron AG 9200 transformer goes to the Japenese originators all those years ago. They must have stayed up all night to come up with its name. It probably sounds even better in Japenese.
A great, inexpensive upgrade.
This accounts for the superior low level detail. The Nag is wound with 99.99% pure silver wire. It is engineered with a very short magnetic circuit, said to be the reason for its phase coherence.
Compared with a K&K Premium MC transformer (optimally loaded with shinkoh tantalums) the Nag has slightly better image width and depth in my system. And the Nag sounds more live and realistic. This is not a subtle difference and it is immediately apparent.
In my system, which is tri- amped and star wired with no crossover from the dedicated valve midrange amp to the midrange drivers, the midrange speaker cable is a 1.5 metre run of 99.99% pure silver/ptfe - cryogenically treated. I made it myself, but I dont survive in such low temperatures so I sent it away to a freezer geezer to be treated.
I also have 99.99% silver/ptfe cable running from the tweeter monobloks to the tweeters, and pure silver wire in various other places in the systems components.
The silver windings in the Nag account, in part, for the Nagatrons superior performance. Using my toggle- switched attenuator it reveals clear differences between vishay bulk foil and vishay nude resistors that are largely masked by the K&K Premium transformer.
There are disadvantages with the Nag. It has a fixed load and is almost ideal for my Dynavector DVXX2(II). Ideally it should be used with cartridges having a 3-5 ohms impedance but using my van den Hul, with an ideal 60ohm load, it will probably not work as well as the K&K, nor will my (modified) Denon AU320. The Nag specifies a maximum input of 300mV. The vdH puts out 400. I expect that the Nag output will overload some preamps. It is inflexible compared to the K&K but I am delighted with its performance and it is a clear and considerable improvement on the K&K. It makes my entire system sound- well- more realistic.
It is curious that the Nag has not improved after breaking in. It sounded as good as it gets straight out if its brand new 30 year old box.
Credit for this Nagatron AG 9200 transformer goes to the Japenese originators all those years ago. They must have stayed up all night to come up with its name. It probably sounds even better in Japenese.
A great, inexpensive upgrade.