Nagra Reference MC Cartridge

For all of its nearly three quarter of a century existence, Nagra has been, first and foremost, research and development driven.

The Reference MC is the cartridge Nagra builds when it is no longer interested in commercial trade-offs. It is the product of a number of years of intense R&D supplemented by exhaustive listening tests, designed in parallel with Nagra's 70th Anniversary Reference turntable and tonearm system as the analog generator for the company's most demanding playback platform. It is also the cartridge Nagra recommends for any serious high-end turntable in any system — the partner the customer chooses when the rest of the front end deserves it.

The generator is a multi-layer transducer built around a double-layer coil body wound with hyper-pure silver windings. Two output variants are offered: the 4 Ω version delivers 0.30 mV at 5 cm/s for the customer with the lowest-noise step-up devices and a strong preference for absolute resolution; the 6 Ω version delivers 0.45 mV at 5 cm/s for broader compatibility with the tube and transformer-coupled phono stages most reference-tier listeners run. Either version answers naturally into the Nagra HD Phono and the Nagra Classic Phono, both of which Alma carries.

The cantilever is a stiff ruby beam mated to a high-strength titanium structure with a diamond-like-carbon (DLC) coating — a combination chosen for the lowest energy storage and the cleanest signal transfer between groove and coil. The stylus is a Fritz Gyger S profile produced in Switzerland; the same profile that has come to define the upper tier of Swiss-made cartridges. The cartridge body uses a proprietary super-magnesium alloy for its main mass, with the critical generator interface built from EXIUM AM — an aerospace-derived non-ferrous alloy with exceptional damping properties developed through collaboration between the French national space agency CNES, the École des Mines de Paris, and LBI Foundries. Nagra holds exclusive worldwide audio rights to EXIUM AM. The combination quiets the structural noise floor in a way the cartridge customer at this tier has come to expect from Swiss watchmaking and from Nagra specifically.

Tracking force is set between 2.0 and 2.2 grams. Compliance is 12 µm/mN. Channel balance is held below 0.5 dB. Crosstalk exceeds 30 dB. The cartridge weighs 14.3 grams. It is the analog front end the customer is building toward — and the moment to choose it is when the rest of the system is finally worth what it can deliver.

Main Features

• Multi-layer transducer with double-layer coil body, hyper-pure silver windings
• Available in 4 Ω (0.30 mV / 5 cm/s) and 6 Ω (0.45 mV / 5 cm/s) variants
• Stiff ruby cantilever, high-strength titanium structure with DLC coating
• Fritz Gyger S stylus profile, Swiss-produced
• Body in proprietary super-magnesium alloy
• Critical generator interface in EXIUM AM aerospace alloy (Nagra holds exclusive worldwide audio rights)
• Designed and manufactured by Audio Technology Switzerland

Specifications

Generator type: Multi-layer transducer with double-layer coil body, hyper-pure silver windings

Variants: 4 Ω version (0.30 mV @ 5 cm/s) or 6 Ω version (0.45 mV @ 5 cm/s)

Cantilever: Stiff ruby with high-strength titanium structure, DLC-coated

Stylus profile: Fritz Gyger S (Swiss-produced)

Body material: Proprietary super-magnesium alloy with EXIUM AM aerospace-alloy generator interface

Tracking force: 2.0 – 2.2 g

Compliance: 12 µm/mN

Channel balance: < 0.5 dB

Crosstalk: > 30 dB

Weight: 14.3 g

Designed and manufactured by: Audio Technology Switzerland

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