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This is great Robert!

Looking forward to your next chapter(s).

Thanks for sharing your writing about Nagra with us Robert. I look forward to reading more as they become available. 

Thanks Roger. Perhaps here in Canada, we are not permitted to see the selling price of $20,000 only that 1 bid was made at $400. I received a reply message this AM from the seller and they indicate that the item sold and is not relisted. As you've noted, the high offer may have been one of the many ghost offers that doesn't ever materialize as a completed payment for the seller. In any case, it was an interesting piece and one I was particularly interested in.

22EEFF7B-043C-46EA-B8FA-F2E014E65386.heic

Hey Roger, 

I also saw that listing and made several offers. All declined. Interestingly, the message I received from ebay just indicates that the listing is closed, it doesn't say sold. I don't see it under completed listings.

Not sure if it was sold, was removed, or was a fake listing altogether. I also tried to reach the seller through a few messages and had no replies.

Hi Forrest,

Are you still looking for the service manual?

Chris

Hi JBond,

I am certainly not mad at you for posting info on the listing! If anything, I appreciate your generosity in sharing so much Nagra historical information and super photos. It has helped me immensely.

I likely would not have won it anyway

Will keep looking, but not holding my breath!

Seller relisted at USD1000 and sold it.

Too bad as I was watching this and hoped to bid on it on Monday before the end of the auction.

Haven't seen one come up on the Bay before.

Nagra will be showing some of their "historic" pieces as part of this year's Audio show in Munich this week.

Here is a link to their teaser video with a few pics of Kudelski and a few shots of tape machines.

Many thanks Dela and JBond. Makes sense to have a standard 1/8 mic jack. Appreciate the effort to take your unit's boards out and posting pics. Mystery solved.

Thanks,

Chris

Wondering if anyone knows whether SN units with a second jack (in addition to the headphone jack) located next to the start/stop lever were a specific version or an aftermarket mod by some users. I can't seem to find any information about this jack as it is not featured on the majority of units I have seen out there. Do you happen to know anything about this option and it's purpose?

There is a photo from JBond's earlier post (second photo of post 376) depicting an SN red text unit that has the second jack located near the white nylon guide roller and the start/stop button trigger.

I have reviewed an SN manual online but have had no luck figuring out what this is.

Anyone know?

Chris 

This is a great mod for those who mainly use the IV-S for playback and have no use for the pilot/NRS function.

You have a ballpark of what the mod cost and is it reversible (What is the extent of light machining)?

Great post! Always interesting to better understand what led to the development of these amazing machines.

Love the photos. 

15 hours ago, Lermontov said:

Another Nagra II on ebay. This time tested, working with anode battery and carrying case included.  

Seems to have already sold for the US$6k asking price. Wow!

13 hours ago, The Immoral Mr Teas said:

 

Yep I looked, ran out and bought a lottery ticket - but didn't win!

20 hours ago, JBond said:

I'm glad to see they still bring top dollar, I guess I got a good deal on mine. 

I was watching this in hopes I might get lucky. No such luck! Beautiful machine but really surprised me that the auction went that high so I was out very early.

Hope the winner is able to get it operating.

Good find! Amazing what ends up in dumpsters!

Yes, I'm watching that one. Seller does not know much about tape recorders - looks to be more of an estate / antique vendor so a bit of a crapshoot as to whether this unit has any functionality other than as a collectible museum piece.

Also don't want to deviate much more from the thread but for those curious about the difference between the IV-S heads (wide vs standard), there is a current ebay listing for an IV-S with a second set of heads which happen to be the wide-track ones. Not really noted in the description as anything special, but these wide-track heads are desirable among some folks. I have nothing to do with this listing and find the asking price too high but it does include these heads which are probably worth about $1000 on their own. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Owner-Nagra-IV-S-Stereo-Reel-to-Reel-Recorder-w-lot-of-accessories/263466035000?hash=item3d57cca738:g:bEsAAOSwZ11ab49P

7 minutes ago, Glen Trew said:

It's confirmed that the bias board is no longer available, but we do have some of the Nagra transformers for converting your existing bias board into a proper bias board for your wide 2-track heads. Price looks to be $255 for the transformer. Estimating 2-hours to install, plus time to calibrate.

Thanks for the info Glen! I'll follow up with you and Steve directly.

So great to see the parts and expertise are still available to keep these great machines running!

On 2018-01-08 at 3:02 PM, Glen Trew said:

 

Trew Audio has installed many standard width 2-track heads on Nagra IV-S recorders. However, if I recall correctly, we received the last of these 2-track heads from Nagra a couple of years ago. That said, there may be a set on some shop's shelf, but remember that to achieve the small advantage of the wider track heads, the bias board should also be replaced to the one designed for these heads.

Glen,

Do you know if the bias board for wide track heads is available still? I have a set of wide track heads I would like to install on a non-wide track IV-S.

Many thanks

Chris

Yep, what Jay said. This sounds to me like a board is going into oscillation for some reason. While the Nagra-T's were really great machines for their time, they go back to (I think) 1987-1988, which is a long time ago for an analogue board. After 25 years, caps go bad, solder joints could be suspect, all kinds of stuff can be on the verge of failure.

I do see Nagra-T's for sale once in awhile on eBay, so it might be possible to just buy a second junker machine and use it for parts.

Marc,

Your description sounds like what happens to us as we age as well ))

Yes, i have a second parts machine which i am using to try swapping power supply units, also did swap the main audio control logic boards but no difference. I haven't tried swapping the left and right audio boards with the parts l/r boards yet as the noise is present on both channels. Still working through the possibilities ... Thanks for all the suggestions and the follow up comments jay and marc.

Chris

Thank you all for the suggestions!

I swapped in a power supply from another machine that has no buzz/tone and that made no difference so now i am thinking it may not be power supply afterall. There is no separate mono head and the mono led is not on so i am thinking it is not due to mono / pilot tone. Have tried two tapes from two different machines and it's there so i don 't think it's on the tape. When in stop, the tone/buzzing persists. As mentioned, it does disappear after 3 minutes in park if the keyboard isn't used and the machine goes into standby. Maybe grounding issue. It is more of a higher pitched tone / buzz than a low steady hum like i've heard on other gear when ground loop hum has been present.

Chris

Any ideas on helping this novice identify noise on my recent used taudio?

I'm trying to diagnose a hum/buzz on both channels on a nagra t audio tape player. The transport is working fine and audio output is strong on both channels but there is a faint mosquito pitched buzz that increases in loudness as volume dial increases. Present on both headphone and via external outputs to audio system.

Have had a suggestion that i may need to look at the power supply filter capacitors. One other thing if you know this machine, is that the buzz stops after a few minutes when the unit has not been touched and switches itself into standby.

Would this indicate a specific area of the power supply to investigate?

Sure hope to identify the culprit as it's an amazing machine otherwise!

Thanks!

Chris

Tony,

60hz strobe arrived safely yesterday. Will install tonight. Hope the 50hz has also arrived there.

Many thanks

Chris

Sad to lose one of the great musical and activist icons of the past century. May he, his example and his music continue to inspire.

Thanks for your insights Tony and Glen!

Glen, videos would be super helpful coming from such a nagra service tech like you. Wow, that is a generous gesture and shows a love of these machines and interest in keeping them operating correctly into the future. If there was ever a "intro to maintaining your iv-s" as a live/skype training camp, i'd be the first to join and pay tuition!

Chris