srs148

I'm sorry to read about all of the frustration you've gone through as a result of this failed purchase attempt. All of us in the community of Nagra collectors and appreciators know this particular seller very well - it's a running joke in the FB groups how overpriced and 'RAR' everything is. He is infamous for his high prices that, as you said, disrupt the market because they distort the reality of the market valuation of the equipment. A would-be seller who may know little to nothing about this type of gear is likely going to first check eBay for price reference. They'll see an inflated price and think - well, its listed for $25k - it must be worth at least half to three quarters of that price. I can't tell you how many times I'll speak with sellers who say "they're going for $xx on ebay." Going for equals Listed For, which is rarely the market-moving sales price. But it really makes it difficult to get a good value for our dollar. With that said, I've seen this done across every product category in recent years. But that seller who shall not be named has actually made sales at those exorbitant prices. He preys on the guys who get infatuated with these machines from reading about them in forums, seeing people waxing poetic about them in their Facebook posts, or watching YouTube videos. They get a bug up their a$$ to get and just have to have it - at any price. I've been there, so I get it. A guy I know bought a cosmetically mint condition Nagra T Audio without meter bridge or stand for 34k Euro from him. This guy had the funds and just had to have a Nagra T - unfortunately, the machine had not been serviced and needed it badly - it looked good, but didn't run well. This leads me to another point - he has a track record of lying about what he sells. I have purchased Nagra parts and accessories from him and he was not fully transparent about the condition of the items. Some were fine, but some had cosmetic flaws that he 'failed' to capture in his photos to me. Obviously, the statement about the ISS being New Old Stock is completely fabricated by him and not told to him by the original seller. Additionally, the photos are purposefully taken with lower contrast as to not highlight the cosmetic flaws in what he sells. Finally, he typically lowballs sellers on the buy side - he beat down a person I know to acquire a pristine Nagra D for $1500. He told the seller it was not desirable on the collector market because it's digital, not analog. He later relisted for €12k on eBay. Sounds like your antique dealer acquaintance.

Thanks, Lars, for providing the bit of history about the Nagra MX / MIX. I'll eventually post a few pics of mine here. It is a very nice piece of gear, though as mentioned, not particularly practical based on its design. I feel like this was Nagra's more contemporary take on the Cooper Sound CS104 or of a Sound Devices 442, though perhaps not implemented quite as well. It would have been interesting if Nagra would have iterated on the layout and features of the MX to the point where it would have been fully productionized and perhaps been a competitor to the Sound Devices mixers. Who knows, maybe they would have stayed in the game longer.

JBond, it was my pleasure to shed some light on what went down. I think I'm more disappointed I didn't get a link on the directory page than I am that I lost out on purchasing the Nagra I :). As you suspected, I too had a sinking feeling when the seller told me that he was 'out of town' that he had, in fact, already been contacted by someone who was interested in purchasing at a much higher price. Or at the very least been informed by someone that he sold it far too inexpensively because he had literally just posted it for sale when I purchased it, yet he was out of town? It didn't make sense to me that he'd post the listing while away and not when he had the gear right in front of him. So to answer your question, yes, it was a long two days. I'll admit that I did check the email on my phone probably a lot more frequently than I normally do (which is already too much). Despite my initial frustration and disappointment with the situation, I also agree that the seller made the right choice. If I were him, I wouldn't have left that much money on the table, either. I just would have handled it differently. As I'm sure you know all too well, disappointment comes along with the territory of being a collector. Like yourself and Dela, I am also a Nagra collector, having over the past few years a good amount of Nagra gear, almost all of it their more common equipment. I'll eventually sell off some of the duplicates so others can enjoy them and keep the cleanest pieces for my collection. I think the rarest piece in my collection is the Nagra MX 4-channel mixer. I acquired that more recently, so I see that as a nice consolation prize for missing out on the Nagra I.

I consider Otari machines as the Honda Accord / Toyota Camry's of the tape machine world. They aren't particularly sexy, but they do their job pretty darn well and are highly reliable. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the Studer / Revox tape machines. While I don't typically endorse the practice of shotgunning all electrolytic capacitors, I firmly believe that all Studer and Revox tape machines require a full recapping in order to work reliably well these days. Once recapped, they're wonderful machines, but we've observed that 40%+ of pulled capacitors are out of original tolerance.

hi, I'm checking in here months late, but I can tell you that this was a legit listing. I was the original winning bidder - I made an offer to the guy, far below $20k, but above the listed sale price of $400 (I think eBay shows you only the starting price, not the accepted offer on completed Buy Now with Offer sales). In any event, the seller accepted my offer and messaged to tell me he would ship three days later when he returned home. When he told me that, I knew that he would eventually cancel because other eyes had no doubt seen it and would alert him of it's rarity. So I was waiting for a cancellation message to come. Sure enough, two days later, I received a cancellation and refund via eBay / Paypal. The seller sent a message saying that his helper had dropped the Nagra I handling it and 'some wires had come loose' so he didn't feel comfortable selling it to me in that condition. Of course, I repeatedly messaged him saying that I'd take it as-is and had no concerns with its actual operating or physical condition. He stonewalled me and re-listed it several days later. That was truly 'the one' that got away.

I saw inquiries about who's repairing Nagra analog gear these days. There are two folks I'm aware of in the US who do excellent work. Glen Trew at Trew Audio in Nashville and Evan at Vark Audio in the DC are both performing service on Nagra 4.2 / IV-S/STC recorders. Vark may also work on the Nagra III, but you'd need to call to ask. If you're in Europe, I may have referrals for technicians (other than Nagra themselves) for Nagra servicing. This information is accurate as of May 2021 for those who may be reading this thread in the future.