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Nagra Stories Sound-men won’t ever tell


JBond

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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

 

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One of the more interesting accessories for the Nagra III found its way onto my workbench, and as I didn't find any information about the magnasync/moviola mixer anywhere else in the forum my hope is that one of the colleagues here remembers it.

As you can see, one of the previous owners did baad things to it and I'm trying to restore it to its former glory - any chance to get the schematics?

BTW, part of the eBay package was a SELA, also for the III, and it works pretty well. They are pretty hard to come by in Europe, might be easier in the US.

Moviola1.JPG

Moviola2.JPG

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Hi Vienna 
Whoever made it certainly tried to make it match a Nagra III 
But the control knobs, the metal rings around the knobs and even the radius of the corners of the case tells me it's nothing Nagra did..  Most likely it was made to sit under and match a Nagra III. I would think finding a schematic would be about as hard as finding another one of those. What does the top look like? 
 

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13 hours ago, JonG said:

Not to deviate too much from the thread, but to follow up a little with what @Tunes and @Glen Trew are discussing: I've been playing around with my tape machines and have discovered that stereo 2-Track recordings made on a Nagra STC can be played on my Technics RS-1506 when the 2-Track playback head is enabled, and it sounds absolutely amazing, especially in 15ips Nagramaster. It actually sounds better than 4-Track recordings made on the Technics machine itself. I don't have the wide track head that is being discussed, but though I'd share a little of my musings. 

 

Hi Jon. Keep in mind that a recording made with Nagra Master must be played back on a Nagra IV-S (or Nagra T-Audio) in Nagra Master mode.

 

Nagra Master recordings are done at 15ips, but with the pre-emphasis of a 7-1/2ips curve, requiring the Nagra Master playback setting during playback. I'm not aware of a Technics machine that has a Nagra Master playback mode. I imagine that when you playback a Nagra Master recording on a Technics machine, it sounds uncommonly sibilant and bright by comparison, which is not an accurate reproduction.

 

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Here are two more pictures of this elusive mixer.

I got one of the amplifier chains working but without the schematic, and considering the fact that one of the pre-owners decided to change many things, it might be quite difficult to find out about the original ideas of the developers.

Moviola3.JPG

Moviola4.JPG

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for the great read Joseph, and for re-posting the Prototype pictures!

For me the most interesting bit of info wasn't Nagra at all, but that the Stellavox SP7 had four speeds up to 30ips - any SP7 owners: is this true or did John Borwick just make a mistake??

Jez

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Hi Phil, yep I guessed it was just a misconception immortalised in print - possibly an enthusiastic European talking cm/s to a (then) hopeful Brit hearing ips .... just some of me was hoping there might have been a new holy grail to chase - the handful of stereo 30ips prototypes doing the trade shows in 1970. Of course, like all my rarebit dreams, it never happened.

 

I'm sure there probably WERE portable stereo (multichannel) 30ips machines around in the Nagra / Stellavox years, but they were portable in the 1940s (Alan Lomax) sense - not the sub-Nagra footprint I was lusting after. No Valentine for John Keays ...

 

J

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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. 

TWssrko.jpg

 

 

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.

 

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On 19 février 2018 at 6:38 PM, JBond said:

 

Why is everyone inflating Nagra prices? these are not going to sell but everyone who lists a Nagra looks at these for reference. Look at the US prices.  These 7 items total 71,000 

 

 

Yeah it is frustrating. I've inquired in some places for a selling price for certain units and was quoted absurdly high because they're looking to eBay for a reference. 

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I was lucky enough to start collecting before the prices started skyrocketing... And, not least, have the luck to know a lot of people who has used Nagras, and who more or less have donated Nagras to me. So now I have 26 machines, each with a history from different corners of the (mostly) danish film and broadcast world, all maintained but not so polished, that they hide their original use. But it is getting harder and harder to get new machines for a non-ridiculous price, as most potential sellers follow the eBay "Buy Now" price...

 

It is typical that whenever an expensive Nagra is sold on eBay, more sellers follow tgrying to sell the same type recorder for that same high price. Which seldomly works out, indicating clearly that the market for Nagras is quite limited and easily saturated. A year ago Nagra IS machines hit a peak, with decent condition machines were sold for up to 1200-1400 USD. Now I could buy one locally for app. 300-500 USD, also in fine condition.

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