With Academy Awards, space missions, JFK and the CIA under its belt, the legendary Swiss audio brand Nagra has carved out a reputation for high-end audio with a unique heritage and all the precision engineering of a Swiss watch.
Now, Absolute Sounds, one of the UK’s leading high-end hi-fi distributors, has announced its appointment as sole distributor of the Swiss company’s audio products in the UK and Ireland, with immediate effect.
Nagra was founded in Switzerland in 1951 by Stefan Kudelski, a gifted young engineer who set up a workshop at his family’s home in Prilly, near Lake Geneva. From the beginning, his creations were groundbreaking. Nagra’s first product was the Nagra I reel-to-reel tape recorder.
This was the world’s first professional-quality portable sound recorder that was a class apart from alternatives due to its compact size, reliability and sound quality. The name “Nagra” is derived from the Polish verb “to record,” a nod to Kudelski’s Polish roots.
Over the ensuing decades, Nagra established itself as the gold standard in portable audio recording through continuous innovation and meticulous engineering. Though its roots were founded in the analog age, the company embraced digital audio and earned multiple Oscar and Emmy wins for its technical achievements.
Cold War Spies And Trips To The Moon
Nagra’s portable sound recorders — notably the iconic Nagra IV-S — have been used in the recording of some of the world’s most famous albums, including The Beatles’ Let It Be, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, David Bowie’s Heroes and Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
In the world of cinema, numerous films that won Academy Awards for sound used Nagra recorders in their production, such as The Exorcist and The English Patient. As Academy Award-winning sound engineer Chris Newman put it: “There was virtually no film made from 1961 until the 1990s that did not use Nagra.”
The company’s distinctive devices have been a common sight in movies too, as well as being used to make them, from the Beatles film Help! (1965) to Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and The Informant! (2009).
Another string to Nagra’s bow has been the development of technologies and devices for high-security applications, including covert surveillance. In the early 1960s, the Série Noire miniature reel-to-reel tape recorder was developed for the CIA, reportedly at the request of President John F. Kennedy.
These recording devices were used extensively during the Cold War era, capitalizing on Nagra’s ability to make small portable audio recorders with unique quality and reliability. These characteristics proved invaluable for other adventurous applications, including expeditions to the summit of Everest, the depths of the oceans and even into space with NASA’s Apollo missions.
Nagra’s Next Mission
It wasn’t until 1997 that Nagra chose to expand into consumer audio with the launch of the PL-P preamplifier which borrowed heavily from Nagra technology and mirrored the aesthetics of the company’s recorders – including their ingenious battery power system.
In 2012, a separate company, Audio Technology Switzerland, was spun off from the Kudelski Group, which owned the Nagra brand. Operating independently but with the Kudelski family still the main shareholders, the new company took Nagra’s consumer and professional audio products to greater heights, while the Kudelski Group focused on other products and services in different industries. To this day, Audio Technology Switzerland remains the custodian of the Nagra audio brand.
Nagra has produced a steady stream of high-end audio, including valve and solid-state amps, DACs, turntables and more. The company and its equipment continue to be closely linked with the Montreux Jazz Festival, a partnership that began with the first festival in 1967. Other Nagra customers include the BBC, NBC, Universal, MGM, Columbia, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures and NASA. Contracts with law enforcement and government agencies are also ongoing – but top secret!
Built Like A Nagra
Nagra sources its components from suppliers around the world, many are custom-made to Nagra’s own specifications. The company’s products are designed, assembled and tested at its facility in Romanel-sur-Lausanne, just a few kilometers from Prilly, where Nagra was originally founded.
Key procedures such as the winding of the brand’s unique audio transformers are performed entirely in-house. Switzerland is synonymous with quality and precision and Nagra’s contribution to this reputation has been considerable. The company was a pioneer in design and manufacturing and was the first Swiss company to use CNC machining.
Currently, Nagra’s high-end audio range comprises four product lines: the Compact Line, Classic Line, HD Line and Reference Line. There are valve and solid-state circuit designs, analog and digital source components, as well as amplifiers of different types and sizes. The only thing Nagra doesn’t make is loudspeakers. The unmistakable Nagra design language is reflected in the machined rotary switches, circular VU meters and premium build quality.
Nagra And Absolute Sounds
Matthieu Latour is the sales and marketing director at Audio Technology Switzerland. He explains why the company is excited to partner with Absolute Sounds for the distribution of Nagra hi-fi in the UK and Ireland:
“Absolute Sounds is among the most prestigious high-end audio distributors in the world, with an expert team led by Ricardo Franassovici — a man whose experience and influence in the field is unrivalled. The company has long-standing relationships with some of the finest audio brands on the planet, many of which have excellent synergy with Nagra components — for example, Wilson Audio, Magico and DeVore Fidelity loudspeakers and Transparent cables.
Commenting on his company’s partnership with Nagra, Ricardo Franassovici, Absolute Sounds’ founder and managing director, said: “As the UK’s foremost high-end audio distributor, we’re regularly approached by brands from around the world who seek our expertise. We’re fortunate to already work with many of the sector’s most revered and influential manufacturers; few others measure up to the standard required to add something unique to our portfolio.
“Nagra, however, is truly special – the original Swiss innovator in high-performance audio electronics whose products I’ve admired since my days in the rock music industry in the 1970s. I’ve waited patiently for the opportunity to work with the company and, when it came, I instantly embraced it.
To learn more about Nagra’s 2025 product range of hi-fi products, visit nagraaudio.com.