ABSOLUTE SOUNDS HOSTED AN EVENT TO CELEBRATE THEIR APPOINTMENT AS NAGRA’S UK DISTRIBUTOR

On a chilly Wednesday afternoon, Absolute Sounds and Nagra partnered up to showcase two brand new products for the first time in the UK.

The Nagra Compact Player was on show, along with the soon-to-be-released Nagra Classic Preamp II-S.

ABSOLUTE SOUNDS X NAGRA EVENT

Held on Demark Street in London, at The Lower Third, on the 19th November, this event was all about Absolute Sounds becoming the new UK distributor and the unveiling of two new Nagra components. The first of which was neatly nestled in a corner of the bar, and is called the Compact Player, a network streamer with analogue outputs, running into a Classic amp and DeVore Fidelity Micr/O speakers.

After the usual mingling with the members of the press we were invited to check out a little “museum of Nagra” showcase where they had 2 out of 3 Oscar awards the brand have been awarded over the years, alongside 2 vintage recorders.

In the main room, they had the Nagra HD pre-amp on display, alongside some Audeze for Nagra headphones, and a main demo setup using the new Compact Player and matching power supply, Classic Amp, and a prototype of their new Classic Preamp II-S, which is releasing next year. All of this was running into a pair of DeVore Fidelity O/Bronze loudspeakers.

After a short into from Ricardo at Absolute Sounds, we were given a speech about the history of Nagra by their CEO Pascal Mauroux. He detailed how their tape recorders have influence the sound we hear today, from government agencies to Hollywood films, and popular music albums – many of which (between 1960-1980) have used Nagra recording equipment somewhere in the chain. One of the most important aspects of Nagra equipment is longevity, they ensure that every product they make will last, decades, and they are still servicing old products.

Matthieu Latour, the Sales and Marketing director for Nagra, then went on to explain the new products, and how Nagra has always aimed to reproduce sound as accurately as possible. Many of the components in the devices themselves are made by Nagra instead of using off-the-shelf solutions.

We then listened to a couple of tracks through the demo system, whilst not an ideal space for critical listening, you could still hear how clear and faithful to the original sound the Nagra kit is.

Whilst the UK pricing is still TBC for the new Compact Player, it is retailing at €7500 in Europe which does make it one of the more affordable Nagra products. The Classic Preamp II-S will be officially launched early next year, with pricing to be announced then.

A big thank you to Absolute Sounds and the team from Nagra for this interesting and insightful event.

Oscar Stewart