Hi and respects to everyone.
I have been following Doc?s work on the Nagra T with some interest as I have had mine for some several years now. And while still deeply in love with it I have though sometimes wondered about it?s true and actual sound quality. While a joy to behold, wonderfully machined, electronically very complex (I have never understood how to fully work the time code system), it was of course designed for professional use and is thus is full of ?good engineering practice?, especially being a Nagra. But as was with most professional audio equipment, ultimate fidelity may not have been a top priority. Indeed when the basic two track machine was introduced (sometime late 1970?s?) the audio world had yet to discover those new uncertainties of subjectivity.
I am also lucky enough to have a Stellavox SU8 to play with, though without the ?interesting to use? large reel adapters. Both these machines form part of a small collection of what I think of as iconic tape recorders and are not much used for serious listening, Actually I have never bothered to set them up for the tape I have available (Quantegy 456 mostly) for a proper comparative listening session as neither machine is simple to re-align. The T which was factory set up for AGFA PEM468 requires the addition of different pre-aligned boards, and the Stellavox requires the changing of various hard wired components in the head block. As any serious recording here has for some time been done on DAT, CD-R and now hard disk, there seemed little point in spending time (and cash) tweaking what some would regard as very obsolete museum pieces, though present company excepted!
But you know I am not surprised that the T with all its internal connectors, out of favour op-amps, (and probably) logic controlled FET switches and the balancing transformers, and the metering bridge may have some fidelity issues. I was thinking along the same lines as Doc to get some sort of direct output from the playback head. Though while there is a very fine Nagra playback head, beautifully mounted in its solid machined head block, not knowing its characteristics I concluded that I could well be wasting my time in attempting a direct output. My machine is also fitted with the high speed dub output, which I assume bypasses most of the playback electronics. But there again probably also bypasses the de-emphasis network as well, so would be of little use as well. I did however consider taking a fairly direct output via the shorting links to the blank (and never used) noise reduction board area on the record / repro boards. A plug and quality wire from here to a nice phono socket at the front of the machine, together possibly with a change over switch (internal electronics or direct out) might be a possibility. While passing through some of the Nagra electronics; head preamp deemphasis etc, the signal would bypass much of the rest in the machine.
But now Doc is doing all the work and I await with interest his findings. As someone who has vaguely been around a few serious tape recorders over the years I would not be surprised if the Nagra T transport proved to be a near ideal if costly Tape Project chassis. On the other hand I would not be surprised if it didn?t (though I suspect it will prove to be better than the Technics) But in the mean time a Nagra T doesn?t actually have to do anything much to give one a nice cosy feeling inside?
