About this design
Our Nagra SN t-shirt illustrated by Yukio Miyamoto.
The SN of Nagra SN stands for Series Noir - Being about the size of a smart phone, but wholly analogue, they were favoured by the dark side; creeps otherwise known as secret policemen. People who think they know best but whom the evidence shows know nothing. The Stasi and their ilk were among the few who could afford a reel to reel tape recorder that cost the same as a small car of its day: a Mini, less purchase tax and vat, was probably less than £575 in 1970.
The tape on the reel to reel was just 1/8th of an inch, 3.8mm deep. The motor was quartz regulated such that Newton's laws of angular momentum were controlled. Wow and flutter were all but eliminated regardless of how the oft concealed machine moved with the person or thing carrying it.
With the intricate circuitry and batteries there was no room for a motor to rewind the tape. This was accomplished through a small and exquisite hand crank driving through a gearbox. The audio quality was such that the taped sound could be applied directly to film. When they were not in the hands of the noire side of life they could be found on movie locations in the pockets of actors and sound men and no doubt women too.
Yukio Miyamoto's 3D images of this exquisite piece of miniature engineering match Nagra's precision and quality. Celebrate a great example of human ingenuity wear our Yukio Miyamoto Nagra Series Noire tape deck t-shirt.
