Série Noire

Now, this is pretty cool. When we took part in the Munich HiFi Show earlier this year, the guys from Nagra brought this little old school gadget called Nagra SN ‘Série Noire’ recorder. I had a chat with Matthieu Latour and found out some interesting facts about it.

Nagra started making it back in the early sixties on a request from the CIA. The CIA used it solidly for about a decade and so it didn’t exist to the rest of the world. However, technology eventually caught up and spies started using detection devices that read frequencies that the ‘Série Noire’ recorder used and in the end it was fairly common to use both the recorder as well as the detection device.

There’s a story about an American spy meeting a Russian ditto that started chatting about their Nagra gadgets without any other introduction, they just both knew they both were wired. Probably a similar conversation to what goes on today, comparing iPhones and other gadgets.

When it was released to the general public it became very popular with film making as it’s so small that the actors can fit it in a pocket and then record their lines. It was also used by NASA in space travel.

When it’s closed it looks like it could have been made by Apple, only 50 years earlier. An inspiration for the macbook perhaps?

I really wanted to sneak it into my pocket and ‘borrow’ it but I guess that would’ve been downright stealing, not sneaking. I’m surprised none else did. Maybe the prospect of having the CIA after you scared people off:)

Stairway to Heaven

As I walked one floor down from us I happened to glance down the stairs… let’s just say that I had no idea that vertigo could be that bad. I forgot all about it when I entered Engström & Engström‘s room though.

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We’re not in Kansas any more

In fact we’re still in Las Vegas, Nevada, having fun at the amazingly big CES 2011 show.

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More news from Marten

Right in time for the start of CES 2011 we have launched our brand new web site and proudly present it at marten.se. Have a look and tell us what you think. We spent a good few man-hours on getting this together, and think it works very well with Ulf Celander’s photos. Even if we do say that ourselves:)

If you are in Las Vegas for the CES 2011, we would like to welcome you to the Marten Tour. This year we have our own room with premiers for Coltrane 2 and M•Amp Mono Power Amplifier, as well as our M•Furniture range.

Coltrane 2 & M•AMP Mono Power Amplifier:
Marten, Venetian Room 30-130

You can also listen to our loudspeakers in these rooms:

Coltrane 2:
Engström & Engström, Venetian Room 29-128

Heritage Getz:
EAR USA, Venetian Room 30-112
Harmonic Tech, Venetian Room 30-209

Please come by and say hi. I will be back with more from CES 2011 in a bit

Lars

A groovy landscape

Is this a view from the moon?

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