In 1951, Stefan Kudelski, a gifted 22-year-old engineer, developed an extremely high quality, miniature, self-contained audio recorder, which he named simply the “Nagra I”. Nagra is a Polish word meaning “will record”. The interest in his invention was immediate. The Nagra II and III followed in the mid to late ‘50s revolutionizing the world of radio broadcasting, cinema and music.

In recognition of his contribution to culture and science, the Nagra Company received numerous awards including Oscars® in 1978 and 1991.

Today Nagra enjoys universal fame, and the word “Nagra” describes either an authentic Nagra recorder or is a generic term for a sound recorder.

The company founded by Stefan Kudelski, has, under the guidance of his son André, become a multinational group with several thousand employees worldwide. In order to develop the audio activity, in 2012 Stefan Kudelski’s children acquired the audio division from the Kudelski Group and formed Audio Technology Switzerland SA.

Audio Technology Switzerland SA is present in three principal sectors: high-end Hi-Fi equipment, professional audio recorders and devices destined for security and law enforcement.

The reputation of Switzerland for quality and precision is proverbial. Actually the Nagra Company was the first in Switzerland to use CNC machines and was always at the cutting edge of innovation in design and manufacturing.

Today the Nagra factory is located in Romanel, some 5 km from Lausanne, the main city of the canton of Vaud on Lake Geneva.

The magnificent and peaceful view of the lake and the Alps offers a perfect setting for our team members to outperform themselves.

To make outstanding products, components are sourced from the best manufacturers around the world. Many key components are made upon special request and exclusively for Nagra. Assembling and testing are carried out in our factory as is all the winding of our unique transformers.

Each Nagra component is thoroughly inspected, tested and of course listened to in our testing room, individually by a golden-ear to hear the slightest nuances even the best measuring equipment won’t detect.

Building a Nagra is as much an art as it is a science.