Stellavox is a company based in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

best known for its compact portable

reel-to-reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is plac ...

magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnetic ...

audio recorders of extremely high mechanical quality, used by radio and TV-stationsFilmsoundsweden.se, read 2012-08-28
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Nagra Nagra is a brand of portable audio recorders produced from 1951 in Switzerland. Beginning in 1997 a range of high-end equipment aimed at the audiophile community was introduced, and Nagra expanded the company's product lines into new markets. O ...

recorders. The company, founded in 1955 by Georges Quellet, was developing and manufacturing full size studio recording decks such as the Stellavox TD9 as well, which is still considered one of the best tape recorders ever made and has become a legend. Due to the high price, which was caused by the complexity of the technical solution and the precision of hand-made Swiss production, only a few hundred pieces were produced. In the late 80s Stellavox started the development of a portable professional DAT Digital Tape Recorder, the Stelladat. In 1989, without having reached the

break-even Break-even (or break even), often abbreviated as B/E in finance (sometimes called point of equilibrium), is the point of balance making neither a Profit (economics), profit nor a loss. It involves a situation when a business makes just enough reve ...

with this new product, the owners decided that the market was evolving too fast towards computer recording and that the traditional Stellavox products did not have enough potential anymore. Financial support was dropped and all activities were stopped. Sonosax, another small Swiss Audio company, bought the rights to continue the development of the Stelladat recorder, but stopped the project some years later. Two former technicians of the old company took their chance with the old products maintenance. In 2017 Stephan Schertler, a Swiss electronic engineer in contact with Georges Quellet and former technician Jean-Michel Simonet, reconstituted Stellavox SA now based in Mendrisio, Switzerland. The company, of which Schertler is president and Quellet is honorary president, maintains the same philosophy as its origins. It is indeed dedicated to analog technology as it once was, producing new but related products from the past, such as tape recorders and further studio recording devices. In 2020, the first product from Stellavox SA is released: the L10, an improved Input-output module for the legendary TD9.

Notable Products

* 1954:'' Model 54'' * 1956:'' Model 56'' * 1957: Sm'' 0'' * 1958:'' Sm 4'' ('' Fi Cord 1A'' in England) * 1959:'' Fi-Cord 101'' - Transistor dictaphone * 1960:'' 5'' Sm - Professional recorder for radio reporters * 1969:'' SP 7'' - Reel-to-reel recorder with exchangeable headblock. Nearly 2000 units built. * 1972:'' 7'' SQ - Quadraphonic version of the SP7 * 1975:'' SP 8'' - Development of SP8. Sub models are SU 8, SR 8, SM 8 (a.k.a. '' master'' Stella), SI 8, SD 8th. * 1979:'' 88'' TD - Universal Studio Recorder * 1984:'' 9'' TD - Studio machine, development of TD88 * 1989:'' 9'' SP - Further development of the SP8 * 2020:”10” L - Improved input-output module for TD9

References

* Roland Schellin: ''STELLAVOX Voice of the Stars - Die Stimme der Sterne'', {{ISBN, 3-936124-80-9. Manufacturers of professional audio equipment Audio equipment manufacturers of Switzerland Swiss brands

Notable Products

See also

References