Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
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the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
- ^% W3 J3 {: {, K( i3 P& \the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
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machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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2 X" d0 n# | ?. Z/ FClick on either of the above images for more information.
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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
8 e: Z3 i/ \3 w6 ^: }! N8 abeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
) U( l0 w9 q7 {" n/ xThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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; B7 K% Y' r( x7 wNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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# S/ |: D/ t6 Z6 `9 tNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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$ u9 F" I5 t1 q. k) q2 L8 BNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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Nagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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- c% P$ ~2 q/ F+ e/ ~Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
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have some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
7 W2 ?: R# P6 U7 Y+ Xtherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
! _) M+ z- k0 r) r" s# l- z: Mrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
' h. V8 |6 }' _0 j! o$ l, ~) ^8 kDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
3 m) b. D, W' Drecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
0 b1 p; y# b# F* ktruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
6 Z' q1 _9 P% L2 qelectronics and be very expensive.
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N, l8 {* O0 _2 q. FCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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Tape for the Nagra SN
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I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
0 ^ f: v: R2 k. Y/ Vthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
3 |9 [! V: `" Z5 _" s4 Ztape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
0 F: d& d. y0 a. ?6 b2 f'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
. h* P6 a( S4 f! g h. ^$ T& gseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
, s q; F+ X5 q, H: I8 uonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
. h+ c) L( d9 i4 xthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
4 I2 E7 S0 K2 uVERY silly money.
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