Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
! L: L" h4 V/ a! x& V* P7 [, tthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
3 ]' H! K! m# ~the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
H0 T; c# k: `7 hmachines, 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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3 e# o. d5 f- e7 |5 W( v$ {Click on either of the above images for more information.
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. D6 C2 V" ]7 Q; u* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
1 ~. |9 O3 T, O: [* s# B# q7 o7 B# O$ yThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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Nagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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2 Z! Q7 _/ d% |7 e( N3 Z; u6 dNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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, v& ^$ Y( i9 W" _3 C* O P# r; wNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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4 X) t4 i* ?9 y A) d$ FApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
$ ^" F, |+ k' n7 _) v% qhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
4 h4 q, v! D5 J% }) @7 vrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
$ d5 [; Z* z9 n& srecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
% v, T7 Y* E0 _! |truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
+ I3 M) X# f: T e5 C8 m, ube possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
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electronics and be very expensive.
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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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5 B7 i, W1 J2 O v+ b/ NTape for the Nagra SN
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: z8 n9 W( ~6 A& n- O3 Y6 M5 \I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
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the 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
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tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
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'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
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
. H( e4 Y; g4 ]+ u& b. {onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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VERY silly money.
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