Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
5 y& ~; g' V& Lthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
; @: P" D% q% nthe 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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3 ]6 `7 ~' h9 Q' A! p2 B7 e: D; _Click on either of the above images for more information.
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* H: | Z6 K' R$ F, I7 f0 k; d* 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.
5 T9 a0 k8 i1 w' `1 b9 MThere 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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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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( s6 Q6 Z# V0 YNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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) K, V' B ^1 W, e; k, q! MApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
0 D, A$ d) ~$ N& T3 R. Uhave 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
9 j9 ]3 B& K& _0 F/ R4 wrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
1 w& k6 G+ n) o2 P' i+ KDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
( y2 M' q( R& N* ?( trecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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truly 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
% p: `. T# R3 z, s4 G9 ^! felectronics 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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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
& I7 j+ C7 |( D( Q4 pthe 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
1 y# f1 r3 Y4 ^; z3 Q+ B" r'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
+ N1 v% G- |/ d, n Z) xseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
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onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
/ R' ?3 e9 m: n; [8 R5 s9 F4 Bthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
/ K' C* D, N/ }! X3 }' ^: w }VERY silly money.
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