Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
" u X9 {2 }% ?9 kthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
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the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
. K' f! x2 T- K3 O/ mmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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" i# T o1 h; [( t+ O+ U/ I(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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Click on either of the above images for more information.
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# t& C1 @( R) H0 t+ y' @( B$ q, i. |* 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 I! I8 H4 u6 |" w6 S# 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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/ S R g% x O' KNagra 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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d7 Y9 G) r/ w: f& u9 r& F" UNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
" r9 W S, `$ r! shave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
5 B8 y: y& m& ^3 Q$ T0 ^recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
! W3 J9 w# [, Q8 Q$ UDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
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recorders. 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
* r& M/ t6 c8 v' F4 ] Kelectronics 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 p: q7 C- y. vTape 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
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
9 @2 J C4 `2 K: xwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
0 g5 D0 ?/ ?& }) U# jtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
: ]) X- a5 |6 l9 D' \'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
! M- o$ ]4 T- u6 V, Qonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
* V" t* _4 D; B& X% r7 qthings 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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