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
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the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
6 @1 N4 @% ^+ ?8 r E3 t( M; y4 p+ vmachines, 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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, I" Y6 R% b/ g9 C; l& LClick 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
2 m: i& r9 ?' R. dbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
2 B. H% O+ _; |( Y( [There 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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: r. q& a4 @: \* y" jNagra 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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2 `$ F; n/ e( g/ h9 A; r1 R* ^+ ]/ WApparently 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
$ t) T0 o; h! }) etherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
+ J5 M0 t% w6 B2 J* p- lrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
1 Z6 q/ x- D* |7 m' S- n/ W$ QDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
# B* n) f; f4 P' t4 Vrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
! T& Y$ N5 h8 mbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
# Y* B+ E+ Y. n9 S$ pelectronics 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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3 P2 `# O7 u2 k5 ^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
: p% Y) c1 N8 a# |. Btape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
2 J5 d( [& W$ n. Z/ U'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
$ i1 z$ L7 o) \% _several 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
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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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