Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
" @$ S: ^1 d3 ?' j3 Vthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
, w8 U0 A. r8 W1 E' q: uthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
& |. t( }% s; m4 d/ emachines, 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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Click 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
5 j1 }' M8 f( U5 nbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
5 L- `0 H8 b2 k2 jThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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% T( q7 F0 _2 O5 e% }6 P& bNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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7 N' y+ o) w, f# p; P. B+ W/ e: X0 [Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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, |' \8 O0 ]# e1 ANagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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; u+ D- {, j% c$ J8 L, i# Q3 F3 |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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& a% v/ p( @4 y9 R5 yApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
+ J4 H& I/ E( C2 p8 nhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
7 o: X5 S- B! }& @9 Q7 {therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
4 I3 P9 W9 a( M% R5 l# l7 g/ uDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
7 h' a0 W+ d3 B( trecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
. N* V R8 z6 s( l! jtruly 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
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electronics and be very expensive.
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% H3 V/ ~+ u/ b" h, LCheaper 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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; P1 D" H* m) H& h, W4 b% _) DI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
# e6 G F* @0 V" e% l$ qthe 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
, ]1 H* p! s0 O) e6 u+ R [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
$ y8 U& b8 C; x9 fseveral 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
* [# \& O# p, B7 Y: j$ M; rVERY silly money.
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