Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
& O6 K5 ^1 a2 h. L) R0 U% Hthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
3 {& u9 z: e! m; ~3 Kthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
7 P: a5 X# L% d8 L( [machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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4 g7 r- M% ], O(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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7 S2 B" a N# e5 C* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
$ u; l; P9 v! K+ ibeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
( q* D* [, l- [* J O, P0 hThere 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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?( Z7 ^; p* ?9 p T [/ qNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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% x% G/ Y$ `- X9 _) O2 k& Z; o' pApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
4 [$ }9 z3 }7 P1 s/ Z! X$ Zhave 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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
) y1 u) u6 ~/ g( k" QDSP) 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
W% q0 T$ e- U- V& Ztruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
5 u, R0 A W! dbe 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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4 `" Y& V% O9 }0 Q% A7 |Tape for the Nagra SN
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: ^1 ^9 @0 \$ Y' k6 XI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
8 Q3 m# x, N5 `+ E: i0 c B' d# wthe 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
9 r7 k' k2 }1 j7 S7 N, Oseveral 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
8 Z8 ~; P2 J1 l4 Y- b( X( [5 dthings 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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