Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
, A k4 }0 H1 n- s: H( vthe 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
/ f& L1 K0 t: qmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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- u3 ]- q* o4 H1 C! e(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
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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7 F1 A* l; F0 q! d: QNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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% H$ c, n: d$ z8 i! sNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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1 L. F# [- k# V0 KNagra 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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! z! M( V7 X6 d' w! U- hApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
) @( X/ i, x1 T7 ~' ohave 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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
8 j5 Q/ `& F9 D/ S. A7 Arecorders. 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
, w1 H0 J, D$ I3 W) V, E v5 Qbe 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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! _' g% s/ F: H& jCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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. \ e9 E' l* e! {/ ~2 T$ mTape for the Nagra SN
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, J8 M. ^ L- j; TI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
) T+ ?1 D8 l3 l' i( q* Kthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
9 I) b; O5 {1 ]# mwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
% ~7 S: N% @, a! ttape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
% J2 d# r. K" }: Y/ x'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
( y1 G3 Q g6 K+ e3 A' nonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
* z7 i8 I- b8 S5 E0 }6 X1 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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