Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
- E6 n, ~8 _7 v! [- H$ G7 Ethe 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
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machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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( p/ O9 f( w6 ~4 [/ z/ D& `(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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/ K( J5 T0 G6 z- `& p: A- G! [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
( ^8 A. P; R, S# S: Ubeware, 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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/ x9 D/ A1 I! Y- q$ O. dNagra 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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' S; o( p5 v. G7 V/ qNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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5 P6 R; c' i$ ~( ? i: E" DNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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- g/ e; A1 Y! L F x2 G1 \& dApparently 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
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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
. a; }$ f, X W1 @8 RDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
2 H7 a3 ~ K5 j( d6 _7 m+ grecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
. ~1 y4 F _$ z# Q t+ ^) k! gtruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
: {" Y/ n# P% I9 p( }9 ]$ t! n' x* zbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
. S) u6 h0 L7 B J2 S( a6 z/ Felectronics 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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" ~% j; N7 ~% w3 k0 |Tape 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
2 H2 _2 c7 V, z. v z5 ^wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
7 C1 \ C' H$ K9 j% A9 N3 v+ ctape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
8 i4 k5 M) d* T9 V5 p'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
6 x' J; S: s- o) o8 e/ ?( Y# cseveral 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
& ~% V; n8 ^! ]6 i8 `( r5 @things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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