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
) S" p. ` v2 |$ Xthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
4 p# O7 w# ]& i( a* 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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, b' k1 v, L q$ } V, _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
- W3 }+ m# {8 P8 R2 H8 Vbeware, 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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' q- w* n7 L+ R. w; yNagra 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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# T) [0 A/ R7 ?( n& UNagra 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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Apparently 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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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
N% |' B7 E. r* IDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
9 z- g) _% u* U: ^: H" Xrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
$ f8 W: M& N4 B1 t/ ftruly 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
+ g& j; \' G* s' h* a/ ~2 [electronics and be very expensive.
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# m/ z9 f( o) n4 }" Z1 g& x( @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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5 a/ N0 a5 H+ I/ S' X, P$ }- \ PI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
6 L* Z" M, u6 y7 d6 Zthe 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
& c: e( U/ x1 |8 m1 b* a'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
5 l" r$ U) Z! Q8 F( I) rthe 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
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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
( b4 O4 v( m" |4 h' athings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
& k6 I9 k4 e- m. ]0 z' V1 mVERY silly money.
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