Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
' K& v* q, Q: ^& g0 g3 Y [the 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
! m9 h: J) z& J1 m. q6 H) `machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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$ k/ |/ n; D* |% o" [- L(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.
( v. j# @- I; J4 U: r; |There 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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3 j8 ]! F b* ZNagra 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
9 b+ W: A2 W% i# j! `* N0 Q: j% whave 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 D5 O% J7 H- {! Jrecorders. 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
+ d3 w& \$ _/ O6 _; n G0 e+ ?" \be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
& Y7 E' g) F9 M7 l/ m* |+ y0 Xelectronics 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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Tape for the Nagra SN
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- ?: o8 P7 n* B7 r) VI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
# _! p" v# b+ H p# k1 E' `% ?( {the 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
% V( M s6 _: Y& ]: Z* c- Itape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
' `7 l( I9 g0 `! S. k) }5 Useveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
3 U' C3 `/ i, a: O6 U9 ]5 uonto 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
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VERY silly money.
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