Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
8 X0 I, g7 V2 j) X3 l' @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
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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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_0 l! q5 J! l! n/ G% c(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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3 l/ z8 O1 m4 g/ P& N- SClick 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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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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1 x3 L l& U+ r* s; Y" n+ N1 H$ ^( hNagra 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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- [5 Y" I! q# [9 O) i' k! N& ?5 vApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
- q' [% P& ?) ?% nhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
6 l8 @4 D, _; V( ~( ~0 a+ L- Ltherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
K* o w0 P" }recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
4 i6 ~* k9 t! o3 U9 UDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
4 s6 k, A8 q& @- _- F1 H2 brecorders. 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
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
% @' ^6 b6 v {) p1 d1 welectronics and be very expensive.
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: q: L# W- G; u) d. BCheaper 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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I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
3 t8 b- J+ F0 n" I9 Pthe 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
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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
' ?9 x1 J! V: }5 Ethings 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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