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
& F; w d& \7 x# j; \- k. `the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
+ x2 h4 E, p# E; C( A) a6 Mmachines, 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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Click on either of the above images for more information.
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. _2 @; b0 n; j4 ?: c& s ]* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
/ |8 F. T" a% E9 kbeware, 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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5 t, I; U) s6 Z5 S- L- lNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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9 s# l ]1 Y# A6 Y% W7 R6 w GNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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* P0 k0 S- h% 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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
- D1 v/ N; F4 X# d3 X Q( t. M) r. X& uhave 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
% ^5 c; o: e+ Y3 G3 xrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
9 D5 g3 o2 z+ h) K# Z* nDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
" W) ~6 m" |& M' F; `0 k6 P( H6 ? l+ `recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
1 i; C: @3 V1 a8 G4 g, D1 utruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
' P; T9 {- Z# [8 Sbe 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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- b4 h3 v7 z2 \# ]( {$ k! s# H+ C( vCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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8 B4 g: o. {; g7 U- a& K) ~7 pTape for the Nagra SN
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( t2 c) c# I% p% w( ~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
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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
1 c' J0 S s- R1 m8 [) atape 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
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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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