Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
" B7 c* r( l+ sthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
" }! O9 C% W9 T; W( G* Zthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
* L+ v0 f' Y* E, ~5 q( g' o: Dmachines, 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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5 X. N( K0 s, I X1 j% O; [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.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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9 y" d' |" {2 L t9 J0 d! jNagra 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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9 m! Y6 E9 @/ Z. d% t, ]& N9 c/ hNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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# X' G0 Q, U+ Y$ J& P& F. KNagra 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
: M+ k9 d# U& Y7 E Z' I0 z3 t. shave 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
/ I% |1 r: `2 S4 Z" m" d! M; UDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
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recorders. 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
; O& H3 `$ P8 y' }- zelectronics and be very expensive.
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2 S, U- G9 |8 N! gCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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0 ^, K' B2 z6 y! BTape for the Nagra SN
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$ l# E! ~: m" m2 \. XI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
$ i9 C. L9 x7 N) Dthe 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
/ k- z# W( P" u' P2 z" O'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
& z$ m1 b( ?. X. sthe 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
0 B+ ?/ I/ }4 m" Bthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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