Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
. {1 Z5 ]+ g5 b( H5 Sthe 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
( S. v" }3 k9 V9 ~& [machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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$ ^7 K$ d( R; I7 x$ W1 b# @5 y(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.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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( q4 Y7 D9 d# b8 hNagra 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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' z5 F# F6 U+ x' @% q. iNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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, w0 y9 ?/ F# G- d5 UNagra 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 l! B! Q6 }. J" ?1 e% yhave 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
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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
- P0 @& f8 s! h4 r8 Q& felectronics and be very expensive.
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. P" O; U! S( G e0 ^" \Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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2 [' V4 _" m3 F" X, U1 ITape 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
+ o# p9 M7 t# D2 n1 x2 Bthe 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
" Z: c! p# _8 M+ a7 G( G9 Wtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
( s0 w8 g1 C8 W E* _'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
9 W% E+ i; n9 D2 Y3 cseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
' \+ B, g) B; |, N/ C1 Q: t$ U" ponto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
! v6 Q5 `, G3 L& wthings 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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