Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
4 M7 s* y, x& t1 othe 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
, |5 ]- k: t2 O. D, zmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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, v5 [6 Q7 D( p1 Z(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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( W% N, D/ l6 Z4 _0 @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.
4 q' x$ n! Y2 o5 t; E/ tThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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4 r: Y* ^& u7 v, W7 {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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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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. i5 b9 j2 T! f W! v# G2 h. i" RNagra 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
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have some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
7 o) W. Y) P; g J+ ktherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
/ t0 M3 D3 j2 o9 vrecording 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
5 n7 Q! u0 S# z; h) _" dtruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
W/ V! t8 o( jbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
9 V4 j1 `# A' U# F3 U2 J, W# {electronics 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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' ?" m; B5 w4 Q' TTape 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
' n% r# ^4 ?/ C# h, E8 [. P" Nthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
0 S3 n' ^% {( \3 A( twanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
4 F0 R( O8 Q. x# I7 `. Otape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
, L# s# T8 x: R4 ?. H'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
4 ?( c" A) Y/ L: _- xthe 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
& }* o8 g) @; d6 D& f6 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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