Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
* F) p. Z5 R! f; u1 sthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
) @0 B; F" F/ b' Q9 P. `$ t2 j7 ythe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
) \8 N- L( D3 h+ Vmachines, 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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1 Q+ L& A8 |# S$ H3 A/ e( a7 x$ zClick on either of the above images for more information.
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! q/ q% S$ ?- @0 t. E" Z6 e t8 O* 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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8 E) X% d; P5 HNagra 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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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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) a. |- X# S! q" Q% jApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
5 h7 ~2 I! X0 {3 u. {+ Vhave 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
& B0 p) i* p6 zrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
0 j+ v9 Q! b# q% W L, v* gtruly 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
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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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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
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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
! g, L5 o) u, ~; u2 ttape 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
( e% X. k3 P( w2 Z9 q# 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
' K! a. m+ \) j" P7 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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VERY silly money.
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