Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
" x$ D2 `, _- P5 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
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machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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# N( o: U z0 @, g; F(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
0 [! h' q; Z8 ^! sbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
8 @3 d. ]8 B! ]0 sThere 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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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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4 X) f: t, ~, Z5 J- J9 FNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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$ t( e0 C- J. ^7 U6 s- H9 |Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
/ s, F; w" i: s# Z4 z& 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
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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
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electronics and be very expensive.
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1 n) r* {4 |. q6 f! E4 X/ u$ CCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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5 |& {- K9 f$ Y* H/ h! DTape for the Nagra SN
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* m2 h% |. _5 A7 A' z! J* x, ]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
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tape 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
5 D, L5 X- l! C3 ]* N6 Ethe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
/ X% d0 \0 n* ?! B2 c0 yseveral 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
. i! x3 ^- {1 O3 g8 Vthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
0 x5 \+ v2 b& o' m2 [VERY silly money.
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