Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
T4 s' ]+ g9 M: Z% G5 N% n' Uthe 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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(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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9 B H4 E$ d# ^ r H2 y* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
$ d7 ~# j2 i* R2 G" F# C; F' D& sbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
% O; U7 | d1 x% T( J( G/ u7 ^' HThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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) l8 ]; b1 B9 K3 p0 `1 UNagra 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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7 n! _1 W' O( e' g. b/ sNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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: y9 @; A8 e8 u2 r: p! Q/ aNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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1 z9 T3 V! l. v/ f: B0 l( zApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
1 u+ l" J2 M! I; C6 Dhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
) {6 b! H0 x; U$ ctherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
; J: R D: {- q1 I9 i/ w" crecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
q# }* V4 F u+ P$ d; DDSP) 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
& Y6 w, A0 A" G5 \; ztruly 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
, j4 W1 m) K+ Y$ W% r3 {electronics and be very expensive.
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" L) z* h' z/ I; n" S' @3 z' [: aCheaper 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
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tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
* ? M) Q7 I- N$ u$ g# K c'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
* U6 O+ k) d- `& N5 @, @the 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
# v3 f+ m1 N9 l0 A9 b' Jonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
6 j1 Y2 |0 j7 l" J1 x% Athings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
6 g, O/ S5 v4 t/ ?) v7 `VERY silly money.
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