Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
Q- X9 \* S8 ]' b: Q" j S* _the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
9 m1 f; D/ H- K% ?" }3 f- _: x9 Tthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
) c. t, A3 S2 F$ C5 ]machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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6 U( O. y! X. G6 d4 [& D(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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: h- G- I' b7 U7 T2 X" Q# eClick 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
, V6 s; s' ~ f4 h3 |( Obeware, 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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% m5 {" H& s! E/ c4 }7 eNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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7 b& E; A( M2 ~( `. D7 y+ ENagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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' h+ y/ e2 P Z* KNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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& J) i% R$ K+ _) S: 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
0 L6 k/ `8 \' i5 @have some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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therefore be
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
4 m8 z% d* X4 \+ jrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
7 O4 F- S0 g( b# j1 G1 Ftruly 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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# `) E' d1 ?4 U) O1 aCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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U& d* T7 d* E3 ITape for the Nagra SN
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5 C1 A& n$ a" _I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
. b% [( ]6 {5 p; u: w( pthe 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
; K4 `$ h) K% N I3 A, G! bthe 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
0 g$ w' [ c1 V( z: J5 ?' A k2 N2 Bonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
: `9 a' s5 H. q" s" C3 |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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