Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
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the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
1 c5 ^; T1 e; h5 C. y! ythe 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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- E' n4 v% ~1 X- ]1 J9 m(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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% b' l8 M- b; ~! P Q0 T' |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.
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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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: V& u6 r; B5 J3 N( D& j# v4 V S7 [Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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9 D9 H8 p; Q9 \5 s9 C F( }Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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4 q! P. c9 k& C- d! PNagra 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
1 Z* G ^3 P; N3 m0 A! i4 Ghave 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
3 [4 I# [$ p. [9 Precording 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
' I! I; k- S8 [& @ _recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
5 |: r4 X) ^' Utruly 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 F( y2 f. n* _7 J: F' p6 Q/ lCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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# E5 K6 g/ t" F7 S2 j2 N K) eTape for the Nagra SN
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* w8 n. \2 ]$ AI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
2 \! Q3 ]8 k' W) j/ ythe 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
+ c" y1 y' ]% I- G$ h: |tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
2 i. r: K$ b3 T w'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
' y- A$ ?% A* Q5 f0 G: z* Vseveral 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
/ c9 O9 L/ a4 G' S0 e& Bthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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