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
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the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
6 S% }2 F7 c d3 x0 z$ Vmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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9 t2 w- o B) |(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 Z" U5 f" `! [5 v3 m* 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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4 [0 ~2 n; i; [# J) h* lNagra 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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* V! j) ~" g3 |) D, r m4 ^' z1 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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
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have 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
4 k$ s* |3 k: y% K$ ]/ zrecording 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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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
% f! N; u- j5 H; x2 `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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5 R% d: z4 h) R# Z: K$ m3 Y! _Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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, H9 l2 @ B5 W! {, o h) |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
s/ ~" [9 V+ T, fthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
$ l2 i- R8 ~+ Y' k+ l( dwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
) A) `) N! t' U) `# {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
' ]$ S' }) z q$ v! D9 ^1 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
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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
( Z; y( e6 f7 Ethings 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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