Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
. K" M( Z( q9 {/ F+ J& `" ?2 othe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
) }1 @# X) @( o! D8 F0 mthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
3 Z8 E2 w; K {2 _: | \# \; kmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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# ~3 w/ k1 f& m7 M) p(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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7 w: W( x1 U! D& e4 W" s) x* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
: z/ O/ a8 b; a( c" pbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
I% q0 ^& s1 W4 e3 C. YThere 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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Nagra 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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therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
: h% ?; k" F# ?7 a5 y. A) M5 Crecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
; q! v9 N& r5 fDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
3 L; O% x) z7 d" C yrecorders. 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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Cheaper 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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/ L1 V) D% Z7 {. R% {) `I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
' B2 C3 Q i8 E9 z6 {. h# F6 @: ]the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
7 M( V% R; D2 [: Z: \wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
4 }0 l+ F2 r- t% @tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
3 ?$ x$ M9 U/ ~. e2 K'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
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
! f v; k; c) H% l9 I2 j6 {" A/ e3 f5 Ponto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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