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
( @( S* `' y6 Q6 J" Wthe 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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* F, P- u& o0 D2 A9 q" ~; q* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
y) o" E& O& k( e- V: nbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
7 s! X x1 z8 }' Q/ Y1 F" N% ^6 NThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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. Q7 T0 o# U, qNagra 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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6 x# r( b! d- f- M3 h$ gNagra 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
4 K& P; {' ~4 thave 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
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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
* m- f, |6 B' H( W# s1 krecorders. 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
& L0 x3 ?' O, m# t$ u/ r6 Pbe 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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( `3 W1 h' Q* M6 j6 cCheaper 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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: o1 R) x6 e2 V2 k1 e$ CI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
' D9 q) n* d h. ^6 pthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
+ u$ T- ^" Q; k, p3 [' [! t/ b: m+ ?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
- l+ n+ |% i& }0 }* Mthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
( E% j4 @9 g. A `several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
' ]6 U3 }: Q* x( Conto 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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