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
! f1 }' G a4 e) O' U: u. Tmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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3 E# b- d0 B( o: T(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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* 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.
0 V- ^" k B4 `: f6 N7 C- P. w9 bThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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) |2 G0 \. s5 j6 ~1 B1 ?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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" Z7 E( T) `" K/ ANagra 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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+ R2 R& x: Q$ C7 ZNagra 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
% h$ @, a$ g8 _8 h4 O8 `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
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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
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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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truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
5 y# |$ O+ d+ E- Tbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
' R) M6 I2 _, x7 Xelectronics 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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) {, u- V8 b# I' P0 aTape 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
& B& W9 V. ^* _) nthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
& h, Y- z0 d8 z- r0 h7 Ewanted 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
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
, i6 `8 K1 V7 \# Q* Pseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
" ]- _* i$ }7 B' xonto 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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VERY silly money.
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