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
" m" q- G* H7 ]# e! G# p7 athe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
* L) z6 Q$ p3 V0 Z% V% R. X' _machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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. ]. F# S; Z; C( w(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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* m) Y& E% ?. ~' l; H) fClick on either of the above images for more information.
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% W6 y! z2 w. p$ D* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
9 w0 n+ s1 J9 ]+ H* o' A: v; wbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
5 X8 e$ t7 M8 K7 IThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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9 P+ O V! J/ i$ v! ^0 u$ V2 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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9 O/ x3 U: D1 }4 P, G; E+ \Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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, o) g( ~* b# p. K- X. B. [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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, ^/ Y& A8 O& z6 ?( r1 L& vApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
Z# |, H1 e* X$ Rhave 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
. b _0 S( m' t# y! Orecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
, i+ g! e9 ?" E6 _) O3 htruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
# s" K% e* J2 Bbe 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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7 O N9 I9 K A+ l# Q( _4 ~, l. G! lCheaper 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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I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
& ]; p7 g2 e0 Z- ~/ Q) u3 S6 kthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
% v) D$ O7 f) Z& j/ E- [wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
. p# @$ d# A8 Y% Qtape 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
2 E1 K; X' N) _ `the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
: x3 d! w$ m" h: f4 o7 d$ Oseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
E" k6 Z4 {/ `2 |5 ^) P7 Eonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
7 {( F* R0 X5 I' Dthings 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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