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
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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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2 q& T: P' Y! F4 {, O8 W(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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& @( I. Y6 ^/ o4 l/ }1 T* 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.
/ q; i: K% c; O) z/ A7 K& EThere 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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d4 l9 W* u, U! y. k% D7 T5 x& PNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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& \; s! x- |9 O; N3 c! rNagra 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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optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
. F$ b7 B# d9 erecording 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
1 T& T5 v0 o% l9 q+ r0 Y2 [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
% u, l9 }; w8 d6 r, @7 H7 A8 Bbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
5 y$ b! U1 v9 ]) E4 k) A/ ~% relectronics 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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h! U% s+ R t+ sTape for the Nagra SN
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' F+ ]) L, j6 BI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
0 `! C- @9 L6 S' `0 t* r4 m9 c0 jwanted 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
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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
4 R0 ^* d4 i, n" Cthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
2 f4 V4 M8 N9 E0 e( K3 n# z/ K! NVERY silly money.
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