Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
$ P$ K* @7 j* l$ B/ {- T, Ithe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
- x Z" N& d' ^) [the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
' ]3 M# o6 K4 \+ g: s9 u8 gmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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" s; W( g: P; N7 i0 _(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 o: S, H4 }4 ]& U, R5 K$ N7 I* 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.
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There 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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; m2 X: D- c" q7 {Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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* j3 k) X* G: Y: W; H3 q3 CNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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9 X# _, \7 S, E: n% I yApparently 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
9 t6 ]1 |% J/ z7 f% k$ xrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
1 m/ T( s( s; d iDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
9 O. w) W) B6 A/ r: n* Hrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
# o7 s0 m1 f" p3 [truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
1 l1 _5 j0 ~; Ibe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
+ E: L& W5 g- n1 Welectronics 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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5 {. C0 G9 N# r3 F% D% R6 ITape 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
& {4 T! z) c/ X% Lthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
" O* J' @8 E" `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
" Z8 P1 y$ k/ `$ Q( d6 [8 q- w" @'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
$ u- s; x; s! f5 j3 ]% yonto 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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