Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
" i$ K5 t' k# \3 M4 [: |. Lthe 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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(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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F0 D5 H$ K+ U6 ?" \* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
* q" O5 t$ F8 S. z/ _. fbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
% s5 A% ~* e2 |. ~% ?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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0 T. v, q! I/ K# ^Nagra 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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) N. n! X( m/ a9 S8 L! W3 D$ FApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
+ ^/ `) ]/ w( R; { yhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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therefore be
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
( Q2 i1 y. J2 f% `DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
M- x3 j" U/ T) @ Qrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
- ^6 L; {, _9 I7 A/ S6 x! Rtruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
|, k8 S. U$ J% n5 Qbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
8 l$ P: l8 O, ?electronics and be very expensive.
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( J, ~- x6 f9 d5 [Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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, s/ b. Y3 Y8 ]; MTape for the Nagra SN
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; y+ a5 |& o/ m+ xI 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
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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
0 V/ B' D( z/ X9 U'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
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
3 f2 O8 _0 x, q, \VERY silly money.
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