Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
& [9 m$ u9 h4 g# K0 ythe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
7 ?7 Y6 T) W% }% G1 Vthe 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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' y& T5 L7 ^. ^' C' w9 _2 ]$ Z5 E4 l(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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( }0 q& k4 I5 t. U. u9 M* 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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& J# v! N: Z! J* uNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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- ^/ `0 e8 l! f# }% B7 @ zNagra 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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, N3 I. E- t0 [+ ONagra 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
- O# U5 C" u/ Ihave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
& V, W$ `' o7 b2 N; p# _ atherefore 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
& ^, y3 X. K& s( VDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
* o" z$ F$ n6 H6 V0 srecorders. 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
- B3 F0 Y8 l: r% |% K# L0 d, D0 Rbe 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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Cheaper 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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. g7 E4 V* l' n% e: `I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
' _& a- i) ?7 a3 Nthe 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
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'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
) Y! l& t C8 {& Jthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
# h. m1 v0 N+ Hseveral 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
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VERY silly money.
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