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
% G* z+ G* h# W9 P: Amachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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% y5 _( B% F* j' t3 ~4 @$ 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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4 Z6 M+ d; H0 p$ a/ B- H. R' }* 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.
* C2 f) T4 H9 {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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6 ~5 n# b* p2 ]Nagra 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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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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. m7 B- |) Z# C x6 ~' WApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
: B- \" j$ c* c/ }- a0 @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
' w# n; \ ?7 b" {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
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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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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
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be 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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* R S. {: |" T$ c$ y9 ~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
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
7 m3 U% n7 _7 E4 Y9 y& ewanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
( R1 G: W( J. M8 l, X- A9 `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
1 d' ~6 b$ y6 f) e$ b$ qseveral 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
! f; I2 S! l1 f9 R- y% i& mthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
# N$ p5 ]! O7 R, F k+ ^VERY silly money.
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