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
5 E2 ~# Z _4 h" X/ w5 _- N$ ], I& Wthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
' _# ?) c. [6 _/ J0 q4 kmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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0 l+ z* P/ q" i" q(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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
" f5 L2 Z" ?% F! T1 S6 [- [7 h( Obeware, 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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2 R% Z1 [# ~, j! y( VNagra 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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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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, ~2 I7 k( t3 _1 zApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
( L" i) L; Y; j" |* M8 Mhave 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
# p' R4 X$ u9 o" |# Vrecording 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
7 l1 b- o: t5 Q# nrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
- c+ M4 V6 D: P2 Q; e$ l7 ctruly Hi-Fi recording, but
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
S2 x8 Z$ B! u# Q3 gelectronics and be very expensive.
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9 X1 B: {* u2 ?; K/ u0 f' lCheaper 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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I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
7 M _6 f* G; M+ ythe 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
4 Q: d9 ~1 J5 V1 @8 e, |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
0 c+ `" c1 @, k; z% F+ g6 zthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
5 f, k V) O) c4 hseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
7 H/ q, x# s n7 ^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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