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
0 C# w9 _/ h8 i( k: ]$ N$ athe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
' m- g- d" R$ u7 b) d0 K& G5 Imachines, 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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4 c6 s r; w8 P# D P7 YClick 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
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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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2 X* b7 y k% p; M$ r0 p$ aNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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: a1 y" B8 W* u2 F% u" m/ V3 r 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
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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
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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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truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
4 y+ Q9 [+ ?, z8 L6 ~. v2 Kbe 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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1 d; n2 A/ ]. pCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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0 w$ k3 _- k8 w2 bTape for the Nagra SN
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; e6 s# M. M5 g# E Y' GI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
& v9 L& B5 D; b# g/ ~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
4 r7 N+ U! |. e/ w6 o/ S9 {tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
0 r5 H' c7 ^ p5 h'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
/ x' D. A( D! tthe 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
8 `# j# g$ P4 V* u: w& cVERY silly money.
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