Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
. I* s; Z$ Q- L0 x, [the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
, q4 e; g O( @# l7 z+ _2 O7 K8 V3 J2 Tthe 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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3 q, z9 n3 L/ u1 s- U+ @5 P6 k: R(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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* y: _' U8 Y$ c8 oClick 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.
1 J3 S3 r9 `7 M4 `8 LThere 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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% f4 G" w7 q8 P4 ^) R5 g: f$ QNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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" I; z4 M: j; iNagra 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
; f# D5 p1 i4 E' t/ Y% [( K* e$ ^0 zbe 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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2 d$ H8 Z4 `: b/ h% d* BCheaper 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, ?$ Q4 }5 oI 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
% Z2 ~& c5 q e d' a7 z1 ^wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
( y/ `- t. u$ ]1 ?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
/ B [+ r! L5 I' a+ f3 {the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
0 X9 R; S, B( U; V Aseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
. s, t6 _9 F+ k" j' `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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