Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
0 l: x8 I1 w0 a: `7 L9 Xthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
. [8 j+ l' O) f) Lthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
% m( p- X5 N+ }% a: Cmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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+ _- P; u- G$ X; @$ _(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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' B- B+ b( U4 q8 d% _5 ~Click on either of the above images for more information.
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9 v8 S; y, q/ s2 f) D5 j* 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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( C1 r+ { |; v4 c% C- |5 Y/ LNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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; X: ~% c- Y4 m) {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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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
0 {! J' T( ~( oDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
0 u7 U7 ^; F+ t& }( irecorders. 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
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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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2 u4 O+ A5 p" z1 v* \$ TTape for the Nagra SN
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- \$ z2 Y# B2 ?# |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
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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
* o Y) Y7 X0 ^$ f$ k/ L'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
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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
' m5 y; Z8 S( b' Hthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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