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
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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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(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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9 p5 P. T7 h0 g4 x* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
8 i5 | X6 ]( X Hbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
/ }, }5 }1 h5 y a1 i3 X& 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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5 N9 k& W* R8 j% Z. m2 B N. dNagra 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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3 t U5 Y* F, y" Y4 qNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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" y- f2 W0 \, K. e* V% mApparently 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
" ^* o5 A9 J; A1 u! Y. q+ |( precording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
?2 @5 R' ~/ _ r- Y: jDSP) 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
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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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( b7 a8 }+ [8 PTape for the Nagra SN
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0 h- ]4 q/ s3 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
" Q. g5 ?7 V9 r1 C2 i, v9 a+ I% Qwanted 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
2 M3 L9 g: {# }: T: P( u3 [6 l: H'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
# |6 h* i w8 C% I; k1 ~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
- Z* C3 Y1 h. y4 Z9 Nthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
0 H6 _- ~* X( _" u" g0 }. bVERY silly money.
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