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
9 B) o* w# {5 W( W/ jthe 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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1 S+ Y* J. \1 X( G' i& \% f* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
. d, t! z) L8 f. O* i: {& h1 H: H& Abeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
D+ X/ r4 l: K# ZThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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4 I' b8 C% I: V2 l1 HNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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4 T4 f$ Z- ~8 i" A! WNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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0 J; z. k- m8 P% l- Z, F1 I8 s" }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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6 I" b. A4 @- R& c# LApparently 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
* f" j) d; y, _# s$ D* j: S# crecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
1 w& n! x/ l6 N5 q1 T |DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
; c+ }/ o6 e" u. nrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
8 O! k" |2 |/ g/ }truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
- J: N, y( P, I0 M$ y/ I/ wbe 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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% R* R# z+ g; T! r' ECheaper 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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: [8 ^$ r: p+ d( {2 i# SI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
& R; M& J. }, A9 Y: A+ ?0 Qthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
. w" E' Y; L1 c7 `2 }; c( ]" }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
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'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
& c7 q8 B) E# H1 Kthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
, W* s1 g# _, jseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
/ l8 N& V+ @8 b n$ G9 donto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
8 u+ D7 T: H* U3 {7 u8 Rthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
6 S7 I _( @* Y; P9 C. j7 k yVERY silly money.
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