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 t% ?) ~6 M! X/ @- a+ Zthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
( w4 G4 r% E7 j+ pmachines, 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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+ p: W$ K b$ O, H& \* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
% N" W. b t% n! x7 pbeware, 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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4 M: n" t9 I7 ~. D: TNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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% `+ q1 Y5 x, `$ }* qNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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9 I( A5 C" _ V6 s; @! d. nNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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! E! h2 _7 i. O/ L% [ C( \1 KApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
( m( a' \9 H! I0 D6 Yhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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therefore be
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
) B2 D! ?- F5 a1 eDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
! I9 c4 c4 ~3 P2 q4 x, vrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
+ f7 c: D. I9 dbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
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Cheaper 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: Y& c( `! PI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
2 q* A' O8 B1 cthe 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
k. `5 d8 D! [/ wtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
0 i& l3 b/ J8 b0 a- b; S2 Y6 P# s'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
4 l, c) j2 [! D0 O* |2 Wthe 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
* y: B5 d# M7 w. W) A: M6 N5 xthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
% n7 k, G4 w |% [VERY silly money.
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