Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
& F/ Y$ g6 n' Sthe 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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# L/ r2 m9 ^7 ?' v7 q3 U9 d2 \! R* 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.
( `* l+ A' R% r3 g" ]( }There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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' P( ]) r& I4 m* JNagra 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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f1 U4 {9 a! i# _ @; h- S; k! BNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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- y3 b/ |8 s$ q3 ~3 `) GNagra 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
' `' S/ S7 i0 r0 y; hhave 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
2 n/ Q: C- `/ @ a/ ^0 krecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
. H+ `' w. P8 C3 zDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
/ N4 _! G9 \3 i3 K3 n/ Frecorders. 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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) I% V. x z$ T/ D/ u/ Z) g: Y' XTape for the Nagra SN
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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
) N- S Q$ w2 M H* |'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
4 M6 g. K' ^: k$ A) w- k& g8 Nthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
0 c2 V: V& x+ \% N# i/ B. lseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
4 {; o1 u- r) _6 q- D. M- v& [onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
% _; t3 X' S) I# E8 x; y0 ?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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