Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
$ l3 B- k! t% m' O- kthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
5 {: O+ t! n% v$ F5 t ithe 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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: Y+ p/ m1 t8 } V/ R) \- k- e2 `Click on either of the above images for more information.
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, [: W! K P9 H+ r' s1 Q* 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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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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/ A. u2 @$ }. W7 @/ _* N% wNagra 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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^: W2 m# y2 @' [ E XApparently 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
$ P# E' m4 U! O' z* E* S2 Lrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
( q, p' V1 ^; A6 rDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
8 ^ C6 h- e: Rrecorders. 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
, i6 m0 ]6 d/ A3 f: p- telectronics and be very expensive.
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: f' x2 _: `# W. ]( ^Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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3 z0 M& ^6 h: B" P tTape for the Nagra SN
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7 j0 m, p$ m! eI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
9 L+ q% Y* D. F, pthe 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
" u/ z# H* } `) o5 U. j- C( ktape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
2 d7 l3 D m, b6 E'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
# B+ @( K& ^8 b- K* ]: t% lseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
# w% @7 ]3 E( O7 R# V$ G3 X" ]' Uonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
( o' y h; r$ d! p! O+ n) U; mVERY silly money.
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