Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
2 K; M/ Y0 r' M$ @( rthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
2 a, \9 t- g& 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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, U' W" P7 t8 j/ Y! p2 L- d+ \9 q* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
4 d$ R. `2 i- n1 O8 L* d; Jbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
$ v2 X: R3 V/ d0 F6 n% S/ h0 gThere 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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! T( ~$ ^. c, H4 k% D2 MNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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1 R. D; m; D$ [: I0 MNagra 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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
$ ^5 P& `# J. r C6 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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
$ ?7 a4 t/ c- _1 Zrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
0 Q" |- b7 v, ]) D8 \( etruly 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
% {% B2 m7 W- E9 Jelectronics 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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Tape for the Nagra SN
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' B- k0 i7 T7 G: B* \# k8 K' ~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
& [& y7 |" o G. a8 F) l# W0 ^wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
. l% R, [3 q" `' K$ c D- @7 ltape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
, l* k4 c7 R$ b4 d'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
* M+ _: u9 ~/ r! `several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
! E n/ n/ k2 m4 z6 bonto 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' ] K& Y+ |+ \7 H- e0 tVERY silly money.
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