Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
$ p) n# o: S4 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
8 a* h" E @+ i( I; s( amachines, 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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
$ j z, ?# ~% V* q1 U! Y kbeware, 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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1 l( Q. q( O8 \2 jNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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% q* [: y* l# ^- W( N# V1 m" {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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7 B: d% Y8 G" _0 yApparently 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
7 P8 o1 L* t. j) I x3 P6 |! g' y' btherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
/ R/ ?# v2 g1 }$ X7 zrecording 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
$ E8 ?% F; ^7 h2 z. d* j* Zrecorders. 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
' ~" o1 S' I$ g# W, x! x+ l2 |% ?electronics and be very expensive.
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$ |0 T8 n: E [$ ^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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9 F. b1 ~) [9 t" b- i) II 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
4 a' a' O. m! h: l9 v& S8 \/ Z4 D! gtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
. G: C6 {/ d' R ~'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
% R# i" V0 v( }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
+ L# I8 x# u* b! Jthings 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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