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
h l9 @* m+ \. U u" q8 l6 Gthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
$ W) N4 R( _7 N- b& h: imachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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+ H9 ^4 R: [/ U1 l) P6 R(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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; S, g/ ~; ]- m1 d; tClick on either of the above images for more information.
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# v% q# U J4 z$ `: i$ D* 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.
9 i/ T9 g) H3 V- m- Q7 _; o, TThere 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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3 g/ m, z+ @6 ~( ?Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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7 L J& u I9 q& V. v @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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
3 S, k- s$ m, ghave 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
+ m0 p8 [6 }% ?2 q# Drecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
$ f% D1 {( L/ a2 C7 tDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
' k7 O: C: A, H2 x7 I( p$ T0 trecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
& }. O* b/ t' W$ j7 V5 Y2 Ftruly 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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- U" N) {, v6 ]& NTape 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
( |7 M' ]3 S2 K$ 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
4 ]+ r R2 O' y7 W# atape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
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'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
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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
- q# B. w# y& d, ?4 N3 |0 gthings 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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