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
2 A% i& N/ J$ ~8 m3 jthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
( V" ?- C/ L; Cmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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& |- x# L9 n8 V* ~9 Z4 h9 n(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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% B7 Q2 _1 Z$ R$ @3 ]* ?Click on either of the above images for more information.
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9 F/ e$ B1 _, S1 q& W/ u6 `$ f0 y* 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.
# r& f. F; |/ `2 |7 \3 _" LThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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- e0 m) F3 @. [( F7 Z4 p/ p$ dNagra 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 z8 x6 `9 W! u M* yNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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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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, A# L% X. z. G- FApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
@# i( L3 y2 y: U+ p7 lhave 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
# K# z' z+ @/ Q+ nrecording 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
% u$ f( C& @% Nrecorders. 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
4 _ q/ v/ v) i# k1 Ibe 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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Tape for the Nagra SN
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9 _( S( n2 @' N$ F! K% @) Y* ^I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
) P& f6 L8 ]% g; ]the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
6 A8 K; G" |4 N8 \ h' Fwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
2 X6 u3 o+ X& Qtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
$ y8 s& h" u" `, L& H'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
! B. O |' e# `3 ~4 Ythe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
. {3 J; O+ o) w: vseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
- Q: |. C( c8 T) W2 G# ^: @onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
. ~# W: `! \& l; ^/ ythings 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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