Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
! H. i) J. b& \% Ethe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
" _& `& P5 k- wthe 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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+ m/ L, r; c& p(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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5 p3 Z1 q% a* `1 M4 P5 |* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
! _* m+ m) y0 | ?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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8 O7 _$ ]* T0 N/ @5 sNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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2 j" @! B, Y7 Z7 z# mNagra 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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6 ~1 b; V, u& z B5 bNagra 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
7 t% Y+ a( @1 c: nhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
$ J, T& y9 Q* M: e8 [* btherefore 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
- g, f2 l5 s& c/ zDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
( Y( c8 C3 H: W9 L+ x2 \3 Lrecorders. 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
/ y+ F; c! y( Ube 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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K) `4 N5 b0 e' aCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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, L* c7 |& O x( BTape 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
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
7 l$ p( \3 O2 Z: y2 A) |wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
% o. U$ F4 F; G8 L( n! ]tape 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
O P! @5 J7 aseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
. `1 P* _- a% A( r) \onto 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
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VERY silly money.
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