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
" q% e _) a! z3 y" [3 `& Z, }! ^the 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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( A) @3 P! S$ ^6 c! k& XClick 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
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
- ]& u8 `% h# G# w$ D+ lThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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, Q+ j2 W7 f( j. N! y5 ZNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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# K) B) z& N) ~4 r4 h, s7 |1 k" F9 YNagra 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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0 y: W/ f# C/ |" IApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
" P. I+ @2 q' D" M7 t. Yhave 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
( [8 ~' q, S. ^# a( j6 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
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recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
% L& O" _0 A' H/ l, y: W& ~1 p+ Pbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
+ e% z$ K( s1 I8 Q0 O% }6 g& ?& Aelectronics 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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$ ?+ P a- |8 WTape for the Nagra SN
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+ t7 d0 F, Z1 d* g. iI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
4 i$ X$ F& A$ e: Ythe 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
# F7 L$ E7 r7 F/ ktape 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
# T4 R/ r0 P0 t$ Gthe 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
" o" R7 h, [; P% {' k3 ^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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