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
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the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
5 ^! k6 N) F& \$ r. \: emachines, 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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6 S% o0 {0 |/ l3 p' y- x& UClick on either of the above images for more information.
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- m3 C6 k3 q0 |# ]4 o* 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.
" c5 Z; e: d7 v' |. ~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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Nagra 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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* {5 G2 Y7 q7 Q; z; T: _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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# s9 O+ G7 b) w- @2 ` ~0 z) W: VApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
; Z/ m$ T* o6 ]( ^, y/ Zhave 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
- Y2 n$ H, ~, ~$ ]) `9 qrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
1 X8 `& b* a: w) w; cDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
# U& U- g6 w' O* C2 N. Brecorders. 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
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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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4 W4 i) H. o2 E# A2 K- l) \, ^; G) gCheaper 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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5 L$ A: s7 C2 b. p% N: Y* H0 WI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
* R1 V) A$ m7 |5 c1 y1 ?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
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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
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
m' V7 G/ x8 `# N. |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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