Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
. ?; \2 b; y7 f0 W$ s4 ythe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
B7 X# D7 f6 {the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
8 O6 l: Z9 g! D& [# G4 O0 Y% Imachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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$ F3 |$ s! Y4 `( u, A(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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
/ ^5 E. G- E+ M7 L0 Q) ^ |% Nbeware, 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 w+ \9 Z9 P& g" e- h" t2 k1 FNagra 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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- n0 [5 q+ Y1 F. x ]9 HNagra 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
/ d# [2 m% I' B( q1 i2 {have some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
- j3 l$ ^; t8 A8 p& Jtherefore 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
0 j `+ U% X9 B: H" D* W7 nDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
7 Y9 R0 j( F# p/ a+ Crecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
+ ]3 m7 F9 C7 o- }0 P/ w9 wtruly 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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6 W3 k ~6 P" wTape 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
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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
! M5 K: O# Q2 x% U% q0 G'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
7 S- _8 E+ P0 P7 R3 K$ w$ I. qthe 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
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
/ T3 O0 F. B0 n1 d+ I; JVERY silly money.
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