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 I, u( X* m# S0 o$ Xmachines, 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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Click on either of the above images for more information.
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1 `! h" v7 h$ E; w* 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.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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; {/ f1 S8 H4 ENagra 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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1 Z: O$ A6 g5 O5 Y' ?: 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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
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have 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
7 b7 }! g( c. p8 a) u u0 ?9 w) ]' s/ u/ w1 {recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
# C) g* i2 B3 r* {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
/ `& q6 I/ N2 gtruly 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
4 b( m5 f3 [5 Zelectronics and be very expensive.
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5 u* i4 v2 e* p6 @) pCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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; v+ W( c& T( Y0 J" O% QTape for the Nagra SN
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" J1 \# D8 j- [0 X7 T! zI 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
3 ~* J y( N% b7 i, U: uwanted 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
; k9 x) U3 N3 m! V2 ~) `'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
7 W3 u1 J0 C! {5 mthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
! L2 n( w0 v3 c6 o2 eseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
: @1 e4 f1 t' g& K: L$ aonto 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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