Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
1 P# N5 q* N3 n/ v$ D5 O1 mthe 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
2 z( \+ N) b3 C& q8 |: I5 Amachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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5 J* k; |' V, `. w1 T(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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/ C2 Y: \" U1 n8 k. CClick on either of the above images for more information.
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1 J. ~ t; N# y- K$ w8 O* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
# H- ^ a w8 b& ibeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
- ^& W# v+ @7 \" _+ R* [' D7 j0 U& E$ ~There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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2 L+ }4 o+ k* b* T- {, A1 MNagra 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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, U% N* c/ P( y& y8 j2 o7 T1 RNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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S1 }: H, b% k+ c4 M4 w( x/ eApparently 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
5 ?7 u( O# C$ erecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
: c# q) ^3 _9 h. C9 K; WDSP) 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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truly 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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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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8 M) O; U; f8 ^8 o3 ZTape 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
1 O# b1 y( G/ G: N0 e; H+ J& N'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
0 A' t+ w& j. ` P! B2 U6 o+ Gseveral 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
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VERY silly money.
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