Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
- \5 `* d% c& u) T' ^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
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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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. U/ j1 l' E4 H; _: U(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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1 w8 B8 {+ d9 b9 o% |, `5 tClick on either of the above images for more information.
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. |. j( y. q7 v0 B" N1 Q9 H! `* 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.
& _' c( x: _ v. ?) a9 O; n$ U2 M- mThere 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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* Z1 _: R* X8 O; p) w& S+ KNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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- W" `' `; b( i2 y9 T9 DApparently 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
: O) E, h1 H6 S7 Y' Arecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
. C( v- Z3 @9 XDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
% `; G. a) j3 d/ xrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
. _9 |. b. `& h4 W' 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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4 H9 g0 h- }5 A* E( ~* lTape for the Nagra SN
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7 S0 N/ a% f: s$ n% I# rI 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
- T/ v1 J% ^7 {& Ptape 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
/ X7 Y( |1 y9 ` c( ~* S: qthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
; {/ V& [3 l3 kseveral 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
. }& G8 D5 f5 v$ \8 vthings 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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