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
, ]* R4 t K$ o. r# vthe 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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(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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8 L4 e2 ^$ F3 j" h8 _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
' F# I3 z. g& f7 ?- t1 jbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
B' K) L, R$ YThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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0 j9 ]7 d5 O/ _" C. Z5 ANagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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7 G$ _* H; j6 ~0 o; c3 XNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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0 H8 P0 x" A# o; 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
" u' z, T$ L1 s* K" Brecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
5 O! ]; c. |' X9 ^ }; fDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
6 [, X# g, g* ?3 Q% srecorders. 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
+ L! L4 M. Z! B% Mbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
8 T4 z, Z% J( P. @electronics and be very expensive.
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7 L' w5 H5 J$ o: L4 H6 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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, |1 M& Q2 O( B7 S) Q4 `! PI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
" H* ]6 N* `) D4 ^. xthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
9 L8 B6 |! f- T1 _! ?* [wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
! M4 b) j; E6 d3 ]9 q% n$ ~+ Ztape 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
L1 T% [4 o* B$ ~; Bseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
Q- {6 F2 K! u) l, ionto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
# n1 I Q% {# T0 U9 ethings 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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