Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
) m7 B; v6 z3 a. R* C4 |! @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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% w7 v; S" q! _; Q/ O! L$ r(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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# t# B' \6 W @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
3 L7 J, E+ N0 D; O. Rbeware, 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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$ _7 o6 T3 M9 e7 r5 {3 tNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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. q( J3 U" D6 vNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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. T. m4 e1 O# f1 l9 N/ Q% k% w) mNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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! J) C9 Y4 }( o; o/ N# d& m/ `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
$ f$ ?7 T1 [, Q0 `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
$ j0 Z/ Q' K, y, J: {+ K) orecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
$ k1 `3 I# q" `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
8 r( M( v, |% \, `* O, R) A* p) _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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electronics and be very expensive.
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2 J0 p* \) l; o$ kCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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% o1 p$ `0 `9 D6 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
5 p# W& V& y/ K0 ]4 @$ S# \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
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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
4 L3 i# B: i; ]3 t) r: o0 L' Useveral 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
" t* g, m( L; BVERY silly money.
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