Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
& V" A' j# t" ?% Wthe 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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6 {5 e& l3 t& f: V: x(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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+ D( D% O; S; A& s7 ^7 E9 t7 A' h Z- 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.
5 G6 V _4 m' C. l0 XThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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5 U# }! u. A3 {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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: C( j( d$ B3 O' C9 ANagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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* p# t4 I8 h7 H. ~7 }; [4 yNagra 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
% `& Z$ x$ N/ s9 q. u1 Xrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
& P; a. _8 r# K" x8 QDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
& J* t% p: w$ i# M/ ]7 trecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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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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% o$ f! W0 V. D6 x: M8 CTape for the Nagra SN
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7 B, x2 f. g# v. }I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
, s6 ?: ]2 R& \& A; }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
: l& _5 n+ p. ~$ stape 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
0 C$ @# I: N! _* z& J2 m$ J' [the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake 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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