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
5 ?1 J7 w) ~# {2 q Q9 Zthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
$ r7 {$ j$ Z. b, `0 j$ Vmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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4 F2 u# \* A) f8 q# U1 s6 Y; l: a% Y(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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1 m& i& q Z& n D$ S/ E( M* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
/ Q" j- V' c. X9 b8 d1 Q& Bbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
, A" J9 K7 i' ^% @: O2 KThere 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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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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optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
S* W! d: ~% J: ?( p& CDSP) 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
/ W7 p" z5 v y7 \$ m9 I t5 N' @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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0 L4 Y8 r; \6 d4 o& Q& eCheaper 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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I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
0 b" g' a# O( ?6 ]$ Z/ othe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
( D6 A1 d4 _) L& p* kwanted 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 r, g. n6 Y, R; ^8 m+ ^; A'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
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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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onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
) N3 Z) A; l5 c8 q0 t4 [2 jthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
" ~$ o8 S& r. v( \ `VERY silly money.
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