Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
3 T' r& l6 f$ z- T/ q# Jthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
, p' W1 i, y$ R9 K4 `8 Q/ uthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
, f) |; q* S/ J$ Y" Y( Z. Jmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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1 w. x* k$ l& _(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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5 k& x) |1 [) C1 X. sClick on either of the above images for more information.
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! q6 F/ I8 F O2 ^( y- p& b4 x* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
; ] n ~4 n. |4 B3 n' g" ~: k5 ybeware, 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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. F; G/ i5 A; d' WNagra 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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1 a" Y% c, D: N5 m" x3 EApparently 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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
b' ~1 d, K* m& srecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
: Y( `2 O& x' H% J9 H; Itruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
+ i/ N' j( M# _! \; I xbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
1 K% ?: N- c& w2 h1 [electronics and be very expensive.
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" T" m8 @" n2 C* |; ?Cheaper 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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5 ?* H5 v7 V9 s* j- mI 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
0 F$ M3 {6 s! ?tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
" J. j9 N. |/ x5 V9 x/ V'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
1 L$ h1 {* T5 ~3 g mthe 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
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
& w i& ]: A e' `( Z f: ?VERY silly money.
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