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
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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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(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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$ r1 y% b$ E0 gClick 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
" E, {( X7 R2 |' fbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
: d8 j) }) j- jThere 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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! q+ g% K, d/ y0 E+ [! e; I0 bNagra 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
" t0 y# V6 h; E) L" M5 Chave 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
. j$ U4 f! z; k3 K1 X( h7 S1 D4 urecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
' d. ~: r) i% A9 U9 L$ wDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
7 x( b+ u1 {7 F- l; ?: p9 p; x: ^: ?recorders. 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
y! B2 \5 @& [' ?6 S* U+ ?8 fbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
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8 O+ j q) e8 W2 E, `) `7 \Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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* q* \* ?1 f& y# CTape for the Nagra SN
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* F2 u8 h9 O& w. s. e2 vI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
. B P/ e* r/ S! f; I! o2 mthe 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
; M3 ^7 {9 z# w, L$ a6 Vtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
) V O- }) s+ S5 t+ x6 o: e( N'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
- @1 K9 A7 u; gthe 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
/ L1 }, j" w- z" E A, I+ _1 jVERY silly money.
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