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
I5 m7 h# A) ^) H$ H6 H, ymachines, 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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Click on either of the above images for more information.
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, F4 Z j& S5 q. w A2 \* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
; W+ i7 d+ x# E% N% S3 ^4 A: Y! Nbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
& F, c. A4 k7 w) uThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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: A1 L/ L# ]* F: |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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. v9 J3 V. r. Q5 `( ~& x" q7 ^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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therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
5 R/ b" Y: m, q4 b7 n' Z; Y+ {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
* U8 Z/ r" O$ grecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
- c0 k5 W/ C0 a: p Itruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
/ L/ Y# o- R$ Z6 F' Y9 dbe 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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& e9 |, i* i- `' S2 ]$ ?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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$ b( K4 P' ^2 h8 QI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
% n( g) h) Q; othe 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
! C6 e4 i2 N! d: ~* ?) p; K, Q& j+ Jtape 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
: r* ]9 F' ~( Q8 e6 _, s4 Tthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
) Q% i o- g" i- X d+ fseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
6 o; x: Y3 u0 tonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
# f6 z$ Z, ^* t# z4 G/ {" Z; q/ nthings 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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