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
0 i- E! M& ?0 k5 W3 L: K+ }the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
! V0 @& f+ Z* b/ smachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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' Q& S& h& r0 Y3 j3 [(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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
& D, Z) f+ o; R% m/ bbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
$ \: ^7 R. m+ A5 X: L2 h, |. [0 YThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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; G+ X" O' M1 C" |& K, Q; jNagra 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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9 v$ W# {; y0 N0 l+ TNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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) M$ _ Q% `+ I3 \- XNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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" j0 P7 {8 n( h+ h! a1 ?' ~8 PApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
% z; t/ ?" n7 {% ?4 U9 i; Hhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
. v$ A& Z O' \& j( E+ ktherefore 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
; i. A2 S) ]! K+ m: [DSP) 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
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truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
8 u. ~+ J) A1 x: H. r+ G: G! xbe 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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- E) w* L" m( v2 |: T7 O6 D7 mTape for the Nagra SN
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! S7 z1 w8 O0 qI 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
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tape 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
1 z' g# v9 c/ w& O2 d+ [9 F! cthe 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
2 f# N7 K2 u( C" X3 Cthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
X: k/ [1 }1 l# aVERY silly money.
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