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
: @! t* z8 C. M; C) h @the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
. ]1 O% T( d+ g) N" T$ ` I7 ~machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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9 f8 R+ u; Q k' t+ G(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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, {5 T: b& H2 `* @. q. PClick on either of the above images for more information.
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9 C0 H! o0 a) F: ~# Z/ L* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
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beware, 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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; v3 y* Y5 k' W, _+ H2 xNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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% Y O3 ]) \- I$ o/ g6 U- m2 }Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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. s; l: k! ?5 b( M8 B$ y! N* ONagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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6 z2 F$ d" X" n! y7 M6 s& J7 kNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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! h* o) q7 H8 Q0 x8 f+ \8 VApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
5 k& u0 E% ^6 A3 `& Vhave 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
3 i2 W2 y* Y/ w, Crecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
* M& z3 d' y' h/ j! U6 WDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
9 m9 ~" k$ S1 R5 X9 A& [recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
6 s( @7 E& W! e8 G+ ^# {& n, @truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
9 Q1 F$ _. C7 r) fbe 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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& H- l, R- N5 B3 dCheaper 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
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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
+ A* D4 I' E9 c% {tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
2 t2 y7 h6 T, P'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
( C5 n, I+ O, _& \' ~6 w1 Yseveral 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
7 |3 Y) K% r7 S6 ^( @( bthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
7 @! n, W+ ^! ]; J$ hVERY silly money.
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