Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
+ E# z/ d; V% mthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
& {( V/ z1 w. C7 [' Zthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
c8 R( ^9 a# A* x. x5 ]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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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
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
" q% s+ F, n* @ m7 Q0 iThere 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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, a7 M4 n, h/ N8 xNagra 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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1 z6 I# D- a7 ]4 R4 B7 q" \$ {6 P9 qNagra 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
/ }) Y# C/ [9 d+ R+ uhave 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
1 Q6 p/ W% p a1 Srecording 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
. M/ ~2 ^! x( m: x" k# [5 B/ k( crecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
* H6 s3 Q+ w- {% qtruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
, ^! |! O+ N! @' j/ S8 _electronics and be very expensive.
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( g$ h7 B& U. i8 h1 |7 lCheaper 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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3 [1 \& e+ M5 _) UI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
2 e I. i( i9 v; L$ B1 Q" `* V T, Vthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
9 \- ~$ y9 a+ f2 k" Hwanted 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
1 y* x8 V# |* c$ u'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
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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
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