Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
! t, n8 ]# Z" Q) {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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: r5 H9 G5 d8 d Z$ W(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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* O" u3 G0 [8 m" b MClick on either of the above images for more information.
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8 ]8 P) V' H! g* 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.
, v( @& F" c' ~There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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+ B q$ d- f ~2 ^: t" \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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- ~/ N1 B9 D: PNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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/ X& u$ D, A( rNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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( ?2 C3 N( u, ~9 D- TNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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1 n1 Q! A" k y. W+ Q, CApparently 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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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
" f# o/ G% C% y8 O N0 fDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
1 `8 y8 d K) m, xrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
6 D2 Y+ O% J) m2 z9 itruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
; J. g( \/ M) N. O* U4 h: n$ s$ rbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
2 u: P& T; A; J, g! r- }/ Pelectronics 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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' R0 A3 c# P0 ^! Z6 K/ h' j. KTape 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
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tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
/ h# d4 y! c) j* Q'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
) A, u, y9 ]/ h( _* e3 O, Qseveral 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
$ J; _/ s7 Y4 |- S! O8 ^, ethings 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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