Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
& k6 Z5 x+ G: @3 U2 Mthe 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
& y9 `% s) A* fmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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W" f. w! t! H, C" W(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.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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. e: o; Q' [: U+ F" R! INagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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/ s% I+ E: n$ v$ R: o$ S" pNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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7 g5 e" n; D$ ~, WNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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1 ^! B9 }! B* p. mNagra 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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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
* g& E$ F m! _, lDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
9 }& V: U, U/ p, [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
- _2 K" p G7 q$ x. H1 ^, c wbe 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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/ W2 ], N, o# o' J0 C5 G/ _Tape for the Nagra SN
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5 K5 m/ V% Z' |( g+ jI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
0 G8 w: C: Y7 l2 G2 k; D# _6 qthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
; Q4 e J; V$ h! p' q2 N2 ~wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
8 B; U# V# f1 L2 @3 ^ y% htape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
4 u! R: w+ x' C6 E& c' ?9 h8 d- R'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
% A0 U' g) l t$ |- V+ b' zseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
: E y' f" r: `9 o4 U( ^$ Xonto 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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