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
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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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+ C8 r9 g6 i W8 ~4 Y- s(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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! v q3 t% M) o; n4 n* 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.
3 r2 ]' `7 g. x8 _There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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; {8 X6 [# C" x$ j: w/ MNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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9 { L: O& v5 T2 f* \) X! M, qNagra 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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$ Y+ j9 S) y+ c% U( [' Z' ENagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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2 i7 f! @ N% [: Z# ]9 DApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
$ @ ~ M5 K- N: Chave 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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
& a% d9 E. e; q2 n; ^2 ]. A3 S7 N& x8 Hrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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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
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electronics and be very expensive.
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$ S2 d M4 j; T. R. o) dCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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/ Y& N3 Q j$ H* z# z1 G) q }" ZTape for the Nagra SN
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: X3 E1 N0 o" g2 o/ T$ zI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
0 f/ U5 W5 B% {; o. _* Bthe 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
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
1 F. p8 |' A8 `7 M, P: q, e- t* qseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
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/ J Z+ q3 @" L8 G0 ]things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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