Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
( L: a+ J7 S3 h1 e' W* ]6 P; A0 Hthe 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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(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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8 [8 o2 g$ e; Z6 j3 F9 `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
2 u" h5 ]; G {/ P( R3 cbeware, 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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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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+ W$ U& z4 F8 L5 sNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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, l( C, ~, t. e4 N0 ?Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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Nagra 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
0 ?' |8 Q8 v# v, H# vhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
7 P% w& a, w& v3 t) {3 j5 ^, Jtherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
; a" n2 x7 c" m: ?* Wrecording 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
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recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
( S* U) g5 w/ i5 b7 B/ t/ Ttruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
; C. m% s( Y V8 \- l/ m9 |, rbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
4 j5 w) O* R2 |+ zelectronics and be very expensive.
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/ g: S" L- k( l7 @4 M$ N% pCheaper 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
, x# ^+ V1 a7 s$ H) w+ t' r/ kwanted 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
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
4 h+ \5 n/ V7 |5 Yonto 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
$ E# n8 K9 r7 o! NVERY silly money.
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