Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
9 ]/ R+ O' e- V$ {the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
$ M# {; ~+ p5 u$ h& E; Lthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
( _) b/ x9 @) G: T% w) F/ J5 ]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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* n( L8 z2 m2 x2 u, ~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.
6 p K- u9 q9 |/ m) N' O0 _9 A9 G" bThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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+ U( c8 M% `3 ^3 f0 C- ]" N5 }( ~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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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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2 e7 G' X; I+ j' z. Q, U% O1 h7 d5 [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
$ J5 Z) ]8 c, @# Ehave 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
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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
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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
0 h) _& v# c, z$ jtruly 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
$ _$ g( d% Z" Qelectronics 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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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
9 n! l7 j" W& h9 m; O' kthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
/ Y$ ]+ W# i) D; t) twanted 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
% t6 G y5 Y: g4 D'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
7 G' i- V) q4 J4 B% _5 vseveral 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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