Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
; l* A) ]" @) u# }8 w- I2 Qthe 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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: d9 i8 x1 V) K(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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) M; `( B) f( A4 Y8 f$ h" m0 c* R- LNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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8 d1 z" Q; O! @+ }Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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) U. ]9 Z+ ]" L& @. oNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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: S( w# P3 R! E( p6 QNagra 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
8 @) M; }; Z2 h5 Y) r9 ^9 U/ |5 Qhave 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
; O2 }6 r; K/ m8 `! s" nrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
, V# A8 z+ n: O% x( [! D& e8 mDSP) 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
& Y; S6 `% _+ @5 C$ e! D, ctruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
$ w2 Z- e) t" Z, e! Sbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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% H7 j- k1 n: p! _ v! o' b/ @& A2 ]Tape for the Nagra SN
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( }! M, {; L* L" Y( h2 s) Z' eI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
% p( Q2 u. }* x6 ithe 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
2 f, h) M( a/ f, J'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
8 [( c1 c0 [! U+ u, Pseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
0 h- A: @$ N3 ]onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
9 c0 u7 C$ i5 z" C; k" Athings 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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