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
) Q5 \3 P: c: ~! U' e, g4 Ymachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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* k* L8 a+ y, j(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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4 u8 T* l2 a( |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.
/ Q. \9 P) m; ^; a$ {2 k/ vThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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! |! I @4 V' [% e4 ENagra 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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$ E9 `( y. H+ ^5 k5 T1 s2 I" eNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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' ]# ?, g" `, z) M. tNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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3 J# e! w8 k' e" S) d% m7 lApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
" ?9 g9 I7 \. {8 v: H% }& Q. yhave 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
9 b9 x6 c/ V8 F6 e' q4 ?recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
+ x1 w: y5 m1 ^* L% uDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
5 k$ w8 T0 [$ O+ j srecorders. 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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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
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
9 F8 _! S% }4 }2 O$ l- fwanted 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
( b7 [. O+ h3 ~5 l& 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
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several 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
5 N& r5 A- f! o4 {1 }# OVERY silly money.
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