Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
9 M$ V W5 a0 Z! C; rthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
& d( D8 Q9 R8 @( cthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
: E4 X* Z) ?2 q6 T, N5 r8 |machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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1 T" M6 Y; [2 z$ |2 f+ ^7 [(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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7 _) e. ~! @2 ~6 v6 b& g+ r+ mClick 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
& [, _9 e( g6 c2 @) z6 F$ obeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
, y4 B% i7 P VThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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1 J% |/ G; q; I' [; {+ {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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( G8 H5 v! b% h* K5 B1 QNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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- `! P/ G* c9 cNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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8 d# s ]( j! PNagra 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
1 f4 c. r% H1 |$ g7 L9 M9 ?8 Zhave 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
4 F+ u7 a2 f/ ] l% c6 o _) nrecording 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
% T9 h: K9 k* D6 S4 \recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
% c, v5 a' g( Ebe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
$ S9 ?; f9 _) b" }) _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
! [+ a2 I! c" C, f6 d! ~wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
9 ?$ r2 C. ]* M# P! l) Q6 Ztape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
6 ]8 q' p2 A% S# Y: D'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
3 @; d- i# l+ ^5 f3 Cthe 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
& K$ W" |8 W6 C' honto 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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VERY silly money.
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