Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
2 O* d! q: C& [2 wthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
! H% B1 _6 a$ T7 Q8 {5 i+ ~the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
$ C$ J. B3 b9 j7 t- N0 N$ K) ~% Bmachines, 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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. }: ^# W3 Y1 X R% P8 @& `% ]7 YClick on either of the above images for more information.
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$ i$ }4 h* J/ P1 Y9 m7 a6 B* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
0 p! k; l7 a5 k. Ibeware, 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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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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8 T q s& A" a" o# w" T7 YNagra 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
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have 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 Q" O7 e3 j4 ~) B- Mrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
" Q/ i4 p- c. V" V% rDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
A) p' t% q6 m3 g. B) E! v5 }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
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
; C6 F- G$ S! g/ {electronics and be very expensive.
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- }6 B. }% |: d" k( E* ^3 w1 C0 mCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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# _6 |$ ]! a" c6 s' B1 kTape for the Nagra SN
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- g5 F1 @! ]5 Z* A* p6 g% k( BI 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
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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
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'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
1 c# J. T+ t4 h( v, p& Vthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
: N8 v6 i W7 ]6 _7 F1 \1 pseveral 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
$ P+ `8 G8 N% m8 H* qthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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