Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
+ ~. y# ]! q0 N) N* |$ _& vthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
: t0 x" b1 X6 Cthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
1 N3 r# c% n( x9 A! H$ Lmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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8 C5 x1 A1 L5 `0 z/ E(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
) {6 [8 W, T w* H0 cbeware, 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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, n) _: b6 C& y" h2 M4 g) uNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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2 V$ u; c" x* U, s1 ?3 X! dNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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, z5 G- v/ s/ h8 v: O% zNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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s& ~! U* o2 K3 ~" P# j. x. XNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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0 x+ H" H0 u" B( nApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
4 I. m* _+ S# ?' L9 S, |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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
/ p" j' a- z9 E/ m$ IDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
, e7 I+ t' K: M$ N- m) c6 y4 nrecorders. 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
5 Q* f- V4 J$ y2 ube 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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/ |# T; D' s5 f1 P( q, y9 o: JTape 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
( U+ f" g) r; |. U6 q0 x7 sthe 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
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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
0 Y7 t! V6 x: t1 D# m. ?onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
$ k- x4 L9 m: tthings 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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