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
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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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8 S, K5 `6 a/ e; r8 z+ i(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
y1 }/ s% H& k3 P; o% wbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
! B/ m" ]. R6 o0 R$ w9 lThere 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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4 t" B2 z3 ^) w( }7 u# ]! sNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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2 ?% L0 o1 E2 q7 S& r; 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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
& A- S3 R3 Y% M+ ^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
0 n8 i4 W' S2 Srecording 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
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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
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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
) j1 d3 o6 \! x% F& L9 M' t& mbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
; @# X, z2 ?$ P. {" T. ^electronics and be very expensive.
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& `9 |8 J7 [* k+ Q% v0 SCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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- ?+ O' ^3 {% `& y) E, TTape for the Nagra SN
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0 u8 L1 E! {) w) F# ^; _I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
! p/ s n5 a, }! m& Y6 K$ ^6 Cthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
2 z6 e3 E' S7 l+ f7 Z4 \4 ] `8 Qwanted 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
! ~8 U! `6 D% }9 ]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
: C% a& W2 A4 X: O6 t: Sonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
, ^3 ^" _7 W `1 t0 uthings 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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