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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(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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$ j5 j9 }/ l j* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
/ C3 [3 d* _5 X) o/ lbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
9 u( U1 e0 o1 M( d2 d" wThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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+ g3 w( t/ R% u7 z p; ^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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. z. A" ~' r5 R4 {Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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+ G% \: H! B% e* H# o$ BNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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# c# d3 f W8 a; ^' m7 ^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
# Q. Y' i# N* D ^: @ Ehave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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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
( U' ~ ~! F& D) F: @* G. `DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
9 r5 ^ P. W6 @" _, @recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
+ V$ m/ W7 y* J: @5 utruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
3 Y' ?4 l3 Y1 L& U8 X8 B* Bbe 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
" _! m# M2 o* ^8 n. P4 K1 z- [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
/ {! ^& Q5 {% j'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
8 U$ R2 p ]8 c- }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
3 t9 S2 {( P0 b2 hthings 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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