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
3 ?( @- T1 {* t0 c; {4 Othe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
6 l, D5 i9 H* H. Nmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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) @# h. k7 Q. i& ^0 t: d(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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4 ~% _$ P( q6 ^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
8 k$ M- y5 g3 G. L2 F" @beware, 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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) N1 G3 k) S: f3 j4 B( TNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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( g8 w1 t: O2 b2 e# }; c, k) _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
9 T0 X$ o9 ]! S G2 G5 E# R, W. hhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
* y) v. J9 e0 I5 a" f9 f4 ttherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
. ~* X. ]3 C( N5 R+ 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
1 R* M" E# Q7 [$ {$ htruly 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
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electronics and be very expensive.
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1 o2 p. Q9 _ W5 {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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" w! s' p1 H, CI 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
5 D! e9 L7 C4 L1 J) M2 C0 E5 x* ewanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
, @3 {) J3 e% w! etape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
R1 p3 I9 |, f' Z9 P }2 m'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
, D6 [. p4 H3 l% Ithe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
( }7 \- G/ a, }' c5 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
& r0 Y: _. N2 m5 W ethings 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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