Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
" x: I& h8 C' M$ M" ]1 mthe 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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" c& B7 {% e, \Click on either of the above images for more information.
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3 s3 N" F8 D0 N" p* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
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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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: K: B7 V9 H. LNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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7 R% @% \" ~' UNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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, Y2 j0 J# u. f* y% Q7 m2 \Nagra 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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7 b, a3 X: h3 D& |0 _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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
# B$ `! Y$ e1 K [9 o, r- d# ODSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
" p3 D# H* h( H$ S6 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
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
- U0 n2 C3 L# r+ r* l) U- oelectronics 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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s0 {; A! R' aTape for the Nagra SN
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; }- H* S) Z: fI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
; k I1 ]# v/ K' Y4 Zthe 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
/ N% R" o; J4 \1 dtape 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
' z5 z1 S; R2 y3 Q8 U gthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
9 Z* a( |7 S$ m( Fseveral 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
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things 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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