Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
6 w) k0 k! y- @8 g+ a/ a7 Dthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
& j/ ?& p. t* X4 _# }: {the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
$ [/ Z* ~. q) I; c: f* g0 d! [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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! x' L% b, n, |* 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.
- d8 N* {# x( g$ T B$ E% XThere 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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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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
5 {/ w. S" |% thave 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
. G& x! j$ X% z5 S3 @recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
- u0 A( E' F7 CDSP) 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
$ G. B, D, D2 d; utruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
+ c x4 J' N9 f6 `be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
; ^; @! ~" R ^( o* ~5 s8 l& ^5 selectronics and be very expensive.
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8 P9 x& ]# B2 G7 V0 K$ A+ ]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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5 E/ j% s9 x6 h- N, S2 y3 kI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
: t4 o m; z3 m8 ~the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
( Y: x$ Q) v; C. J# A$ Owanted 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
& s, J2 S( N+ _# N# w$ ]( L* ]8 Vthe 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
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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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