Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
$ S z: h" ?9 C$ i% U8 h" Kthe 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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. {0 o0 t0 }# L! m9 S# T(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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3 M5 ^4 T2 i0 S, h6 F. M3 a* 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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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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0 c- v4 M. w+ V _& @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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2 }% b+ }: x; `. s/ uNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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3 L6 g5 G* x6 N6 @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
/ w* q& V! s' x8 hrecording 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
6 H$ G Q3 p J" |/ Ptruly 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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. Z. p0 n, J$ N M7 y" lCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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4 \7 m! g f* `: t5 @# ?2 `Tape for the Nagra SN
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* h4 M6 r6 z: O% v2 E3 JI 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
8 L, K6 D! S) W, swanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
# q: ~) I8 A5 G" E8 H) Ktape 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
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
0 [) D6 C3 a1 _- a4 G0 [" Useveral 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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