Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
( P% s& G' E8 Xthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
* W1 Z& x& ?& ?4 cthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
$ |, t4 \& z! Z; H2 @ v' imachines, 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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* ^3 T; P+ J: _' k- d" F- 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.
, p. k9 A7 ~1 [, OThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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* S; ]" w, |+ Z& L0 B/ c" X7 BNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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) m) Q* T& w1 p9 H% f# SNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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+ m$ {- \# d9 _/ d( ZNagra 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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! r# m- M4 R& K5 p- g+ G) g( U; WApparently 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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
% K; `4 B. }' h6 J; S( qrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
+ \, q3 D+ X3 \$ \: u9 ytruly 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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* t# X3 z% t9 kCheaper 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
& F0 N; [" S$ |: cthe 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
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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
% d1 u+ g Q! t" L5 {# j4 Kseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
q* q/ r" W j: l& Jonto 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
( A: }( a+ e3 Z- f0 ^VERY silly money.
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