Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
! ~- q' E( t+ X; I; @7 z- E9 Sthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
' R, {9 B* ^7 x* J/ xthe 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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Click on either of the above images for more information.
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# I( F6 {6 n6 M1 G2 j* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
: a% w3 o* e; w( }9 V9 b. I1 l# `beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
5 m% d# Q6 D% Y" p/ ~+ }+ KThere 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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- `$ }* h7 ^& V1 MNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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' {5 V M9 j) [6 c9 J) zApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
0 }6 ?- ]) d' C3 n9 p# F* zhave 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
, g! `" x8 F0 j" drecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
7 `6 y/ r" D& z- g$ v+ \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
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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
+ x% z9 B8 ~! w4 m! K- qelectronics and be very expensive.
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) [0 L( ]- y8 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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5 }4 c* a% t3 Q/ k8 X* q- DI 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 V& D; L: A5 O& {& ?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
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
% c9 E0 E5 Q# E- r# {& `onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
) h3 I* R z. G; V; {0 Sthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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