Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
3 V: m; ~% l9 L( }# fthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
: i4 a4 ~, P1 q$ c. \5 G+ athe 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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4 I" V: Q$ `" X! P9 _: ^. b8 i( p(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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" P6 Z1 d8 o8 F" K& E2 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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; m; \/ [2 z% d) n0 RNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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9 z. R. n/ H" n$ O8 P4 o$ TNagra 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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( V7 |4 S6 d* u! v6 F k6 `/ pApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
6 d. b1 `* l" Y% r7 @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
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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
& f; w5 g* Z% v/ r5 i* ]1 O/ t; Kelectronics 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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$ R& ^+ J5 N& v: }: STape 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
Q' m. J/ R& m* B- u lthe 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
& {1 S+ Q i4 @9 r$ H) Z+ p'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
6 t' o% u, k8 L& \# ~5 _8 E" Wseveral 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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