Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
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the 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
, c1 }! z9 B8 H) L0 c" [/ ~machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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7 R' r! P8 E. w+ _(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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
( H7 r* N. S9 B- L( _: \' ~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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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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: z% [) T/ ]" w/ tNagra 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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7 X% W' l/ T9 N0 {% b L+ C" \2 BApparently 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
. j* j, z- Q# H5 I0 A4 Htherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
' a6 G+ H( F6 S4 }recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
6 R% ^; T! |: [+ ]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
$ k3 S. X/ }7 |! g! q5 Relectronics and be very expensive.
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6 `# d5 t! N' S& e+ xCheaper 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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, j3 P% `+ V) s q ^I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
5 Q& a& i4 @! k) ithe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
: y" B- `- i J& e5 W8 g7 n# twanted 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
6 ]/ Q( e( n/ b& y) h* C'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
3 D' r, y6 E- |/ `( M* @, Pthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
4 N" _# k0 Q! v M" {, Fseveral 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
8 k( s/ [0 V/ Othings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
. Z! T7 F5 X, A! t3 @- {8 ^VERY silly money.
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