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
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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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o6 c. @: L+ |(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
+ c2 b$ p3 S7 E% T& s1 a9 Y& \$ Cbeware, 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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8 b0 S0 G1 y7 A; l+ F& m+ q& zNagra 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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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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+ H- V) w9 v3 r6 E F( n) ^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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optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
% \& M/ h1 q, r. ~- o( c. Arecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
4 i# P$ i% i/ t1 X9 k9 u( dDSP) 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
! \3 G8 j& a$ Y' `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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% `7 M1 G$ U; O% G" u# rCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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, j1 x+ o. |& I" J! ~/ B5 ITape for the Nagra SN
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' f- E1 s; T( f; K& x- vI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
9 M0 j: L/ q* z. ?the 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
( v/ t# i q0 b. U9 {'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
8 Y2 h3 m& K0 b" X. lseveral 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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