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
4 P. h4 ]( c K% h& C( W9 Z7 ~the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
G3 j. n- v- W2 J( Q* Y4 Jmachines, 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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* 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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* |; a* j, C. m. k' ]2 F' dNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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2 h' I' h& c& b$ C( F$ q1 _2 }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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6 c2 `! n5 P3 ?/ l, B5 t- nNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
& v5 O" ~; S' a/ lDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
; D7 P& ~& x% o. d+ K! brecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
+ G/ I$ j) {$ j4 S& _) ebe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
2 F" \) [& A* }- _3 j( G' t. B2 `6 `electronics and be very expensive.
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( T9 I u8 S) d! e S) ACheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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1 s v `. j& @5 ATape for the Nagra SN
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; D/ {! A% L9 j/ L8 h9 q; m$ {& UI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
+ d$ @1 e/ _. A, u2 m9 Bthe 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
8 A* A# j7 q8 {+ ?) Ptape 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
- b* A8 {$ ]& b5 C3 h" n- H3 Gthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
9 C' }0 D% v" J [3 O2 sseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
9 H1 @' Y" x( H$ honto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
6 \4 G, D/ Q5 p3 q) I; A+ Pthings 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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