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
: B2 ~1 W9 D, mthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
7 B2 j, `2 w5 k, @# smachines, 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
2 m* G% L' H6 d4 S1 ~7 ebeware, 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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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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# X: c; B+ [. YApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
* J( a$ X; }0 |! y5 z4 dhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
# I! c# v2 d4 x% m/ ^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
, o6 v6 c- c n; [6 A0 B6 yDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
7 L- A9 H1 _- F$ j# p2 {recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
2 S! |, S1 c+ G! S& k8 O: ltruly 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
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electronics 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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( M1 I1 y7 D+ g- eTape for the Nagra SN
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% ^- ^+ j5 U7 z6 y8 WI 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
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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
0 S) W7 x* o1 T. K' I% l0 |" |tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
. q j8 W, H: w'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
" ?$ ^+ |3 Q1 d! {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
% d: q' H+ Q# D6 `VERY silly money.
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