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
, s* f! U, s" T/ p. Sthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
- N/ j. d! f" M& \# G) ]+ Zmachines, 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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9 `3 T A: i2 r* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
3 e& J& v( D7 L, G" T; ?8 zbeware, 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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; G8 f3 c1 w, M9 L5 HNagra 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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' P# Y: V7 O! z# l. ^1 aApparently 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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
: C5 E) s3 ?! R7 ^- `- {9 Qrecorders. 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
1 b* b! G. l9 b( y/ Q* Kbe 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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8 E5 _3 v1 z# x1 fTape 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
' u. {8 s6 J5 c# \8 a4 y; c: Dthe 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
& b1 i" `, W& W& z3 b/ ctape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
7 R) h: H0 z) _9 U5 a$ B'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
, D% L9 B: R0 }! |6 I/ y, tthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
3 J* y3 u, ?( G0 p! W2 y# d+ `, Hseveral 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
% \; G0 u( W9 i* }2 Z H% t% x2 ~4 fthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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