Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
& x0 N/ ~2 S" @% g4 s" Q/ d% c' Hthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
3 i9 r+ ^$ U0 I& h( pthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
$ o; @- E$ J% N. b6 F. T! u- H- Wmachines, 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.
8 O9 K. R4 U/ Q: z1 r' o4 UThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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; N% N, F& E, I) Z6 ONagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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* [5 Q$ l) V, ~/ r8 V, E; wNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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! C# [/ T# V- ^8 H1 Y, }Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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1 l1 b2 a% b0 ]4 VNagra 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
: z2 Y' o1 G! q, ~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
* r- J( w5 G# [" Y1 m5 b9 UDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
" q! D- C; F; Z* N, @! Krecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
7 {" Q6 T" }; d; A- ttruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
. a `/ Y9 |# r" ybe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
# t/ C7 |/ R* j) [& nelectronics and be very expensive.
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6 V d; c9 O, F, W% F1 vCheaper 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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( _4 o3 g0 [+ l- F+ xI 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
4 i" K: ~3 c" O' \) G0 t: Atape 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
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
1 K( w: ]- W8 q- ^% \several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
! ]4 V3 v5 }5 g# ]1 ?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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