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
( g+ I5 e( D: c! vmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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, `3 R) L+ X3 u& M* E(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
' z k# c* S" k( q2 _beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
% x0 q$ w! S0 E6 z9 ?7 I+ QThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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9 A7 @' N5 n3 L; w3 C; }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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( ]$ c3 m1 `4 PNagra 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
7 d/ N- `$ f4 T0 j' Stherefore 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
# A1 s9 g& J: `/ Y1 bDSP) 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
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
, B, z6 M& e: }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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Tape for the Nagra SN
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2 S# R* a! z8 v+ @0 H0 U, O: KI 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
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tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
: [1 s8 l V1 z' j, w6 \( ['pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
6 Z( O! |, a& ?5 m/ Pthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
. e/ C: ^1 t [several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
. g& d' V3 N% X/ z. Oonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
1 V. k9 H' x3 {3 v7 e" I$ Uthings 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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