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
2 r- W q' w T" G1 k6 }4 I- Mmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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+ K. y5 l5 K: n' ?+ u: V(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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; L3 C4 B. ~- @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.
) C8 [7 u2 D0 OThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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- }6 U/ G4 | YNagra 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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& D4 B; K9 `* L& ?( x" E9 ], uNagra 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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: @9 e9 t+ j: n7 g. b" z ?. cApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
0 Q0 F. D5 y! u: G; vhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
$ N. U8 {# p1 ~7 l( ~recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
- v( r, _% W9 w/ a) wtruly 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
6 l& J/ @# G2 delectronics and be very expensive.
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0 A# m% C1 D9 g) k( v" [% A, ]) {0 iCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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; E; M2 Y) T$ ]: uTape for the Nagra SN
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+ W7 ?# G6 J9 y5 _; G! h' q' e5 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
* z. I4 z/ z: m) S! wtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
6 J2 |$ D3 n- Y2 t( B. d# z, f'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
: Y5 V" [) X C4 E+ }the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
" V" h1 T4 A6 |4 C# v! t5 Useveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
% ^* K$ J' m. C! wonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
; j" \5 i8 T6 h; Mthings 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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