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
3 N( w5 n, F2 l$ B* T; Y! R; _the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
, x0 e6 C/ [. x' cmachines, 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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9 X2 E% Y& E! I. DClick on either of the above images for more information.
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& z3 m! X9 P$ b1 i* 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.
4 \" v$ J3 i- c6 |+ \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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, z/ e+ l) y2 G% {2 WNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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0 T" h2 \4 q2 G7 U TNagra 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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' T/ H. h% @% T' `& X6 W9 \ 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
4 D/ b' C+ @6 N7 l( ~/ l4 [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
( ? z* V& {" y, n, Ube possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
r- }$ v, ^, K. R- G0 c- Zelectronics and be very expensive.
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9 u) b1 E# Y9 N$ z/ G2 RCheaper 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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5 V( [3 ] U8 @7 F qI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
! F" g" V: N) J5 v) L; R9 {9 M( Zthe 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
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'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
& J0 c" T1 N1 _! c6 X" J& r; Fthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
- ^7 `+ a/ G4 Sseveral 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
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
! r( G5 M; u6 ]9 n+ G. y& nVERY silly money.
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