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
& f5 c: B* W* ]$ u5 \machines, 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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+ m3 o" L0 p3 i9 _7 F- v% VClick 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
2 K, S, P/ H' `" J/ I: Hbeware, 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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9 |9 K- W5 @/ U% I6 ?7 ZNagra 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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3 w( d: |) F) P7 H1 BNagra 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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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
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therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
4 L. ?* B; e( B# N! Z# erecording 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
5 b/ m" L' z5 ~, q* \. n1 H# Y- crecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
' V" P& t" |6 q8 H) S y& \. [- otruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
: D2 g6 E" A: Fbe 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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. ?( F2 H7 ^8 L" k6 \Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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+ x; V7 X( N/ V5 V- O$ X9 OTape 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
& a2 P: d' ?3 | \the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
' ]2 J3 ? O. o# C3 z" M7 l; Mwanted 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
) F$ Y5 B& y* h ~& g/ M! M) ?! Othe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
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several 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
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VERY silly money.
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