Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
. |) R9 V4 H& v% Nthe 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
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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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Click on either of the above images for more information.
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3 Y, o: e; u- u9 z! ^, Z* 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.
0 _' b+ l% B& bThere 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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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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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
r' ^6 o" Q% {5 xrecording 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
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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
" x# H2 G" s6 rbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
# z' o3 e3 E p# L+ M; w- V$ r# O( Yelectronics 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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$ X; B, d! `$ V5 [Tape 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
6 f* ~- J( s: V; lthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
$ G( h4 p* a0 o9 ?+ N5 ?wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
- Y+ M% e* W( f& {tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
. O$ X0 S# }* R4 n2 S" ?. ], j'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
. G( n# a4 b8 `$ K5 w/ P- pthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
5 ^& ?! d. ]* C* m) S# h2 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
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VERY silly money.
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