Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
; d! Z1 ~: S3 j" q) t% N1 Zthe 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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9 _+ r( [" w" V. y2 {7 S/ }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.
& @% {: M$ C: ^. P3 R7 f6 XThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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2 d+ x- R( y9 v6 e4 Z& `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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) ]9 P @8 s- n$ JNagra 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
9 d7 m: Z1 n! itherefore 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
2 D- A$ | p4 _4 s; [DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
4 W' f& H) R8 n w: j7 ?recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
: l8 ^, Z( X+ q$ ^% ?; |# utruly 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
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electronics and be very expensive.
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+ g/ ~5 G3 X& W' G: C, gCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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l6 {8 i* a; C8 sTape for the Nagra SN
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' \6 l) b0 h) k, X! Q. c0 xI 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
z! Q- G% g. C5 v) ?8 O1 z9 dwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
8 ?) n5 q0 N0 M4 ^' I$ Ktape 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
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the 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
" R+ W* z" r6 s- o: Y+ F% dthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
% @3 u2 R0 X( A+ J0 B+ g0 k/ nVERY silly money.
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