Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
, m2 \1 l0 T6 O6 c' Uthe 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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' A0 u- E. t( e(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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% H5 z& M, u* r; A( [3 u# p1 P* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
" ~2 d4 w0 F5 m! ~( Fbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
* y: o' D5 c! z9 z) q: a1 b3 xThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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7 B, T8 V# F! Z! t ~- J% kNagra 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 v0 N' g" I9 ~Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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4 v! b# R% Q. zNagra 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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6 K0 d7 @8 S7 I9 }! I: GApparently 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
7 q6 G! O3 p- Y. cDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
( h- u' a% I! I$ N2 p, Z* Grecorders. 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
1 {! n6 b/ \$ c. Wbe 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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- j" l6 ?" i% aCheaper 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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I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
: Z% N5 H' O: H8 W. [# z+ H; Lthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
2 a2 o n( z- O- W7 B; a+ {! Owanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
: Q4 F' M6 Q3 l. k, ~tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
' y; D3 Z+ V4 J5 `1 [1 a/ {9 _'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
" S! n. o6 E$ t4 e0 gthings 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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