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
5 r3 u% X6 b1 P5 r# L2 ?machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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/ O4 x) d. m( C ](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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
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; N0 A* T; l9 o9 Y ]9 H; JThere 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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6 S2 ?5 K$ p" A4 f- U H' }Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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- X, m. S e+ B7 P1 J% aNagra 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
, R" U% u2 S S" chave 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
( M Q9 |; a, |8 E2 Q4 jDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
. j% k& G3 w) |9 B* m! G: r8 D2 u2 ^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
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
) _1 ^2 Q. i+ K& x7 helectronics 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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1 @2 W3 B; ?" ~. P% J, ?3 TTape 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
1 x7 k: f, ~) E3 P( @! X# Mthe 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
. {+ y0 m6 j3 ]& k3 M+ B'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
3 g) V9 {: H% r* T$ F/ bonto 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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