Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
3 g2 w0 @& ~! e. u9 jthe 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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
- Q$ z0 K( O% ]( X. b) U$ Wbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
, `7 |. H$ x+ o+ @8 {7 n1 {7 O$ `There 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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2 @* V. C! Q! zNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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5 Y+ ^: g' D T: K0 L- ~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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! D* N5 ]2 v4 b( s" G! ~Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
6 U. b& p3 R' zhave 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
. ~/ u* P) K! e9 @7 P4 yDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
5 e. w; i, N- yrecorders. 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
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electronics 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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Tape for the Nagra SN
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( p$ \$ v& t& {. K0 lI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
1 O! E, @: y# b5 pthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
+ b. O$ z" }( F/ i/ `wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
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4 U* r# f( F2 z2 S'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
! U" C9 F: \$ T% \$ K' ?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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