Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
1 F9 j) w# n+ }' 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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$ K4 d/ x' O/ e2 p* R; M5 P(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
S8 q) X: X6 D" t+ ~, C- v* tbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
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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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3 w# ?+ Y$ J3 dNagra 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
# q/ t* u% Q/ G# {- W: C5 S6 }( O ahave 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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
3 h( E- h W p4 e+ `3 t' J+ ]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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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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& j( u, K, i) yTape 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
$ V6 |3 v {% P9 Othe 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
3 ?/ ~ w7 c% k! @9 N( n! T* ]* N'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
2 \" [- ~; K$ q5 g& ]4 Eseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
9 f z- P. e* w; K2 K' Ponto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
, W& v6 L( ]% v/ [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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