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
+ z- W6 d) m: t3 q- K+ othe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
8 e% w: K! e# ~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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- W1 R, n) Y8 _( P7 W+ s! t( hClick 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
7 F6 {4 V+ L9 ?# obeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
( C8 G" {1 N% A: s5 q" aThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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( j* S+ Q1 _+ s% G e QNagra 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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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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& N' i7 f; o# l8 g! R5 O9 U2 K/ xNagra 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
& ?) m' W2 j$ O {have some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
, y$ A; h! h7 k6 ?* ktherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
1 w3 G9 u- \+ t' grecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
0 B8 A1 n6 C) k% v+ G5 D6 aDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
+ ]4 b5 P$ K) Y3 e8 i! X: [/ crecorders. 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
9 Y* t) ]+ ~7 V2 `be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
1 c6 C, U; P" p' K# j4 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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Tape for the Nagra SN
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& y1 l+ C$ E8 F2 }4 M" {* o3 jI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
& ]: \7 \ q; I2 a; pthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
# S5 K. W/ L2 \8 L r1 H( n4 Qwanted 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
2 H. w3 V& h9 V3 U1 c) f& l'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
7 m; h$ M1 S* x/ Eseveral 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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VERY silly money.
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