Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
& c; C7 c2 v: N/ Y2 y& Jthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
& M1 B9 |! n3 H& H$ B. [! tthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
' a. D8 P% Y! s* i$ _$ |# Y$ amachines, 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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, ?8 R: t5 w7 Q6 K! w: kClick 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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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
0 r( d/ F3 j; z7 YThere 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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+ w3 C9 q/ U: N3 A. H+ z* HNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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% T- [! }) ~, F# }Nagra 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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1 d" H4 U2 }3 g: [+ n0 {. C& qApparently 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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therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
: o! p/ K0 `5 m( o2 J6 Qrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
( y6 ^# W. ]# b9 Jrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
! y2 Q2 g$ @; a) s/ ntruly 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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# V1 W4 r0 U6 RCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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+ X/ F( @; y9 c( }! t4 R8 }) mTape for the Nagra SN
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5 e) c; E3 Y1 I5 NI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
7 t% r, b5 e% r3 A$ X) L c1 `the 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
0 f1 |1 L1 E. Y" ^9 Q* d! G/ d$ [tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
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'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
0 ?5 T4 x, j: ?2 j0 r9 z$ E0 pseveral 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
) i2 h2 h1 {4 s" c! ^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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