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
& E9 j s" A; \! g7 u% Cthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
9 h7 @. w: o/ m# `2 r6 r, {/ O |machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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* I8 [: S5 a8 j5 G' O! M, J( a(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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& f$ L" q0 ^6 r, g1 ]5 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.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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1 j! u# {4 ~- m! }. s, {' O. ANagra 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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: k1 T- s3 d+ n7 w- z$ u& nNagra 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
; L( i x! D8 ]( T9 shave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
2 e8 E" s n, \9 Z- f1 o0 \1 [therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
# |( w) r" P. P4 | lrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
/ M. |- s$ k. u' S4 l8 x" r0 u1 bDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
* V7 E# B; _! v/ ~4 h' i. arecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
0 ]2 d. I0 e2 S3 J* Atruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
$ a1 Z1 T4 Y# E2 }# ~. ~1 v7 J# S* sbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
- T) R! p. \9 l) Relectronics 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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, E1 @# E4 s: t# RTape for the Nagra SN
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8 o, L& S4 |" y$ I/ i vI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
+ T# @7 J/ z/ b8 }+ ` Kwanted 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
6 R7 R, K4 u: A'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
* j* ^5 m/ B* p) oseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
' z/ Y# o- ]( C5 N1 [0 {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
6 ~! j: G) L# eVERY silly money.
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