Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
9 f. e) [! `) ethe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
& G9 u5 n* z8 k% R" M( j! R6 Qthe 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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# P: ]( s2 R) Q(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
! S( A8 u% a) D* q& n7 G) i3 T3 jbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
# j/ @7 A8 H* S+ EThere 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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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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4 F: h. E& j4 j. b9 U# ^2 K0 ]' FApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
; T+ a7 O& i) w* y8 khave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
! u1 Q. D! b* r( L' ktherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
0 H# G1 w- w1 J* Nrecording 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
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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
! [/ E4 }* O; y( v* R# }- Utruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
; t- [1 |. M+ I ]6 i* tbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
. \$ D2 r- b! p# Jelectronics 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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# R$ ^+ k2 Q$ T6 h7 CI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
4 r% N) T6 ~3 @3 S. e% Dthe 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
* i1 G+ g' ~( H S2 x7 V& W'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
# b5 U7 [9 u( d% ]the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
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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
8 [& K( v) |& ithings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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