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
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the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
9 G, m' D$ D4 a0 D' L2 lmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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: v: y/ R; j( C0 Q7 \7 @(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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0 e$ O1 [, J2 s/ O) v4 ~( R* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
3 i" s8 {) c, o/ Dbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
0 ^% j; G7 f. B. X" {5 e+ O- ZThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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9 X7 V0 x; J4 X# X% |7 r% U8 sNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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' S, Q5 B* X% y `3 @5 {Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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; Y0 L% q/ a% C1 w/ ZNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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$ z; O$ Y& h8 Y2 f( e; Q) o" CNagra 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
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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
3 F0 S5 Q2 i9 T3 frecording 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
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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
* n/ s$ P; w! P" l5 ?# e. C# hbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
6 u2 r( S9 j) S& o. e0 selectronics 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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' g2 H2 N9 J/ m( K! s0 C9 eTape 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
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
' k( K+ C3 q1 |2 o4 ]+ _7 p: ywanted 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
5 }7 G o; u7 k: }5 e'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
+ @- L- R4 s1 n2 uthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
r+ m' p2 y) ]5 Useveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
! i; q6 X$ s( k; conto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
6 y' g, M! v8 L( f- xthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
5 z/ d3 A- r0 P! i( cVERY silly money.
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