Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
. ~& q, n; q7 n9 h" W6 S5 Pthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
) M$ C: m7 n8 Gthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
; D7 A o/ p9 r+ x' \7 J, m! B& cmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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$ k7 S, t! L. z. x(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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* N; e* o `4 g$ GClick on either of the above images for more information.
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' E0 I; G* Y+ o' ]$ d8 ~3 R/ ^* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
: O6 T6 i) y9 X- g' V9 b j2 Fbeware, 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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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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+ i! P, U0 {$ N6 PNagra 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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
% D8 @3 k4 o" U1 P; Ghave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
0 t# _0 x7 B- l5 m. Ctherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
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recording 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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truly 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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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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I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
3 A7 b! w( ~& ?: l5 ` z# Z+ ^% Nthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
, a" n. ]# S$ x& ~2 U& fwanted 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
7 {2 m3 A8 I% D3 n- f$ C'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
}! u5 v# I8 x& z& Q; z" zthe 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
6 J; u) F/ u) o9 j& L/ Xonto 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
5 ?: M; e9 M8 z' y) xVERY silly money.
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