Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
8 A; N0 T" \2 Nthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
, h0 L5 F5 l0 I- C0 ?4 h9 x; Hthe 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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7 i" U7 r0 K# O U" k& V, \' x- ^6 I(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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$ E1 i* K/ r/ [6 c0 G: N/ pClick 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
6 h8 \, R$ [1 f: Tbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
: a1 e4 R: X& W3 }3 _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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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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
- d T0 E% R% n. }6 L( l% Khave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
" p4 M+ Z7 Z! m% V& Dtherefore 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
0 N/ B5 S# j" g+ L. LDSP) 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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+ D5 S# O6 r( @. e) y. iCheaper 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
4 y s( x" [2 |6 i& M/ }the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
$ K3 }& E$ [$ w. G7 @+ Iwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
7 k/ K5 V8 S/ Q5 I# B3 A F# ^ [tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
: Y6 a; n) Z+ W* V! B2 r'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
3 X0 L' n# Z2 ?; [+ X( u, [the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
) a0 r5 Q: P+ d# U" ? bseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
+ B, t- v- B% ~& p2 h- ^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
: J' h3 V* w% ~0 n% C5 A; SVERY silly money.
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