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
: f4 R% `) X$ N' Q1 ]+ Ithe 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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(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
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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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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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2 m! u/ M. e& m0 DNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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) @& R/ ?9 X; R4 F( |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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5 L$ z+ y `2 d) m- LApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
9 Q) V F9 u) \- B! ^% k4 `0 i$ whave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
7 f5 c6 Q# B. w/ d; E0 ~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
' C' k% y6 L/ M M" K# K3 L1 I. e4 ^be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
* M4 E- ], S" t7 velectronics 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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! B- [' z9 }3 v2 e' d0 tTape for the Nagra SN
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- u3 q) J5 e- X6 y& rI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
x! G3 |9 c- ]2 U, X/ Cthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
% s4 W2 E& t. V8 Ewanted 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
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'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
5 m8 O8 O1 Q! {1 v8 s7 zseveral 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
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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VERY silly money.
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