Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
/ N1 R3 _+ o$ e$ }. Q0 w+ J, }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 H1 F0 g7 ?7 u& Smachines, 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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4 \7 c2 k4 v. ^1 j1 K- oNagra 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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/ H7 a4 ]/ q% F& sNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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" X" i% ]4 U: z6 g0 r- A/ s$ @+ W% LNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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: M5 [2 `7 |' H3 G3 g" x$ wApparently 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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
# M% A1 A0 X6 z& FDSP) 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
3 ~9 {. D7 ?! x6 m f3 mtruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
" F) L, }5 [# T2 ?& mbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
$ E }/ b+ C; b+ l9 z- j x" 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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1 V& Y; N; i; z& ~: v" P, Y2 x6 UTape 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
5 A( `1 v5 P# {* {$ uwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
4 p8 e/ _) R/ S; N* t5 y$ E5 s' ^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
d v4 V& f0 O" B9 {the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
( {# Y# R( @7 z7 H: I' n" tseveral 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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