Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
) {* ]) E" o; t. Z: X uthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
4 ?. r% N9 p5 ?1 fthe 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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5 @( i. C7 Q: k' ~" w(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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: v! `6 w+ I9 `* ^0 oClick 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.
: e- Z" X& m; ^% Q( O+ SThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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6 R1 @5 p1 o% b3 M9 ?# M! KNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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6 v4 h5 d6 e; R% r! Y7 _# uNagra 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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, s! [2 U: \1 _! sNagra 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
( s3 L3 O2 G5 h5 X4 ehave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
' @4 u. @& r; {( u& 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
0 v, a+ e |$ f h# irecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
( v8 l l0 J8 g7 R9 x xtruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
$ c6 T: c% ~1 z; S( M, E8 A; {be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
. O5 G( ]1 D$ |) S$ felectronics 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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. v4 v: L# A+ Q* f/ `, e9 @2 KTape for the Nagra SN
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$ \7 M/ S4 a5 ?& L3 l$ BI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
, t( R$ b: ?; I* v- Y0 w+ ethe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
0 I7 `4 r! d% c8 W5 ]wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
6 t- e7 a% z# _4 s# gtape 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
2 j/ R, \( `7 Hseveral 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
# F8 Z8 M0 a# S% \9 k Ythings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
8 ]5 c! U" y- o- U2 c+ H; u) gVERY silly money.
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