Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
( v7 l# x$ F4 P4 ]" A5 `the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
$ Z6 T% S; S: Gthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
1 ?7 Y* ?9 _1 p1 cmachines, 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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k/ ?/ U$ e$ o+ _; @" O; E7 sClick on either of the above images for more information.
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$ A; {- G7 `# A8 p* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
1 g. v5 d- D4 x8 H: Abeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
$ A# @! X" \% D/ e! HThere 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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3 [5 V; u; e. O. @- KNagra 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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5 d& p! x0 ?7 }Apparently 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
: x% C9 _/ j2 C- A9 o# \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
5 h1 p9 v7 v0 f* ]DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
. j& i ^* L7 o! @6 k: ]& I8 orecorders. 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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4 t* H# q6 b6 _+ GI 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
: B3 o. e1 U8 @wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
2 x7 b; ~6 V$ V5 ytape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
2 _# P* B& W, A6 P6 ]'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
& ~ Z* t# G. P) Iseveral 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
5 t' `+ r1 X0 P' g( V7 Fthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
Q4 `- P+ _( VVERY silly money.
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