Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
5 R( x! c! A5 L+ k, b8 Vthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
0 g7 O! m- d3 @0 Y/ \! R! Gthe 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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- {. E2 Y3 H" r* u l2 K% D(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
6 _. o$ I2 j' m7 E& M+ w' o sbeware, 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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, S* c( t+ o: k: ]! _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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; Q2 P% q) ?& i8 d# c5 R3 v# a4 sNagra 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
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have 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
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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
# F4 ? S. V) S& R) U0 b5 Urecorders. 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
$ y0 t; j6 d8 w; x+ Bbe 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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( L: F- Y5 ~: r O. h0 bCheaper 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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6 s- T% b% k% C& |0 KI 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
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wanted 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
# R; T& o" D3 _; p'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
( D Z4 ]# |' @% G- V& A0 v5 m9 |the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
7 ~. Y8 c% t# v9 Cseveral 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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