Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
2 \1 q! x/ N& l* h3 x- Vthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
) r* D& D& l Q" N) mthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
8 `$ M, Z5 Q" t% {5 Nmachines, 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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3 g0 L; @& a, \+ ZClick 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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3 y, Z6 A7 Z, J4 |+ zNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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! c8 E4 F( g9 g+ O+ [- N, DNagra 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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: B% `4 l5 l S5 _# u+ P; OApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
! [- L+ Z- R k6 n4 nhave 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
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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
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
# X t( V3 s9 Delectronics and be very expensive.
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6 e) k: }( A3 I0 D5 qCheaper 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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3 |* }4 L5 E. k0 \% ~I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
3 w$ F* [5 ~7 G* `' C1 Othe 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
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'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
( F) ?' D# x2 Z6 Y9 e+ D) c0 _2 t. ?the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
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several 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
" X# D: G( J% A( N, ] Uthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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