Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
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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
4 ^3 }' d F* @, \ I5 H3 kmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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9 v) ~) t6 O! C$ |) u(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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. I+ O6 Y) T( R) A& u+ y! AClick 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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$ O) P' Q! Y) q8 xNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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& z3 _2 B( c: b0 M# BNagra 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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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 j1 ~" m! g- u$ OApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
3 z f$ F( h4 yhave 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
% h; V: y5 T3 a/ srecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
* h7 W; D6 R8 T: m: z) `" ADSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
* \' s+ H6 f% v+ jrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
2 H# e2 d# f) x) r+ q- ^9 c) [4 rtruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
& c) m- {- I* z' Dbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
9 m/ o2 j; k+ ~: a+ r4 {4 N, [electronics and be very expensive.
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+ ]% X( `3 J9 ]% z. v) k# g7 ^. RCheaper 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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; U8 p$ r W* q- K+ p7 J5 QI 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
6 _- x$ @2 o7 l% O4 Nwanted 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
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the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
5 p+ |: M) Q J' d/ \7 d/ _several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
9 [$ F# r5 n4 Ronto 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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