Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
* ~' `/ e* O1 d( _the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
+ |" r2 O2 h' P- z! ?9 N! ^/ Ythe 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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! ]+ X" m4 D; a% l(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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: {7 E; S- m8 J4 C. r2 p5 DClick 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
h. q5 k5 y6 ]5 }! L- |beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
# w8 C6 ~0 v) \6 C9 HThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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$ @; F' i/ I. K" U! i+ ~) 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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5 `" S$ {& t; J, o* Y. ANagra 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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* N3 F N( d/ O; w. c8 k$ f% RApparently 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
9 A! |; |! G7 Y0 U1 qrecorders. 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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1 b5 W7 c! L* l$ Y3 T; @* c5 ECheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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3 b: ?% l: Y/ e$ |1 n) m* OTape for the Nagra SN
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: q1 M# n: m7 \# _0 f; |7 X% I; RI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
5 H1 G9 K9 T1 e) Wthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
! V) W) G1 G( Y- [9 d" _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
9 z' q; ^3 }* u( v; _2 }'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
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
6 P+ V, L) D# f3 e* H9 a- Q. {# S. K9 Aonto 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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