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
4 e& i5 _7 [* A, xthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
* A) Y* U6 M% @* P9 m: }9 \machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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2 L% z: R! v& F, e" k(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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/ F9 n1 ~7 B' j x' T4 E) H# @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
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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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9 j7 k/ S) k0 o/ O! u& ~2 t _Nagra 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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" i3 w5 w% a; ZNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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2 K! u! K! J7 d7 D3 l( ~' |: O$ [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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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
& g2 l& F. X# |/ w5 jDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
% g8 @ ^/ K' J6 L* u' O7 precorders. 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
3 M; B$ Z. {0 v! h+ Sbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
9 T# Z5 T" d7 y% Velectronics and be very expensive.
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) _% b9 f5 P5 ]: \- K0 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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& c# O" u( y* W2 OI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
$ {' c3 o i) E8 B2 | J! Zthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
- C6 {% O& o, |4 ?' |" U$ twanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
1 x/ O; e$ N9 itape 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
" c9 i# t. @! A( @the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
; M7 Y! `& r) `7 g1 l4 x: dseveral 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
9 N$ ~- y# C- {& k; s$ G- }; ]VERY silly money.
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