Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
" R( R1 j4 q5 ]" b% }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
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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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(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
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
5 D6 [# }6 v# V+ ^& ?; JThere 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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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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! @' a" M' o7 a7 g2 T* k& f/ eNagra 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
& I/ B2 G9 i6 o3 D' ghave 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
. {7 v- z1 O; X9 oDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
# E& j. T6 }8 F: A3 l# @7 G1 a5 Xrecorders. 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
2 H5 o O* |0 n7 K4 q" z. L) pbe 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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, {: d8 p* K+ \! uCheaper 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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I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
& D6 s) ^) n3 m! }% c; M3 Tthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
- p ?+ {) e6 T9 _: D4 w! vwanted 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
+ c- X. ?6 V6 @" G o'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
$ m7 q6 `* N @; R& z! ethe 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
# L1 W' f5 m) t% s/ h% I; S) Sthings 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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