Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
( T8 x n8 p0 i- F, o. A5 Nthe 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
$ B2 C. W; b- W; j4 Z5 c# @* x! b- Zmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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. {9 I8 I9 ]( D- l- A. p(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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) \' H# }4 K, W( W/ p) rClick 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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4 k, h8 ]' n: v5 C( Y6 wNagra 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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. ^1 Z- Q$ a! N& }& ]# S1 [- iNagra 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
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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
6 T& i. e; ?# R( E9 PDSP) 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
# j) c$ o6 W# K6 \: W* ^5 Z& g3 ytruly 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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3 q8 t. K$ x. y0 G$ mCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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# v6 {. [$ I" i7 e+ JTape for the Nagra SN
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8 U, K/ A2 `! y3 s6 V7 x8 ^I 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
' C8 {. R1 z" E* Rwanted 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
* ^2 I- X. j4 O' n K2 A# v% yseveral 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
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