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
8 H, Q$ ^$ e$ w- m5 d' n: j% Jthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
/ ~, w7 o, Y) k! F) qmachines, 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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$ I) w4 L6 l3 ~3 P0 x& x* [* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
) D+ w3 `9 o& n" Z) j! D! Obeware, 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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+ i$ n- G( f2 Q0 U" [! Q; a3 INagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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A* Q q% C0 h, G' k) t+ @8 p( LNagra 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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9 |3 E8 I2 a i8 lNagra 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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
" |* {& v& i+ F' x1 ^& N1 U' L9 mrecorders. 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
6 [3 ]; R+ M7 M6 m! d/ Welectronics and be very expensive.
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0 ], E5 y5 t- ^* P/ S: ZCheaper 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
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
2 s& u' w2 @ s* N$ ?$ E2 l2 _8 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
* J' c& W% z k& e) @* T% @! H'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
; \! F) T/ ]& @; }9 @4 x1 ], S$ N: M- tthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
& H0 L) T8 H4 g2 t O& Vseveral 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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