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
, f" g) Z. I3 T+ ethe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
5 d% K8 V/ n; B/ Q+ L! b0 U1 J fmachines, 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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6 G- Y- l1 P) }4 [- I. T }+ ]7 fClick on either of the above images for more information.
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( U, h& k% T' q; e* 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.
8 Q3 d8 n ?* J* v" B. ?0 W, U3 G$ QThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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' L$ j" a4 U: b3 h* _" _, m, RNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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0 l5 [* s' [: r; l+ k5 mNagra 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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4 c% J& \7 D5 X' E0 w6 r$ k, 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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3 ^. w/ p3 c# E5 s% S. `( lApparently 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
6 j" w2 Q5 I; R j( S! Jrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
+ s; w( i$ y$ m2 `" d2 fDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
6 b) y+ q* [7 j& crecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
& V& p7 J% y9 h7 t0 E/ }" Mtruly 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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Cheaper 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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9 j6 t& [8 A5 Y# {% f1 H2 O6 yI 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
, N5 J1 l1 V! F. q$ ]# qwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
+ N5 C8 S, i- U; _! Wtape 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
4 q9 ]7 V. E7 V* Z$ a7 \1 d+ Q! athe 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
# ]# \1 L: Q3 X& |" @6 w# Monto 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
6 K( r5 }3 D& p; S! oVERY silly money.
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