Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
) \5 O' Y" o- t, g2 pthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
- x! {2 o" W& S& ]9 v" e: ]the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
1 T3 |% N0 B- omachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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5 n3 V& X! J& p5 `3 \2 N(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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2 q; s# Z$ F" k( ]Click on either of the above images for more information.
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+ b% M/ K9 z* V7 w3 I6 }* 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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6 J' H4 n$ U D+ z3 _/ @2 gNagra 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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Nagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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) V/ u9 a: P. Q# AApparently 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
/ F3 }, Q* c6 Y# q8 u, O) \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
! b! t* Y l! O/ w# irecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
4 f' l8 F4 f; F' y. ctruly 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
# e+ v/ ?& I2 `) k+ |8 v4 @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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# l: c' g7 s) l, D1 N+ D( u2 WTape 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
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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
- s1 Q! \1 o. Dtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
6 i# w0 M3 {* l1 t$ m/ N'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
5 X/ I9 Q5 t1 n/ K9 tthe 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
0 d$ R6 ~% O5 n. g3 `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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VERY silly money.
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