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
( w% Q! q" l4 tthe 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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/ X. M X G& y/ N$ F5 n' O- E: gClick 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.
Q: \3 G; N- z" D4 ], V. nThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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8 ~: o; d+ l+ O3 I- Q& Q. ]$ mNagra 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! I- O3 U1 w( D$ eNagra 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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* \! F- q7 I% v3 E) S3 rNagra 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
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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
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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
3 v2 S5 y. Q8 I/ Y; j5 a( o' x" Jbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
* J4 f# V) w/ @' A0 P, |5 z3 Selectronics and be very expensive.
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* ?9 D$ O* c8 }* t7 NCheaper 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
$ G; z( p7 v6 o# c( X1 Cthe 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
( m4 s0 r% s$ @$ Z' h% V4 \) M& H: `tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
# b3 T8 U9 T- P9 h" F8 P'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
! S; ~# d/ R% t! D9 {6 Zthe 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
6 e7 f3 L$ k# P) Z8 q9 oonto 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
3 _' u( _* s+ b- G2 O' z4 dVERY silly money.
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