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
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the 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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Click on either of the above images for more information.
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& o) N# n8 Q1 c/ V" H* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
% f. q8 U$ A9 K% n7 y5 Jbeware, 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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Nagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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& t0 D2 g0 f- o% YNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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1 i( x9 ]2 x. y2 J' YNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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# B: l. y/ a+ M$ l& E% hNagra 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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optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
4 o8 X; v. w: |( {4 drecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
L% H; Y1 y6 ~# BDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
& J2 P: F5 p9 r- I$ h( A! A! |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
_$ K" Z% U3 N3 D- qbe 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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, u- h" Y9 D& Z6 ^& uCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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( _% Z' Q$ G$ K! Z: n6 O8 G0 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
2 }% ^1 k1 Z5 _! U7 wthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
$ o8 q# K9 ^. [% i1 u# rwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
8 @! `& T' ?- Y4 @$ W. b2 D/ gtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
! r5 [, e# j' ]+ N! K, t'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
6 R$ g8 p" T n; B2 Y ]0 Cseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
- i) ] r; W. G T# ~3 w( aonto 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
0 J3 W" ]" R! D' Q3 Y# f2 u6 G8 eVERY silly money.
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