Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
( P* Q4 J: T* Z( q* athe 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
- a, {( X; W# @1 o: Xmachines, 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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" f3 }: m4 {4 i" o; P2 G0 M* 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.
x7 E/ M" z) a5 h% }5 SThere 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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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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5 @1 E1 t" m9 g1 F/ L$ J" q$ 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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+ C7 q8 b4 S( P9 cApparently 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
- T& Y8 f) h: H5 ]- E; Y& a1 lrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
6 d* g! v9 c) }& O5 I" SDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
/ J" b7 Q( A" e4 {% e! a* u7 zrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
% d! X; t9 d' v/ |6 R! o* \3 Ttruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
5 P, s [8 `* nbe 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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G$ W% t8 P$ u9 e- Y, H: A7 zCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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, Z8 }4 Y' w: u- S, I" gTape 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
, y Z/ T' K* T2 vthe 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
- Y5 A8 v" }4 ]tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
( D+ L3 k7 E+ J$ h9 {3 S" A" ?9 _'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
$ K- X# V2 F. q" P9 kseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
7 v( u5 e% q6 F8 Bonto 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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