Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
9 P/ L' P% V( F* L7 {/ N4 {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
1 L- {# P2 g6 g5 p4 \$ imachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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4 {3 S" F) b) g8 U(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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" D, I9 o( {. l/ h3 F! R9 r( dClick on either of the above images for more information.
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+ v- ?& F9 S5 F9 {* 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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# z1 c4 z+ R- C2 Q3 m% ^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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' R' }7 H4 p$ QNagra 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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8 g2 z# ]* ]5 }* M7 F$ 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
H5 {; ?9 a' J( A% ^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
, N8 h2 ?; u4 o3 Etruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
2 p2 j1 N" F: mbe 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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" v9 c8 ?5 R4 C# ]1 v, RTape 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
8 Z3 d" ]' S" i3 L. y# `/ awanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
( _1 \$ O9 H) F$ w7 Otape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
0 p, _! v9 U' X, r# r'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
! S) o' n; c2 d3 Z- w! T0 m; jthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
+ d+ H+ d4 @8 B: v# Z3 r9 kseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
: H* {8 Y: e! j- Q8 c- Z9 A7 Honto 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
5 t0 C4 A8 d2 ~VERY silly money.
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