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
; H. A3 w: G% b) p# [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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, w5 j8 o, W( B8 u* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
' U, O; l7 d, u0 I0 K- b X1 Mbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
3 A" e+ g) s) `9 o- T3 HThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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9 q8 f3 p+ d; u# e- R! L4 vNagra 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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- l7 i0 Z+ u1 z1 lNagra 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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Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
5 m; {1 ]; [5 S) N, ~% A2 b qhave 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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truly 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
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Cheaper 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
7 d. z K* [" Dthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
1 {7 g' z% G0 F! N- ~) Iwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
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tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
, R: K! @! t- ?# e' l! t& w3 ?$ p'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
0 a! ?* s/ ^4 E( z. gthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
+ `- m9 Z* x, X3 [% useveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
# c5 S9 p+ q% Ponto 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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