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
2 E) B; g9 K A+ \- I/ J# Ithe 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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8 \7 R# ^! W0 V' c4 f+ B# ?(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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
7 l% a: e* q; K0 y5 Z* j; ibeware, 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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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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2 G8 T# v& V* A9 K1 mNagra 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
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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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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
' f5 d! x! V. i' m' t7 y/ zelectronics 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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! ]) m& ]5 ?% T! j7 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
9 \$ G* X8 m5 G1 Othe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
; q, U1 X5 l% x. m, q. owanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
9 x2 b% p& t! y( M" {% mtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
8 o7 S$ g; O& J% [7 u3 n q'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
' P5 i5 f, V3 Qthe 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
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onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
8 m$ O1 Z$ F4 i3 P/ u$ U: s1 ethings 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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