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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, a# k7 j+ V+ E: v$ o a0 g' e& H(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
8 [% c3 ?4 h! [+ kbeware, 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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$ v8 t+ y7 g% t3 fNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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$ I% n% p) U/ o$ ^Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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7 s2 ?6 f0 \; }2 ? CNagra 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 Z% i" `" r5 \% Ghave 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
& f9 u$ \+ N2 y! W. lDSP) 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
+ U: B9 A' \/ t9 h% `8 Y7 u6 O. ]be 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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+ q& w3 T) ?* dCheaper 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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9 D4 [0 h7 j& F1 [7 ?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
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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
( J# [- G& }2 [9 ?3 W8 btape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
8 ?, S' ^; X& }( b'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
# R, Q- k' C% p0 }the 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
- Z$ D" V$ z! p% g; y. |' \9 J5 Qonto 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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