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
* _8 U( E+ o3 q& B' vthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
' K" ~0 s, S# F8 E! S, hmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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3 L% E( `; Y- \" 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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# t" E! H1 z( F* _% p2 B* 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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7 Q+ o5 m$ m; O% cNagra 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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# u; x. I' m5 p8 ]' I# [+ nNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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1 o7 R, `: K# F4 L% J! Y6 qNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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; v7 M8 m* g; }' O4 yApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
# d& n m! D6 W* @ W# `/ w1 c. Nhave 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
& C/ y% l, _9 A6 j. Mrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
. h M" r2 x; `7 d* ]DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
5 P; G' B7 J3 m& ^- M+ q5 xrecorders. 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
, ~! b: `1 \' R$ [& Z2 N ?& Xelectronics 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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Tape for the Nagra SN
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1 O6 a! J8 O0 Z5 q4 y# d% PI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
S2 [9 H: |# qthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
( i% U8 a+ l8 C# uwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
$ j0 D1 m; V" _0 D! ^tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
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'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* d) _4 \7 ?7 B7 n2 ?' `) vseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
) E# y) i. S& donto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
Q- E* p* j' e8 Z6 \" S rthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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