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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(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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' T- q8 s" [8 E; A- o7 kClick on either of the above images for more information.
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- }% Y, z) U# y6 W. Y( n* t$ w* 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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* n3 b7 q! M$ g9 }# K8 @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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' f, E3 x x. QNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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Nagra 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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! G2 U1 [$ I3 j/ G) fApparently 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
" w( K2 E8 b" E; @9 V3 j4 lDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
* j' q" o9 Q8 E! \, Srecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
4 t$ B5 u$ u) Z( Q. n. i8 A, X' D: ptruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
' Q9 ?' u1 I6 k- Y, {/ Ybe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
1 E( l$ Z( B5 c) o, u& I# r! kelectronics and be very expensive.
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- D+ s5 p, w$ M) G# F. }6 A. W+ JCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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; i( ?2 R" l* p& x$ TTape 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
- J2 g; X( U3 j! m$ E! Dthe 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
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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
- Z/ q/ I1 q7 P3 [1 c+ N3 P& K7 Nseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
4 I( e3 f8 l* x$ g$ N" zonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
' N) C% v9 B& s( Dthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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