Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
* A8 t# E% O# W* ythe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
9 t# J, k) |- fthe 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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6 x& u1 x" ?, s! q6 ^% @! o4 ](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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8 R& r/ S" I0 @! x- g* 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.
6 e+ Q6 E* O( c" x8 VThere 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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8 H+ @4 g) _! [3 G, ONagra 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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" r4 u% }0 X2 R1 h, z/ l* f: t- E& X {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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5 G& w, d! o1 |( mApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
# m0 w( C. P; k$ |$ B9 h# Lhave 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
) B3 v/ S7 F2 H4 R: X7 f& Wrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
2 w: z4 u* s6 \# V1 GDSP) 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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electronics 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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H& \. f: z9 t4 `, N0 e$ b; f$ m( q: q2 jI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
! {. A/ W8 r# m& n: R; l" hthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
/ m W7 _- E9 Fwanted 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
0 o, c" o" S$ k'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
5 {, k0 ^( R: {& A/ Wthe 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
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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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