Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
" l) E6 f- R$ b, n3 m6 x9 U+ pthe 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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$ L4 j1 z* }" R4 k: F w(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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( q& Y; v5 e4 q' g; SClick 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
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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 X1 ~7 t& ?9 }+ w: }; eNagra 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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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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. U' H1 U! w) o9 t% wNagra 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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optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
& A/ m8 r# D8 o% {" s! Rrecording 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
% p+ Y! T) b" _; Grecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
3 n7 K1 w7 y" k2 F& Xtruly 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
3 z, i7 t9 j5 A! `: b7 Celectronics 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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$ L% c; d6 [: ?+ X" W9 k8 zTape for the Nagra SN
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6 F/ _; @6 {" U% a) P9 {I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
; w2 N# K C S* ]5 rthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
: c6 R7 e: k3 O" z' ?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
- a- S( l% s( {" c( R D'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
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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
5 Q9 v; Z# I- R+ x! [, Q1 V: yVERY silly money.
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