Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
/ J2 e. Y* E7 d) U" y; d; d+ Wthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
; j( m! z# I# i/ N; g+ ythe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
; m$ M% O7 G( E$ U2 |4 e% rmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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0 T8 T2 l9 X+ F0 M(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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: {( g/ J0 Q) ^4 J& @5 R' V j* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
! _! ~9 ] ~- I/ p! tbeware, 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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2 s8 G5 t2 O- Z& k2 k$ WNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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$ p; Q" G# w. LNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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# s$ c1 B d( x2 a: I3 v1 ONagra 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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; e& t, \' a5 X- \$ N1 hApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
$ |; N! O; m" W; H* Dhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
! h7 n& V6 s! }& P c/ [4 R5 h! ttherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
7 @ s3 S# F/ c& ]) _recording 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
. C G+ x# s! R3 m0 L3 precorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
7 ^2 p. J1 t) N* ]" t7 Ptruly 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
# ^* f% F) x) q* relectronics 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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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
3 \1 f/ |3 w3 S- ^5 j( M9 o4 Btape 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
) B7 O3 w1 H/ o( P; g8 Zthe 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
4 b5 I7 F; \+ X9 m2 y! nonto 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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