Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
! Y9 D1 k0 {. w! c$ vthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
M. A0 h, I9 d" d) `; cthe 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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" \# M9 ~4 i. a7 |(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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+ i( C0 k0 Y! [Click 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
9 s# p, h4 H, N0 p& Y0 D& U( v1 ^beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
2 Q& M7 i' D+ FThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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5 M0 w+ i, s! [9 x: | D$ tNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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) a( X5 s5 _) O4 {. J9 Z2 |Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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( P, K$ ]! R! fNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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" W6 y( n2 b$ G9 \# TNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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8 z# f3 c$ R- Z h" rApparently 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
. E: g6 ?: g9 d; wDSP) 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
# b5 R/ ^& W+ Ktruly 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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- _6 ^* d# l# ETape for the Nagra SN
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0 y( C) h1 {, K! y. s5 ?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
* o6 j `* k/ o2 U& g6 [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
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
: U+ m* Z! d" \3 Q$ W6 Uonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
9 J/ n7 }% K0 @% Ythings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
6 R8 a' X% g' U: i1 i1 y; YVERY silly money.
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