Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
, ~8 a' T* S7 `% `the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
, g( Q; a2 ~6 @. b+ athe 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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% [# H ~9 x* \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
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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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. {$ u; k; q) g! s' V, E" O% MNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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- Z" J' J, V( D+ ANagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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( @- E2 I$ \: G1 pNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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, c6 c1 v: ]/ _ e6 `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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: K; [8 S# m( S- {8 |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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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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
3 i+ Y+ y( h+ O/ Rrecorders. 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
* J7 }! g6 _. \be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
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% o$ N+ x# h7 f7 @/ qCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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% Z. c! z) N4 J, X3 ]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
9 X' ?5 ~2 S, C# V0 Hwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
8 D/ n. V* W0 W; ctape 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
% i7 X0 D+ z4 V" _several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
& p$ i4 Y+ b/ G* n: d- nonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
' \! R% a( W* j' E; x% I3 ethings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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