Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
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the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
2 L, `; Y4 C9 _$ C4 M+ w% ] ~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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. X5 U2 O7 y& S- k7 l7 D# p/ \+ D" |(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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+ Q6 z5 z0 I5 N) X7 b, F+ Z2 t' @* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
8 z' `( F2 t U4 w/ S4 l7 ]beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
8 G$ M0 w# D9 v' U* V3 E+ E6 d9 rThere 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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" f& K( g$ w6 H/ q, KNagra 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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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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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
0 W3 W- K3 `$ Grecording 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
& T, ] k( ]3 Y8 @7 ~recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
8 d6 _/ v( Y0 i: d2 E4 jtruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
% D/ J3 A& r+ d* Dbe 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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1 {6 k$ @" @/ n- LTape 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
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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
# S+ T2 A9 @9 L( I" V# h1 Ythe 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
3 C' y/ J6 O, I% v4 V" w3 `' r) yonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
( S8 l3 S. J1 j: t+ [9 a5 bthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
3 B- s9 f) ?9 _& y; ]2 m4 a& D! WVERY silly money.
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