Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
8 X+ v# g/ X8 m) v8 m2 Athe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
" ^, |/ S6 h% \; }# h- Bthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
! C: b2 c! l8 V0 h+ y5 E& a0 Smachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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3 Q, ?4 n9 m6 y- u3 ]2 s" v(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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* F" y% N/ f' W' X* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
8 u! ~' |* U6 s8 i6 abeware, 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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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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' ~, s x1 ] O" k7 A: |Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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# @4 [: m$ w& DNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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. u, C5 _# d V, I5 Y* ]: U( sNagra 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
. J) u/ c" L8 W5 `9 Z' R8 \therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
. w+ r' Q, Z* q/ c2 `/ \8 Urecording 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
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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
' J* \: S0 z' c' O. k# Y& ytruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
4 B- E8 a: }0 rbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
, E+ R* e6 K+ U2 x3 C- s! melectronics and be very expensive.
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$ N) ?0 B/ G9 E+ `8 ?5 WCheaper 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
8 e9 C0 D d% |! ] W, W# X6 `the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
$ M# {2 z+ a6 J1 {8 Uwanted 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
6 J( i- L" @4 [6 d1 o'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
5 U7 R1 T2 P, fseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
! G; c+ \# i$ c! T0 ionto 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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