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
. B: Z' ?/ l8 Cthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
. l3 `7 ]* x( \ i0 P; @2 emachines, 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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. W- m# M# X2 y$ r- @3 B6 }2 X: VClick 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.
" W* [1 f; z% B' K+ WThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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- ]8 ^0 P' w r" J1 d) pNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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Nagra 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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2 f3 I+ ]$ c4 B0 [# @' hApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
) o* e- e, X/ G$ G4 x) Lhave 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
/ L- {: F5 y# p# M8 Srecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
3 L/ F/ p7 ?% v, e0 |be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
9 o7 ?' R5 g' \+ J5 yelectronics and be very expensive.
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) B$ U5 M* |, P) p: RCheaper 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
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tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
8 J' w. e! J$ N! G1 p7 B'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
/ Y7 N9 W5 n3 z5 y5 n: C7 dthe 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
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onto 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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