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
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the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
3 N0 ?9 k& T' A4 m" Q9 vmachines, 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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* p' t. L1 f U7 u' V7 I4 k' ?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
; X7 E' @+ Q8 | bbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
& Z3 _3 ~ q& y' o& JThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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* t% g/ a: l& @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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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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2 H: r+ O, I& ]+ a% X' BNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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( G( R0 }# @2 ~5 DNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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* w g' R0 f5 p: G$ q' W8 xApparently 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
/ \- C. H0 C7 U3 Z+ Q1 b4 v5 Erecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
" T& Z3 T1 S" b7 @0 [' \& g" ?+ 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
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truly 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
7 B0 u3 ?& G4 R% Z h ^. lelectronics and be very expensive.
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' l8 V5 I1 M& f: @) o& WCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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+ `- l1 R& S. G. L0 R+ TTape for the Nagra SN
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1 v) U/ Z4 ?8 m; Z" JI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
- |+ I B3 i/ G' gthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
4 }7 b, r: C. E% L0 `5 h- y5 Q( Twanted 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
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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
L: l5 n1 j* P; S" I, [7 othings 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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