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
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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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* \3 I) B: H9 y, H k7 O! N! V) z4 Q(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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- s% S- {2 ] i+ nClick 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
7 |/ D) Q3 C4 ~5 Qbeware, 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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: \$ l9 g, g9 o R( y2 F3 aNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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& r( U* z, B2 l5 \/ VNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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1 p. t$ p8 {7 t( \2 nNagra 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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therefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
( b1 ]$ a& J1 n$ Rrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
. R3 @3 N" d' wDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
9 P4 P1 c4 x! K7 P; i0 Lrecorders. 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
3 [# P; |& F* H3 \9 H$ K& v) l' Kbe 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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2 d7 u( B! g4 n% {( M: `Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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% A" U/ Z: I- v: j; S7 N% G" oTape for the Nagra SN
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6 u, P% n6 d0 F6 e. }! G& MI 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
- b2 [ E4 T1 {: x9 Awanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
: `' E" N7 \* V3 ^% b5 @4 Rtape 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
! ]/ F1 z# E: T( ^* E: G* n5 }& { gthe 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
2 k+ q% A6 h! T( e2 N+ y. g6 dthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
% B( y3 a( ~9 A) x6 XVERY silly money.
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