Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
- h' m5 J8 m% u3 r/ Z2 s0 G) Mthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
0 C+ q1 d+ F9 X) l+ R# u3 N& d% J- dthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
0 k7 _6 U6 K+ j4 |0 x6 @+ L" Pmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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7 p, Q/ m- U' X(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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% B2 p! I8 |3 i" v; Z7 Z9 c( tClick 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 ]9 h4 o0 }' m# [beware, 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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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 w3 I3 X8 o6 A* H2 j$ }" o* {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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* }$ L3 p. r; k! m2 sApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
- k# @2 G" T! u/ v- Shave 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
! h0 h9 W* @9 h& U0 |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
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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
( l% a! I3 m. n" g, ybe 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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6 n% \/ f5 H! z1 v3 V; JTape for the Nagra SN
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& ~+ h+ _! _2 X; m5 F0 i% L0 bI 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
d8 ?. h; s( ~) Z. Fwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
0 p6 H5 M3 G2 z+ y; Utape 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
8 g7 q0 _9 L( O" P, A* [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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VERY silly money.
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