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 L6 \/ s# [/ y. B1 Wmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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8 I( `) K3 e3 N: T: G(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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4 _, u, _3 p" y6 m" |+ g% }* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
+ K- H; p0 w0 hbeware, 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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: l$ [4 \$ s7 S2 }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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8 Z) Y: y7 }; l6 Z. |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
+ z9 y6 D% D$ u- Itherefore 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
$ \) J: J% y+ T' U/ Z% O- @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
7 \+ d! z- Z7 N) y- P! M" Ftruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
+ Q% D$ {' K( `& fbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
" Q0 r8 J9 ^* Q1 O3 _9 }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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Tape for the Nagra SN
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% d8 Y/ y2 J1 c/ }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
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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
7 ^/ Q4 X/ g! i5 fseveral 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
8 v; G9 T! T# ]6 E6 x, uthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
7 N# V/ T/ z# u) z- ~& K% r( zVERY silly money.
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