Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
- ]9 f! u4 _" tthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
% ^: E4 Q# n9 Nthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
. E! T% t; X5 P3 Smachines, 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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, o k4 m, i7 U" V4 ]# j9 SClick 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.
5 ~* l6 i! ]4 `2 h" AThere 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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. s( Q) c: r v M2 ONagra 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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X( i3 ]/ I5 S) n# T4 F: wNagra 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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optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
# n% S: V2 ^: irecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
H5 |) }7 X% WDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
( F0 _( D* {! V) {3 \8 n/ |2 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
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be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
% a! Y3 G0 x/ N( X$ o. _electronics and be very expensive.
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& U. L1 ]0 k! i* }) pCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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! ~ C$ o. q# z! \Tape for the Nagra SN
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1 K m5 W- Q; w% l2 EI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
3 o; x5 N1 c( F" G: z8 ^+ Cthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
( w5 P, F. k& H5 y& z( @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
1 _5 Z4 u" o7 g- @# kthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
1 Q. t! s+ r; F" }/ ?0 xseveral 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
7 a2 V! ]# W, @2 K7 V0 Pthings 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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