Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
. m) ? M1 h7 a3 W# d2 s, q" pthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
' ?2 v. Y( m$ X+ A: h! p! A+ O5 j5 D6 Cthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
; G5 _$ [" D5 ^2 Lmachines, 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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* R2 \1 N2 t: F* X# I- ?$ fClick 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
2 \: L9 C! x! b# L0 m' hbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
: O: ^9 z" k+ V& b# vThere 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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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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' T6 W" x# |" ]' H8 ^Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
. A4 i0 p r! l u: T# E# Zhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
9 S0 T( ?& S: I. y1 v# V4 utherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
. S. L! q% G# z3 M3 I! Krecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
3 O Q+ L" B7 [$ yDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
7 L# {% c8 G+ ?) A/ Z: Z8 Xrecorders. 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
: |) m% H/ W. C( v. J0 _be possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
8 l( e: |- b4 helectronics 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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# I7 |9 l' C0 `; jI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
4 N! r3 E6 F. t8 U- @5 mthe 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
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several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
9 u; V3 m0 [4 n) [. h; s; Yonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
) o2 H5 n. m jthings 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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