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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% H( K6 T3 L% _! _(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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
5 J x' f& ]) r! x$ sbeware, 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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% r5 L: d5 _. A) d" {Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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+ k' {/ s: Y( LNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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8 A& R" o5 X: x+ }2 L5 gNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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; v" a8 L6 p. T+ B, iApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
" G' @& M3 N: phave 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
, _' D1 h& ]& |3 D. lrecording 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
" \9 q1 B- ]" @$ i$ g6 B# 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
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electronics and be very expensive.
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# P$ s) W- j6 h1 uCheaper 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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B c }3 y9 uI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
6 G8 Z: z0 h# V& d$ u+ Rthe 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
+ E0 }* M) s2 C# h' ?( y2 O, Btape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
C; U6 [$ E, `/ H4 G, _'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 |& L! \# j d0 _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
9 j% V R3 \0 S1 F) s! w! MVERY silly money.
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