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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(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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5 t& E, {( ~6 ]# t+ JClick on either of the above images for more information.
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7 {/ `% ^$ e7 V) i* 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.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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0 a* \4 j9 c9 O; SNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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& y- ^7 E) x4 r MNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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8 e) ~- v; v, I* M, h% M7 {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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% v6 K0 q% l0 H* X( v. qApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
- s# b1 o2 M6 o v$ F' Khave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
5 }7 M0 \8 p! {% r6 [therefore 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
- @2 o5 y) w9 W2 G9 ?DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
' U: K7 _, E; S/ P' i/ r& vrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
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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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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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3 h6 O$ B+ t1 Y# k# R$ I9 g5 {Tape for the Nagra SN
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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
% K# v: U9 a6 I7 n6 s$ Ptape 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
( s' F m3 e0 {; z, p7 Uthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
8 S% p7 u# ^7 X$ d5 L- sseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
# F; y$ L/ {* ^" donto 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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