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
1 H' R) ~: A5 @: B; T/ vmachines, 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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Click on either of the above images for more information.
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8 ^' c# ?4 O% u$ s/ ^. @* 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.
# Y6 y6 a. b. a- tThere 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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0 L5 |( t9 j% r: A- u9 @3 U( KNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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a* Q% ]/ p: J0 a, VNagra 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
0 H+ u7 m' a" \* s+ 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
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recording 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
* I. V) X) k- grecorders. 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
& {4 O0 e( i1 p" V6 \- y) f2 k9 lbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
6 |* f! P: A+ }electronics and be very expensive.
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1 c$ b0 _+ A$ V: dCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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$ a9 V! U5 B. _; Z% U( P3 y7 F2 D- STape for the Nagra SN
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5 r2 |) F h4 G# E1 `1 N5 v: xI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
& m& _! ]1 A0 Ethe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
9 _& J0 y# F8 N9 rwanted 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
0 w& w7 z6 @% S: p' O'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
m( M6 q; G2 W/ g! N Lthe 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
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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
( R1 k0 s# B/ u; V9 cthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
, T* {1 w: d7 L4 H' x7 s0 wVERY silly money.
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