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
# F" V9 R5 Y! n: q& p* E5 q* cmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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' n5 K# u9 { c3 N8 Q; I(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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/ O5 D' g8 B. g O! |" Q) N8 h: 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
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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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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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8 y+ d- o) n. a9 D) NNagra 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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2 C/ F4 a' w- R; T, tApparently 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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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
2 S, @/ w1 n7 z3 K+ d2 Z! erecorders. 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
' U4 _& C9 x! F5 k5 ~1 gelectronics 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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{; Z# O3 Z g; \2 S, |7 U+ RTape for the Nagra SN
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5 z8 w: p$ x4 C' PI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
" e) N8 ?8 y" F4 Cthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
- _7 O# A. U+ B/ v0 K5 ?wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
! J9 C P* r! ?) q! C- N! _tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
3 J/ U: V( ^6 v( }- B2 R& r3 A'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
y3 R- L6 f! |several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
) F. o7 y5 s2 k+ j' ponto 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
3 D: ~0 d! {" D/ g: J- b6 QVERY silly money.
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