Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
+ G: M3 e7 Y' ~0 n/ Othe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
* f+ w+ y5 j. D) T3 [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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+ }( k% B& y1 R: D, p! A9 d: i* [(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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/ d) V$ k9 S2 q% F% W& ]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
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
3 x! t" ?' h1 e+ k- p- s+ h+ ?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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e) c' y# ~: m# c: | _8 l( F, y, BNagra 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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Apparently 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
# w) {& Z" Q; w9 _1 E1 L& q+ dDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
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recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
! i6 ]2 B) H S* u+ X$ o6 Ltruly 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
3 h5 C( |) Q3 ?electronics 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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/ M+ G3 O" N- rI 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
% p& m- z7 G- f! e( g$ O3 Pwanted 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
6 N; B. q1 T: m; a7 X5 _/ W$ H'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
, k! S& Y* T" j) o7 Hthe 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
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things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
1 U9 t& J/ ^+ G, z# ?9 g- gVERY silly money.
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