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
! X5 q R% o/ y. C6 Imachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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7 D' v+ ^! }% G7 U5 b9 L(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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0 |# q" A6 `; j7 g. GClick 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.
% w3 {4 j( b% ~% \0 H! BThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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! P4 H& O6 J. [/ C0 iNagra 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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* L2 _' y# ^0 m0 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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0 ~, _/ Y0 w/ v- I% s$ F/ {Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
0 C5 J2 W! Q# C0 r% O) ?! P) bhave 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
! Q. ], f9 A. m) C2 {' ZDSP) 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
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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
- U$ S" m% P. t/ M( m( melectronics and be very expensive.
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0 G6 [* Y6 q* eCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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, {; m! J6 o; ITape for the Nagra SN
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- j- J% t6 |( r3 r4 T+ C; NI 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
3 L. ~6 l; G; H! n! X" k$ `$ l9 K0 Rtape 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
7 n n% I6 T1 T5 ]8 o7 f- ~the cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
) s% \/ k+ m& p' j6 lseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
6 s- m. Y6 [% L; ionto 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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