Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
: T% O! F* e3 I! pthe 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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! s' \ l2 L+ t* V# V4 |8 _# jClick on either of the above images for more information.
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" O- J( S+ X7 r4 L- |3 v* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
6 \% t! t( w* mbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
8 h T5 B5 f6 {# G: M8 EThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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1 m( t1 f; |- @3 t3 b) VNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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8 z1 n* d/ d# e2 D3 x& _4 V5 yNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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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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9 P* V7 p# t1 }: dApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
2 @: o% q! N6 M" S) Ohave 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
1 O% i/ N- {* B1 |% D4 v4 |* a9 x) }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
5 m/ R/ p. C0 frecorders. 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
: g: Y: J |" S5 Belectronics 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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I have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
5 Y; w" \7 ^ Q0 |# |; gthe 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
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tape 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
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the 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
. B0 Q/ G( k4 J) monto 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
( S# a7 [2 J h5 i% ^VERY silly money.
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