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
9 C% i. Q2 f& d3 x9 cthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
! ]! v) Z7 @+ y# m$ ^" f& `machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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. f# F7 y! G/ h& S( Y(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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* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
; y) d0 d* Q9 ]8 F. ]; ebeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
6 y; s5 k! z, e a$ m" IThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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7 Q! V( F, I$ {( Z2 {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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+ g4 ^8 l/ }' u+ f, c8 t2 PNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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+ F; e8 @ i0 QNagra 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
6 C5 s X" z; t2 ?recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
7 H6 X% n! a" `, eDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
& \0 t7 Q, Z* S2 J& K, nrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
) z' i2 v2 L7 f1 jtruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
/ j' Z* `. P( v% o0 Ebe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
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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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, T# _ L2 B0 _/ U/ u4 bI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
2 H5 L0 i2 \5 _7 I5 T ~* Dthe 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
1 _; n# U& ~# N' J# E6 B6 K8 ?! Qonto 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
s9 X- O6 F* ~% b, \1 kVERY silly money.
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