Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
' N% O/ q+ {. {( tthe 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
5 m: U' j5 Z8 |) h+ g2 ~/ Fmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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2 Y8 F9 M! M9 s5 U% f(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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- I0 z1 i o. u. }1 R3 O- ]* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
5 n; P) B3 Q7 c* d% Ibeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
/ }, f# [ S9 z% S$ A1 W# ZThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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0 r/ F, E: k$ |9 F) @$ kNagra 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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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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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
3 y2 x2 x- b9 ^ |$ q! Dtherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
5 e, o. Z" `2 H* d o& L* t* jrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
( ]+ K& \7 B+ S, ]! xDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
) g4 I0 }: C0 {! d% D* o$ precorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
4 W$ c$ w6 [) |2 q l, c9 h s5 ]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
' ?8 [5 x8 v+ l6 S' v+ d4 X0 Celectronics 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
. v# C; Q8 W9 w" D$ K" Jthe 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
/ a, Q; A. h# }! S2 O1 Z rtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
7 Z6 |# q5 v3 L'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
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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
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