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
4 t& L2 w* G( L' {% q9 Qthe 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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: J' f9 t1 X4 x(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
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
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There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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R: V" [+ y' K5 a- }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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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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( @/ U, y k1 q! F" D: f% eNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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1 y# z' m6 g1 t' D/ Q+ gApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
+ j; j, F7 ^( j U5 m5 x5 {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
& n% A9 \2 h0 p/ C7 Grecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
$ ^7 t* Q7 _ T0 N2 W& H5 ]8 t. f& nDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
) ?$ j( t* i4 N& s/ Z0 `recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
# `3 L+ M$ Z; x6 q# {6 |8 ytruly 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
$ X% D7 v! Q1 xelectronics and be very expensive.
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+ i5 N: f2 j' s- m7 I$ s* yCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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# Q# |0 u6 K% L$ |% J. N0 t# S1 T9 L6 NTape 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
0 s% D7 b% l f: L% xthe 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
. L, H/ x0 T5 w9 F* V* \tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
: [* v" v& g- n'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
6 i) F( X2 k# F# d eonto 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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VERY silly money.
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