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
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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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6 x) F9 [! ~/ U% f, n& B, [1 pClick on either of the above images for more information.
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0 Y4 e. W- n2 w$ N& R6 R9 g. G- l* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
3 {8 \; N" w, w$ U( B! W9 p8 d9 ?beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
6 u9 K7 F* h% I+ B; h7 O" AThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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' L6 b( W r, D3 K$ B3 wNagra 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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\4 K; b5 B4 W! \8 U/ \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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0 Y) J! K0 q k$ Q2 xApparently 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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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
0 Z6 t( b6 G' J# QDSP) 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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truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
2 ?) w- h0 q2 N& Ibe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
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Cheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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8 Z4 h* R* ^, _1 Z9 ETape 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 x8 b8 @6 ~8 B" l$ s1 @the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
V1 C/ v( F) [wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
I9 B5 b( Z$ W0 k( dtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
/ s" V* V/ V* U9 l'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
5 i$ f7 n% u* L2 ~2 u+ U/ ?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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VERY silly money.
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