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
R8 r7 K! |) F/ K. @8 K2 w, g Xthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
7 f9 k, I$ x5 @4 g' M- S8 ]machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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W$ L! \8 ~/ L6 ? [# [' ?(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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! o9 |: M Z- O5 H* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
. b% X: |% ^* h( qbeware, 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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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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4 E$ R2 S' o: B& lNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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0 Q' s& ~6 ]+ U: }. CNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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6 x0 n1 \! Q! xNagra 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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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
. Z& _5 ^# E; a) r7 JDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
: C5 S- E- k; Z. y6 precorders. 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
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be 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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3 B# W6 Y4 P8 h. M7 }2 AI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
0 S" G3 N$ U6 T0 V1 u. Ithe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
0 T( m; @4 C) xwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
& u( Y* S+ J* ?tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
- H- U1 w& |' l& J$ `'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
. h! _* V4 `, h: W! w0 q: B; fthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
, L+ c% H( F; N) H, ~) c ~several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
& Q a, J. J/ }% [' n H& h0 wonto 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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