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
- D( m1 p o$ J6 Zmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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& X4 R( C1 {* B* T2 d(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
' @' N% d: f/ e: @# p; obeware, 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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$ \0 U, N6 Z7 V+ B# TNagra 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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, e! N1 T" t0 t1 s, e( N. aNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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1 }( _4 }2 ^' e( {$ n3 m! oNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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I7 X6 @' l. O8 Q1 O% ?Apparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
+ o1 z7 F) \: ]4 Q0 X/ N, i6 Ahave 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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
3 }7 i3 j; P, jrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
. G; c) J B" G6 X3 utruly 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
7 B% h0 _: G$ x6 Nelectronics 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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% M# J" }2 C. l1 ]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
* x- b( W; F8 c% d- S# w* L. ~the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
2 D. v* L; o. g* C, ~& C; kwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
B5 r8 {8 x* d0 V6 S" `tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
; D7 _1 J) A3 {" V'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
( K# [; X8 D C9 t4 M: }# e$ othe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
2 f' p% f: X% S( e. Useveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
' r y, [; [" s i* |3 w$ \onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
* W4 j. w# D! w3 {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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