Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
9 Y1 w5 S9 I( D* q, Z" s' Z3 }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
$ i# o- [% K# g) ^machines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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% m1 i- t2 y' X7 E(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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( Z$ i: f" h: @3 E) {. D4 E* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
) i+ O8 O) D L& Lbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
8 G$ c+ ]9 a! q, m6 J5 T* p3 I, mThere 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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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
4 T2 a* x. u' w' u9 ?6 N6 h) Ihave 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
2 i5 e( B* N& zrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
& S6 B/ K6 `: h0 X4 o: Z2 ~: wDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
+ w1 `/ e' ^: J, C1 \recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
2 z* j. I7 T% a& i% w$ \( vtruly 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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9 x' ~" X/ K: ] P- @& g3 HCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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+ A; V2 l8 F) F0 X4 j; M' \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
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the little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
) p6 @. e7 z5 h2 q3 G: T4 w6 Xwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
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tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
% l8 G! _1 V7 R. x/ d'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
. K! {/ j5 k$ @; Monto 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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