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
; n; A D4 d# v) [/ Lmachines, 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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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
3 w) F" i: l3 r' r8 Ebeware, 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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. C- R$ o( R- R) r4 o) C S: s3 yNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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) w1 [! l' o& E1 K( YNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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% n8 w, H% m+ X8 Z' uNagra 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
1 t- F# h* }( G; |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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
/ s7 N) a C% iDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
4 }2 s5 Z% n" Xrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
2 `- ^. E6 j+ b! 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
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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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2 o, I0 `% k C$ {. R1 J' ]Tape for the Nagra SN
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' Z' M5 W/ x* t! u& }4 x5 Q& u6 JI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
. f8 x3 j$ I& A% }the 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
# X* j0 L! e; k: X. y9 Ytape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
- h2 x4 O9 g" u'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
3 y% t1 i) U. |; ythe 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
1 \. a1 G* N. N$ lonto 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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