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
! q% P. H8 q* Z) V, ?! ymachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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# M1 o# j0 j) d$ w8 j(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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3 h' I: \( N6 }* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
2 n( a* R" x2 |beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
3 r$ \+ W; i6 b! IThere 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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+ [+ j: ~6 `3 u. W+ u& D. ?1 pNagra 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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7 f) v( b6 A* _: V* @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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8 d( C( {+ N; X* y4 VApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
* S+ ~. F' f& \& Q% v" A# m" Jhave 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
) a, v, K* m1 d, ]3 h1 Zrecording 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
0 E; I- x9 [6 B/ A. z2 wrecorders. 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
% M* i: m6 s- {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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( P1 }. l9 w: ?2 r9 W: wCheaper 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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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
$ g/ g, V+ m7 k Gwanted 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
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'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
9 P4 C7 y- W! D- y3 ~/ j3 Hthe 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
( J% D: ]$ Q+ P) lthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
+ Z6 r2 `( d0 S* l. Q( N6 PVERY silly money.
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