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
" z- z3 z: y6 u2 X: d# p- |the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
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machines, 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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: Y/ q% m6 E" A( z6 B6 v# JClick on either of the above images for more information.
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. o6 K/ M3 T9 ^- j O7 s& a* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
; I- e" `( w7 |5 [2 K" H3 pbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
- D' V9 _' G. D2 ^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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* f6 N, B- }% v; g9 P I: LNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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5 V$ [' l2 K5 W/ ?1 m, o8 N6 iNagra 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
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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
; k& t7 }- R0 F) h9 Lrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
1 X- I" X, h$ d8 KDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
3 }) w; X# ]) V9 |recorders. 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
0 w4 K0 j) E0 ielectronics and be very expensive.
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9 y j6 ~. i5 [, n; F5 l/ CCheaper 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
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wanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
: {* u* i4 N7 D$ J6 |$ `2 }% f2 _tape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
- [( S: C m( E# T: ? k'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
! b& L$ I# n( P+ tthe 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 M$ L; t6 _0 C4 u4 j# Ionto 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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