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
: A6 a. {, }) a* Z+ Ythe 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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9 t- h$ |9 z1 l% z) u(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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9 f7 E0 s9 H2 ^2 c% T8 l* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
3 E7 \1 j* w4 T& h. G4 oThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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6 `0 {) z5 ^4 j# T, T( w& b$ \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
, v* I4 y/ o2 Z! E( d0 N; L/ n+ {) C0 zhave some chance of capturing a muffled or distant conversations. So these older stereo machines will
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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
% t# p( k/ _, k% MDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
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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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the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
2 Y& ?0 q2 ?3 k) |& [# Qbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
5 i9 j: j6 ^2 g8 T/ N+ ^# Felectronics and be very expensive.
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& p" t5 z8 i1 a# H4 ~( {, a 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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% S4 Z j/ S3 `- w9 dI 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
+ q$ l* n/ a' {/ \wanted 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
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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
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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
2 R5 r7 U. L$ f/ O" w/ B Qthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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