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
$ j. n* C% u3 q% n- Z @. ^6 r* Zmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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, j' N+ x, z! Z) o% R(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 d0 ~5 X- z6 G( `3 T& Hbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
8 e" ? S" j9 W9 Z+ p% F+ c, U( QThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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5 X) J6 z) c1 `6 D; d; x ENagra 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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$ u/ s( k4 z0 H( }2 xNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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: ? G# K. ]" u: R* E+ XNagra 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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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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
0 B4 v+ L# z+ r% c( {recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
7 b l" \. g2 E( b+ ytruly 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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Tape for the Nagra SN
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4 Z- o9 b; F- R( |8 s* E" e2 II 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
; m) G; L) i: A: D% p ?4 \; {( y% o, l. Uwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
& p/ Z8 ?6 a) {6 E' Atape 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
W: S6 u# @ q8 Z! e8 ]% E" |& zthe 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
# T# z* x: B$ _things may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
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