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
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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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# s" w6 ^- P3 G6 m/ jClick 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
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
0 D. | S. k' } E% y5 j- g) @* J. j9 pThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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5 w$ p+ L; s% _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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# I h6 k! N6 E; PApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
4 r7 P- y9 u2 A5 L! `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
1 q8 q3 g0 ]* s0 l5 [+ ]DSP) 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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truly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
) \* i# O9 R0 F8 ^) i, Hbe 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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2 D1 V, y- T2 ]1 GCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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" Y4 G9 V; q, L8 G2 u( t( \Tape for the Nagra SN
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- x) J; {- K; {3 KI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
% _" N2 }) p! bthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
1 _* v: U8 R, V- Q* Z2 H. f# mwanted 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
! Q* K% j$ F; [. d/ f% u4 `( W9 c'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
! c" W3 A3 X$ H* M& z+ tonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
* q! W6 M1 E9 l& | U- V, ?8 Jthings 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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