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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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
. P1 b- e5 e5 Ubeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
0 d' x! t+ z% `7 |6 F; }9 Q: FThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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7 ^" b/ J+ H$ A% b" tNagra 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" S7 {" w+ s) }$ IApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
" [% D0 @3 _% ~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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
/ n8 {/ S9 P: S" {' N5 ^, kDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
! x; T% K* e' m& B- j) V' A, Yrecorders. 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
6 q* z+ e9 L% @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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* @# B2 f7 K u N% WTape 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
3 L; j3 U$ ?9 k7 \. C# n7 l4 O) k* vthe 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
1 y3 v5 a9 b8 P$ ^& f, d* P* Wtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
3 a( Y1 R- {/ f) D( d- z'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
# W1 C; q' Z" t9 tthe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
8 O0 x! y# v+ m0 lseveral pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
8 c5 f0 G/ D3 M' A3 Z5 P7 d9 \onto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
% l% x# t# j( G. i9 @) u( o2 ethings 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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