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
$ u% R) R! t" {9 B9 jthe 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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! Y$ ?% m7 N0 C/ i( d(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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- H, n, n4 T; z9 L r% Y3 Y4 bClick on either of the above images for more information.
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7 K9 ]4 p H- D& F" j4 r8 r* 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.
, U$ A# B/ B( L9 C1 S/ }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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# I, p; {- n4 \2 T# j2 |1 M0 ]- ]: D7 DNagra 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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" p# c5 E3 j$ X7 S3 JNagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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' l5 h+ `- b' U0 U/ m' E) |! m1 }" iApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
& c# L5 ]8 U* j% H2 K2 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
5 i5 l4 F& V5 n3 Y2 H% u1 Jrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
8 ~! C) v4 R6 _. ?$ {DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
9 R# ~5 S/ H; _, z5 J. Irecorders. 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
, e* l6 E/ h1 I# d' y' G4 |3 mbe 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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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
- _. S! D9 N9 H2 S4 P) l4 xwanted 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
+ {; B% C+ t" c3 [- D% i+ f7 F' b. m'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
9 W2 J+ b6 h* ], ~- a8 athe cassette shells. I then contacted Nagra UK (always helpful) and obtained for around ?5 each
8 G! J3 K1 Z$ L$ u- Fseveral 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
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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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