Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
. y9 ]' A8 T) W; Rthe 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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* C* P* k+ r( ?0 }0 w! l' x6 E; F. T(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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4 U5 e/ o. G: I! M1 ^! @* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
+ J; c3 a! a, u" u5 Z8 P+ `9 Tbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
) ^+ ~ t& ~5 d5 i( b8 k! {( J8 ?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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1 b; R2 B5 M# Q: d- Z! zNagra 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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7 B4 @6 S, Q3 g3 G" _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
' Y2 q( H$ c7 X9 z% Zhave 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
* r& l9 Q6 u4 e. o# y8 T+ krecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
; N5 m! u9 D/ \. k5 b0 G, cDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
. j% g) `& w* W0 x7 `1 ^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
2 R# c# |! |. ?1 gbe 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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' }( I: o* Q8 MTape for the Nagra SN
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+ X+ _; B/ X' ~8 v) k- h- AI 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
* i' D! b; s; r5 f5 S: Kwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
1 }' N9 \7 M7 b# ~& Utape 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
8 m$ F" W k2 j3 S, e( konto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
, l1 v: B. m: t; l: I9 q5 F6 xthings 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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