Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
4 C' G' l8 g/ Z9 Nthe 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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( \1 F$ v' 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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5 O; w$ u4 z6 U& q$ ?* 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.
/ x% O* r0 ^$ BThere 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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# t2 h3 f- q9 ]3 ]) YNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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' Z% u6 d$ G7 l7 j! o8 dNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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& a5 ?! m" E7 ^* E+ ?, R- VNagra 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
- Q2 J: P+ T# h! O jrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
4 ?5 [& i) {% g& F) cDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
# Y! ?' {1 p, J' ^recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
5 I3 a- s; [2 P8 {) `7 Ntruly 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
, }! Z4 P. H& z& p0 Belectronics and be very expensive.
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$ s! c% L3 z6 JCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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) w9 f3 }0 M/ d- yTape 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
, \: Y+ [9 B* G; |% ~' s0 gthe little reels of tape for this machine. When I first acquired my example from the BBC naturally I
* e; j; s3 W) {% {# d* owanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
8 F- ?. V( Y( e, p1 stape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
8 C: }. _( N5 S3 D'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
/ ?* \; d8 w9 R& B ^4 mthe 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
! W2 C4 W2 r# a. Ponto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
: A" y& j0 i! S% v+ n" k! uthings 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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