Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
* G( \. P: b0 E( A$ F, sthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
. L8 R, |- O$ ~: O7 d9 T" uthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
3 V/ F3 B* l& {7 Mmachines, 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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- a3 g) B% J: G8 Y1 W6 E* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
8 X) Z( S. ?; d' }* ]0 v$ gbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
3 s, O+ v' r8 u. @, N' pThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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5 a3 c+ g& m0 p' GNagra 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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6 z/ E+ M9 F5 p9 S) {3 n" i' vNagra 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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- O, G- j/ _8 C$ R& KApparently 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
. w( p ~6 ~" E+ stherefore 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
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DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
$ C2 d: l2 M4 S$ frecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
h: i7 u6 ^1 j- U9 F }' ztruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
* Y0 ~. L( Y7 C* R! [' o3 Kbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
, C/ J; N, M1 M9 Q! E6 Aelectronics 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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% j- Q% g) P+ e+ T- cTape for the Nagra SN
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' L/ ]9 p5 }) g; @: Q3 u4 h0 z% II have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
0 X' u, w$ N1 }0 H/ Fthe 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
3 I( E: g: u! {4 p/ Y/ Xtape 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
! ~" k7 ?) t8 \" i; j& b( m3 lthe 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
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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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