Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
1 V; \, N8 x& h2 G- ]4 A' Lthe 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
8 ^& N ?; z0 S+ H8 `- m# X* Dmachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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+ `1 T! y) @" |) n% `(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
7 x* ]/ R- Y8 T- Bbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
& P* u) V! g. i, lThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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# I, H9 [7 h# R5 F. q+ bNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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3 O% q3 D/ A( l/ M) y: ZNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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% X% M' A6 ^2 e) j2 CNagra 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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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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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
% z, Q" U; c; u, i$ e# ?DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
% f* g) v# ?1 v; q: J1 T8 w/ s) wrecorders. 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
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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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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
& T) N2 N- D7 owanted 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
+ m' z/ O* f- w9 }6 c: J% m'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
8 Z7 b7 j! A+ d* |4 [several pairs of empty plastic reels. It then was quite a simple matter to wind tape off the pancake and
! v6 R. |* R" L# T n/ Wonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
j+ q/ q6 _# J1 v; n) ^9 ?# b8 Ithings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
3 b! m9 j4 h: f: E! L {VERY silly money.
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