Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
4 q8 z1 ~. M9 h; f- [" X% g8 r- B- Pthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
& ?" Q) S. G1 |the transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
9 V1 f, P0 i# f1 U c6 g6 p, pmachines, 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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0 `9 F5 M2 g6 k( ^6 X4 GClick 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
6 o+ H: Z2 \6 x4 v E1 Jbeware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
4 y# A/ v7 c. k* G' V( U" V+ s' @There are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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6 t. p% D% n) e9 ?9 h5 R% rNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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' T1 S* c) y- I6 y( PNagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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( z4 d* i) F* W4 S. uNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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}4 f6 u2 x$ O) [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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+ {2 f' \! e6 ?1 q6 iApparently 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
* C- j! G& y8 E/ ?8 P9 gtherefore be
optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
) N9 R: p& `" M6 U9 Q- o! g Xrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
8 R/ v8 s: T/ iDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
1 _, i1 u' B2 T% lrecorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
" x- w: F, G9 p6 ^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
1 Z5 {9 a( Q) c( h6 e8 Zelectronics and be very expensive.
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6 n- u9 Z/ |2 c) }9 G1 \% a2 sCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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) u4 ]; t$ @1 wTape for the Nagra SN
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* r4 R- q0 G( K- _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
8 W5 H( v% W% S) R4 L$ ^, lwanted 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
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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
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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
4 u0 N* {* A5 Y5 gthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
$ b- o# z, q& ]* G) A- \VERY silly money.
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