Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
: E6 r; J4 j0 P( Hthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
6 J- M; R# X& F3 D, Gthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
, _8 }( `6 P# G$ M4 S! ?; Nmachines, 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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$ ^; u3 C; m0 @- K% uClick 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
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beware, as It is unlikely that these will be the recent versions designed to record high quality music.
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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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Nagra SNS - half track recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Mono
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/ c: U; g4 `- n; `# T" }; G( X JNagra 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
/ z5 `: X; d$ T5 m& `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
A3 h9 K' l; ], X* urecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
3 p5 ~ ^2 s2 B7 }' \" {' YDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
. w& \$ h- ~$ c3 ~6 h7 `2 Krecorders. 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
: L- V+ t/ L2 N0 H7 B! J& Z3 P( 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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! y# Z$ K' }2 v, RCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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, \) k* Z) i) C5 I$ G, h1 i) o3 ?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
) F- K* Y1 W. P' Nthe 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
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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
1 d% t0 O) e5 v/ b! w4 t# ^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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