Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
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the various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
$ q) n& K: r6 u4 R( k2 s. {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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- b+ E. \5 j8 V9 p0 D9 a(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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5 J, G- Q, Z7 C- D5 N! G2 M: v LClick 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
e u3 x2 p b& D0 W# b; i4 Dbeware, 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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9 |- T& l$ N8 J. T- ONagra 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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Nagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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0 n8 q6 o Y; P6 h2 _% [7 J5 [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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g7 b+ F; W5 B3 ]) z" ]6 DApparently 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
5 I4 ~& {- P; H" C0 sDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
: \5 r, e( R8 |$ ?# {& |6 Jrecorders. 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
& F: B$ E+ B7 hbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
4 F, u1 `0 M# p: p. kelectronics 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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' L2 V) V# ~6 G- t9 ATape for the Nagra SN
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! f0 @1 c" D/ o, U. n3 P E @6 {5 FI have been amazed at the prices some people have been willing to pay on that wild west auction site for
% r I5 @% e9 Pthe 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
7 g8 p3 D0 D( ~$ M1 H$ Y! A, Ntape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
d# f; _! J+ M7 n'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
6 u c+ U5 ^: ]+ iseveral 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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VERY silly money.
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