Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
6 f- V8 ?9 D& |4 ]( d$ x: G. z Qthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
7 T0 _ l( l+ f$ U, @ q3 sthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
) e: ~6 `& _* e( hmachines, 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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9 d$ a; m( x' H' |' l* 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.
9 N5 {3 y# [4 [# ^& [7 d3 T# EThere are now apparently four versions of the Nagra 'SN':
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2 j2 L. ~. N1 I3 f. YNagra 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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$ I( z( e$ c |# WNagra SNST - Stereo recording at 1 7/8 and 15/16 i.p.s. - surveillance quality recording in Stereo
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1 Y7 r" |* D" ONagra SNSTR (recent) - Stereo recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Stereo
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/ }! g" ?9 j# b; H4 jApparently 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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optimized for speech recording only, and will also
run at low speed for maximum
- v1 ?/ k4 k4 o$ B3 M; vrecording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
8 b. f! i: h6 e: BDSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
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recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
# ~1 N* G* ^2 w" | Z" htruly Hi-Fi recording, but
the slow speed SNS and the SNST stereo versions are not. Perhaps it might
9 e* ~5 S: A+ ~1 H. U( cbe possible to convert these machines for Hi-Fi use, but this would involve replacing most of the
4 M. \5 [) b6 r, o# [electronics and be very expensive.
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: m4 ~0 G V8 K6 Y5 mCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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6 K' k$ B F# s" Q4 bTape 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
6 ^7 k2 O2 F3 k& d7 P8 Zthe 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
/ m7 k( ?0 {9 L4 Y: {3 Etape 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
. \+ [8 h. i: p9 _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
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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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