Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
4 u6 L' b3 F0 N* E5 V: Wthe 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
6 W5 V7 z( I; Ymachines, as does the 'patina' of the anodised finish. A most interesting version, has anyone got another?
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) h& |# I1 P F1 Z9 g(Apparently yes, I have recently been advised.)
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) m' v: x6 W# A7 \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
3 E. N6 o2 F+ ~6 |3 cbeware, 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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4 h) _1 l; _ x& SNagra SNN - full track recording at 3 3/4 and 1 7/8 i.p.s. - high quality recording in Mono
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7 H$ _6 j4 G' Q6 {& R* t& CNagra 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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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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% s7 `0 L* B3 O( A( m3 U9 VApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
4 N0 G$ E8 u& ghave 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
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recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
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DSP) 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
2 A5 R; J4 H* Y! ntruly 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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w6 p3 G/ y- GCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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3 B( _- Q8 \+ @" gTape 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
# \% x" N7 s. E& E. Qwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
7 U. {7 a+ o& ]& \) v' z0 w' ftape 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
1 A/ ]6 z2 [1 w$ g! J1 xonto the Nagra plastic reel (by using the hand crank on the machine). I did this a few years ago and
( a. \4 G" [( @" xthings may be slightly different these days, but perhaps worth investigating rather than spending some
! ^; K. `2 a/ _" v" ]' k8 t W6 _; W: Z9 bVERY silly money.
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