Above is another view of Mr Blackham's unusual Nagra SNN. As far as I can see, apart from not having
% I) q& `. \4 R) wthe various anodised legends on the deck plate, also absent are the adjustable AGC threshold knob and
: M# Q) w* P" B/ a- N: I! Bthe transport lock-out 'switch' next to the meter. The cover 'hinge' arrangement differs slightly from later
' @7 J! D' Z: o$ ]! Ymachines, 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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7 {6 j' X" v4 S9 I/ {" ?* For those who are looking at the stereo versions of this recorder often to be found on 'Eday', do
( S( F5 w. B6 Z" r$ x9 \0 abeware, 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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2 O* H8 T7 \* }' P8 v7 p1 R8 H) |! c9 zNagra 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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5 f, T# Q" \$ y6 N/ o. Q3 xApparently for covert surveillance use it was preferable to have two separate recording channels to
* e' w9 R% ^0 a( K$ Mhave 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
$ {; X1 A4 L- m' }recording time and not fidelity. Actually Nagra made a special playback loudspeaker system (25100
. x8 |$ r. r# u+ @5 _DSP) with built in equalization to compensate for the quite limited frequency response of these
1 Y2 Q4 U+ X! a+ _3 {recorders. A standard mono Nagra SNN running at 3 and 3/4, like the ones on this page are capable of
s! Z k+ ~, B: {- Y, |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
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electronics and be very expensive.
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7 h( }0 D) l+ m7 `3 |: OCheaper to buy a rather bette
r stereo
IV-S in the first place!
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# N5 G2 w. g$ o4 D) K/ ZTape 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
, w3 s4 P; E0 \. t; S% Uwanted to play with it and make some recordings. I knew that the tape was basically re-reeled cassette
8 D% {1 _! L( d/ Q4 Dtape so I approached a tape duplication house in the UK and quite easily obtained a few part used
5 ? a. g/ n! H/ ] Q0 b1 `'pancakes'. These are the un-flanged bulk reels of tape (about 10" dia) that are automatically wound into
+ k7 y6 L E6 J2 Xthe 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
4 t1 a9 a: c3 l& C& vVERY silly money.
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